Annual Maintenance

After cleaning and lubricating your bike regularly, the next most important thing you can do to extend the life of your bike is to give it a yearly overhaul. You wouldn’t think of driving your car year after year without taking it in for service — you have to think about your bike the same way, especially if you’ve invested money in a quality bike and you want to have many years of comfortable, accident-free biking.

Annual maintenance is not difficult if you follow the directions in this section — however unlike preventive and monthly maintenance, it does take some time. Overhauling a bike is not something you can do in 30 minutes, especially the first time. To do it right, you should set aside an afternoon when you can focus on your bike and nothing else.

Deep-cleaning the chain

Even if you’ve been fastidiously cleaning your chain on a regular basis, once a year you should give it a deep cleaning by removing it and soaking it in a solvent like Finish Line Citrus Degreaser or another environmentally safe product.

Try putting the solvent of your choice, along with the chain, in a soda bottle, giving the bottle a few shakes, and letting it sit for a few hours. Soaking your chain will enable the solvent to penetrate into the links, giving you deeper clean than if you had used a chain cleaning tool. When it’s finished soaking, brush off the chain and rinse with water. Dry off the chain with a towel, and let it air-dry for a few hours. Don’t apply lubricant until the solvent has com­pletely evaporated.

For more chain cleaning tips, check out Chapter 10.

Truing the wheels

Over the course of the year, your wheels are going to absorb a lot of impact. The accumulation of bumps and jolts that are normal when you ride may start to loosen spokes causing your wheels to start to wobble. To counteract this, at least once a year have your wheels trued. Truing is the process of adjusting the tension in the spokes so that the wheel spins straight.

Wheel truing is a lot like golf: The basic concept is easy, but it takes a lot of practice to master. The process of truing is best left to an expert, but you should be able to make a few minor spoke adjustments to eliminate some of the imperfections in the wheel — all you’ll need is a spoke wrench.

Although professionals use a special truing stand that provides greater preci­sion, enabling them to correct up-and-down and side-to-side wobbles, you can leave your wheels in the frame when you true them. Just make sure you remove the tires so that you can see any distortions in the rim.

For instructions on how to true a wheel, turn to Chapter 7.

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Chapter 17: Regular Bike Maintenance 295