7 Ways You're Destroying Your Mountain Bike MTB Maintenance Tips

Mountain bikes may well be tough old things that can take a hell of a pacing out on the trails, but they're not Invincible, it's entirely possible that you're slowly actually in some cases Rapidly aging your pride and joy. So let's take a look at those things that really do kill your bike and more importantly What you can do about it Okay, so let's start with bearings loose bearings in particular every mountain bike Even one that doesn't have rear suspension will still have quite a lot of bearings on there You've got your rear hub. You've got the free hub body itself You've got the bottom bracket You've got the front hub and you can have the headset and then added to that equation if you have a rear suspension bike There's gonna be shock mounts on there and any pivots you have on the back whether they use Regular bearing races like these or cartridge bearings or if they use bushings now Now if you ride with loose bearings Firstly, you're adding friction to your ride. So that's firstly not a good thing Secondly in the form of let's say rear suspension if you're riding with loose bearings Just say two of them loose Maybe the main pivots that means there's going to be movement and that movement will translate to additional wear on the other ones So really is is an essential thing to a make sure there's no hindrance to the movement of your back end of the bike and that Nice suspension action you're paying for also be to make sure you don't prematurely wear all the other Bearings on there because it's all connected together now bearings given the nature of how they use on a bike They will wear out over time. No bearing is going to be completely invincible So it's down to you to basically maintain them as best as you can some bearings We've done videos on you can basically eat out a bit more life from them by Flipping off the seals and putting some more grease in it's not going to improve a badly damaged bearing But it will help the dried up bearing last that bit longer if need be Now what you're looking for is a bearing that is smooth and a bearing that has no play in it You will find a well-maintained bearing or a new bearing has a slight resistance to it That's purely from the grease that's on the inside and from the seals Now if I just tweak this one past a microphone, you'll hear that probably doesn't have much of a sound Whereas if I take a knackered old bearing, I think this is off a Steve Jones's bike You'll hear the difference So what you're hearing there is in fact pitted surfaces on the inside It's all grinding round and the actual bearings are basically been dragging on the inside of the shells of that So bit by bit that's falling to bits and if you continue riding a bike with these all over it I it's gonna feel horrible be it's back ends gonna be all over the place. You're gonna get go shifting Generally, not a good thing and the long-term effect is it can damage your bike So make sure you keep an eye on all the bearings on your bike and you won't be ruining it Now most mountain bikes these days will have a suspension fork on the front. Obviously, this is a very old one. This is a Fox talus Problem with stanchions on a bike is this subject to ingesting all the muck and moisture into them Now as you know a suspension fork is essentially made up of a few key components other than that. They're all the same All right So the fundamental basics are the lower legs with the brace connected that is known as the slider The upper legs here are known as the stanchion tubes and then you've got the crown steerer unit quite often The upper tube stanchions will be one part and it's known as a CSU these essentially slide into the outer leg There will be bushings on the inside of that and then there'll be a foam wiper and a seal now That's all there is to it Of course There's dampers and other systems on the inside now the key to making your expensive suspension fork last is by firstly keeping them clean Secondly keeping them serviced even a basic lower leg service will keep your fork going Considerably longer than not doing anything and the last one is making sure they don't look anything like this And if they do stop riding them immediately, she's just causing yourself more damage So this will have been ridden in poor conditions Probably never serviced and due to the telescopic nature of a suspension fork as it's operating You are slowly pulling in mud and muck into the fork which grinds up and down wearing out the bushes that help the fork slide in the first place and then of course wearing out the more expensive legs the Bushes can be replaced. There are a consumable part they're designed to wear out over time the legs are not and as you can see here, this one is an absolutely awful condition and Effectively, this was a write-off this fork I've actually got this from a suspension sheeners this guy Sent their forks there to get them serviced and went home with a new pair of forks because these could not be serviced And again, if you look at this, these shouldn't make any noise going down here, but it feels like sandpaper. It's the worst You can even hear that 10 quid 20 quid 30 quid 40 quid 50 quid 60 quid Lubricated even can help if you apply some basic fork oil to these upper legs here Just above the seals compress your forks a few times It will ingest some of that in there and it'll help basically keep them nice and supple What you do want to be careful of when you are doing this is make sure you don't get any oil near your brakes Make sure that cannot happen preferably do it with the front wheel removed from your bike just to basically safeguard yourself Keep them nice and clean do a lower leg service It's a really simple job people get freaked out by a lower leg service thinking it's something crazy Essentially all it is is removing two bolts from the bottom of the fork Pulling the lowers off draining out a very small quantity of oil sometimes as little as 10 cc on there and Basically putting them back on again. It's very very simple and that will make your forks go on for a long time Henry has just made a video on Real-time fork servicing so that is something you're gonna be able to check out and follow along at home Think of it as a bit of a cooking program nice and simple again. No excuses from you lot It's a nice easy thing to do and it will save you a fortune in the long run Worn chain In fact a worn transmission. Now. This is something that it's a consumable part of the bike. You're gonna wear it out. However You can make it last a bit longer if you follow a very simple rule and that rule really is replacing your chain When it's worn basically, it's quite simple If you replace your chain just before it's knackered You're gonna be able to make your chain rings last longer and your rear sprockets on a cassette will last longer And the reason for that is there's a thing called chain stretch now your chain doesn't actually stretch However, the chain pitch will get slightly longer the components of a chain Oh, you have these outer plates you have the inner plates You have the rollers basically effectively like bushes and you have the pins that go through them now those rollers get worn and In doing so they enable the chain to actually kind of the links to stretch and move around as the pitch Changes very slightly as the chain stretches What's going to mean is that basically it's going to wear on a different part of that tooth The next thing you'll see is the teeth will start hooking you can see this on really old knackered cassettes and chains And on the sprockets and the effect of that is your chain will start hooking onto the drivetrain It wears them into really fine points and then suddenly you've got replaced everything Let's say suddenly this is a thing that can happen over time Get yourself a chain checker plenty available on the market and they will check your chain and whilst you're at it also Take a good look at your chain as well and the rear sprockets and the chain ring You can actually look at the teeth and you can see damage to them What you're looking for what you're not looking for is hooked teeth They're quite easy to identify you can see a really worn out chain ring against a brand new chain ring They look very different when you look at your chain Make sure if any parts of the outer plate are stepped out a bit That's a classic example of where the chain will snap and that chain will snap under pressure Which means it's always going to be in a bad situation It's raise your body weight forwards over the handlebars suddenly using your face as a brake So it's not a good thing. So make sure you keep an eye on your chains break pads Obviously you need brakes on a mountain bike and you will be ruining The way your mount about rides and performs and potentially some expensive parts of it If you don't keep an eye on your brake pads now They pretty much do their own thing until they're either contaminated in which case they usually fit for the bin Or when you wear them out basically you're gonna need to replace them That is something you're definitely gonna have to keep an eye on because no brake pad lasts the same as another one It completely varies on how much you use your brakes the size of your braking rotors And of course where you ride in the conditions you ride in now a construction of a brake pad So you've got metal backing plates, then you have your pad material essentially They're bonded to that plate, but when I wear out you can actually end up breaking just using that metal plate Now I shouldn't need to tell you that that's going to be damaging it for the rotors And actually it can be really bad for the pistons as well So to take care and make sure you check your brake pads from time to time Very important when you do inspect brake pads, the best way to do is to remove them from the caliper I do recommend putting some rubber gloves on like latex or nitrile gloves and the reason for that is you still have oils and stuff In your hands that can contaminate the pads this one is already contaminated So it doesn't matter that I'm holding it like this, but do take care, and you keep an eye on those things now There's one more thing. That's actually very important and often overlooked is the disc rotors themselves Quite often people replace their brake pads when they're worn out and just carry on on the same rotors Usually can but they're not going to last forever because you're using metallic base pads on a metal rotor You are going to wear that rotor down at some point it will fail So it's important to check them be careful using your bare hands on it because of the oils and then you don't want that to Go near the actual braking surfaces But you want to check for any sort of scoring on that surface if there is some that's a good Indication that it's worn out the best way is to get yourself a set of digital calipers or verniers to accurately measure the thickness Definitely check your specifics with your brake manufacturer for your own safety check it because the other alternative is using your face as a brake Worn-out paint finish on a bike Needless to say you will have spent some money on your mountain bike at some point and you're going to want it to stay looking Good now some people are more precious about this than others But what really counts is the fact you're riding mountain bike in an off-road environment you're around Nature's grinding paste that means mud that means sand that means grit all of that stuff combined with the way that you ride and the condition You ride in ultimately mean you're going to prematurely ruin the look of your bike It's going to get old and haggard a lot faster If you don't look after it and take some precautions The obvious one to do if you have a brand new frame is to take care of it before you even ride it by getting Some sort of frame protection kit something like invisi frame There's various different brands offer a similar service on the market But essentially it's a heli tape kit you cover up all the important parts of the bike that are typically exposed To being rubbed and damaged from various different things It can just be as simple as the brake cables or the brake hoses rubbing your paint away You can protect against that using heli tape The chain stays and seat stays on your bike are often subject to riding shoes Rubbing on them depending if you are how you ride if you are flat pedals For example, you're quite often a bit more ankles in on the bike for a bit more support In which case you're quite likely to rub some of that paint off so get them protected nice and soon The same goes for your chain stays on the top You probably want a bit of rubber across the top of there to protect it from the constant slapping of the chain on there So it takes paint off as well as basically making it sound quite awful as well You want your bike to be nice and silent the other area you want to pay attention to of course is the top tube of your bike if you ride of any sort of Knee pads or any sort of armor on your legs. It's quite likely when you're moving around on the bike You might not realize this but you will actually be rubbing the paint away slowly on the top tube your bike now the final one is the underside of the down tube and Underneath the bottom bracket shell where you're subject to rock strikes and other stuff from flying up now day-to-day protection again Good old heli tape anything like that is good to cover it Cosmetically, however, if you're doing something like a season at somewhere like New Zealand or Whistler or in the Alps Then you're likely going to be doing chairlift access to riding which means you're gonna be riding a lot rockier stuff And you definitely will have rocks flying up They're gonna hit your frame and they can cause a lot more damage now if this sounds like you you really do want some heavier Duty protection I quite often refer to Scotch like a 3m scotch rubber mastic tape now admittedly. It's not the best stuff in the world, but for this protective purpose It's actually really really helpful If you want something a bit more heavy-duty, and don't mind something doesn't look quite as nice use a section of old tire We see it's quite a little season as cutting it up and just putting under their BB shell there and the bottom where you get those worst rock strikes Not cleaning your bike Cleaning your bike is the perfect opportunity to get hands-on with it and give it a thorough inspection Now you want to be working around your bike systematically find a system that works for you I tend to work front to back Everyone has their own way stick to it So you don't miss any part of the bike now what I mean by hands-on is get a grip of it get feel of Things feel that back wheel see if there's any play look at the linkages see if there's anything going on It shouldn't be going on run an allen key around the bike make sure all your proper bolts your pivot bolts Well, that's what stuff make sure it's all talked up and tight and taught as it should be pay attention to it and clean it And hopefully you won't be leading yourself to a ruined bike cost you loads of money Okay, and the last one is over using it Yeah, you might think me mad for saying something like this But some people over ride their bikes and basically classically wear them out long before their time now Whilst it's amazing to ride your bike all the time If you only have one bike it can be a problem now plenty of friends have got a single bike the commute to work on That bike they ride them all week in the salt and the grime on the roads and the guy on the trails at weekend Riding in our typically wet UK conditions wearing out brake pads wearing out drive trains constantly spending money on their bikes Sometimes there is a better way having a rat bike is a pretty good way of doing this now build yourself up something cheap Just get a second hand bike put some mud guards on it Keep that as your rat bike for commuting all the daily chores and stuff like that Pop it in the shops riding to work right in the college wherever you need a daily for it doesn't matter if it's cheap and Cheerful, it's not gonna get nicked You'd have to worry about it and it's gonna keep your pride and joy nice and clean and in better condition for the weekends now I'm not suggesting you don't enjoy your bike on a daily basis But just be aware that you could be prematurely wearing your bike out by using it Constantly all the time and it is a good idea to spend a couple hundred quid and have that second bike if your main bike Is an expensive suspension bike? Well, there we go There's seven ways you could be ruining your mountain bike and hopefully a few tips you can take away and make sure you're not doing That to your own bikes if you've got any of your own tips like this Let us know in the comments underneath love to hear from you and for a couple more helpful videos Click up here for deep cleaning your drivetrain. That's something that recommend really should do that annually Make sure it stays in good condition If you're riding conditions I honestly probably want to do it quite a lot more frequently and click down here if you want to turn your bike Into a commuter that is turning your existing bike not buying a rat bike for that purpose But pretty good video nonetheless as always give us a huge thumbs up here at GMBN tech Click that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. Cheers guys