Four Common Mistakes People Make When Repairing Their Bike
As a bicyclist, it's important to know how to do simple bike repairs on your own. After all, this saves you both time and money since you will likely need repairs more than just a casual bicycler. However, many times people make mistakes while doing this. Here are four of the most common ones:
- Too Much Lube: Cleaning your chain regularly is important to ensure that it smoothly glides to move the wheels while you're riding. While removing all the dirt and grime is easier enough, many people often mess up when it comes to applying the lube afterwards. You need to apply lube to ensure that the chain does not become dry, which makes it get stuck easily. However, applying too much lube is going to attract more dirt to stick to the chain while you're riding, which makes it get dirtier and have more problems sooner rather than later.
- Over Tightening: You don't want to over tighten anything on your bicycle. When you tighten the bolts, you want to do it just enough so that they aren't loose any longer. However, if you over tighten, then the bolts can leave to much pressure in that areas resulting in a crack in the bike parts. The best way to avoid this is to buy a torque wrench that allows you to tighten the bolts to manufacturer recommended settings. You also don't want to over tighten your pedals simply because it makes it more difficult to replace them later on. You should install the pedals with grease so that nothing becomes too dry since the pedals will still need to be tight, but the grease will prevent you from over tightening.
- Overinflating the Tires: Another common problem is inflating the tires too much. When it comes to inflating your tires, you need to consider the terrain in which you are riding. If you are not riding on flat, smooth pavement, then you need to give the tires a bit of breathing room to recover from bumps, potholes, and anything else you might run over. If the tire is overinflated, it's more likely to pop due to the pressure of the road it's riding on.
- Not Greasing the Seat Post: Whenever you install a new seat for your bike, you need to be sure that you are applying enough grease to do so. This way it doesn't become stuck when you want to replace or adjust it in the future.
When you avoid these four common mistakes, you can be sure that you leave the simple maintenance easy and leave bigger repairs to become less common and easier to take care of whenever they do arise.