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Winter Bike Maintainence Tips

It is a new year which means many of you have new riding goals. Maybe you want to ride more miles than you did last year, maybe you signed up for a Climate Ride and want to stay out of the sag wagon. Maybe your pickleball doubles partner is off in Tucson for the winter and your bike is your only replacement for their incredible backhand. Whatever the reasons you are out riding this winter, we wanted to share some bike maintenance tips so that as your fitness increases, the functionality doesn’t decrease. See graph’s below:

Riding your bike in the winter is a great way to get exercise and build fitness but it can take a toll on your bike. In many parts of the country, roads in the winter are wet, snowy, salty, and full of gravel and sand. Instead of street sweepers smoothing out our bike lanes and road shoulders, snow plows push debris into the areas we ride while spreading salt and gravel behind them. Cars splash water, slush, gravel, and crud into the shoulders and when we ride through it, the winter-time sludge gets all over us and our bikes. 

This winter sludge works into our chains, our bearings, our rims, and rotors and as we put in the winter miles, we slowly sand down our cassettes, chainrings, brake pads, and smooth rolling bearings. We often put our bikes away wet, covered in grit and sludge, and let the salt and dirt seep into places we don’t want them to seep in. This layer of winter filth acts like a fine sandpaper that slowly eats away at the moving parts of our bike, so extra maintenance is essential. Here are some tips to keep your bike running smoothly as you build your winter-time fitness.

  1. Keep your drivetrain clean, dry, and well-lubed. While in the summer, you can often go weeks without cleaning and lubing your chain in the winter, you really want to lube your chain before every ride and degrease or at least wipe it down afterward. Taking 2 minutes before and after your ride will keep that grit out of your chain, off your cassette and chainrings. When lubing your chain pre-ride, be sure to wipe off all excess lube. You only want lube inside the pivot points of each chain link and not on the actual chain. Lube on your chain rather than in it, acts as a magnet for the aforementioned winter filth. After your ride, wipe off any grit from your drivetrain with a damp towel and some degreaser. If you have access to a hose, a quick spray and towel dry will keep your bike rolling smoothly for the next ride.
  2. Keep your braking surfaces clean. For a bike with rim brakes, you’ll notice an accumulation of black film on your rims if riding in wet conditions. This film will wear brake pads down faster and decrease braking efficiency. When this film starts to build up, use a citrus degreaser, or mild soapy solution like Dawn to clean both sides of your rims along the braking surface. A green scouring pad or the rough side of a dish sponge works great to scrub off the braking surface. After a wash, dry the rims with a clean towel. If you are using disc brakes, the grime doesn’t accumulate as much but you’ll still want to pay attention to your rotors. If you notice any grime or sand on your rotors, you can hose them off, or if they are quite dirty, use a clean towel dampened with rubbing alcohol to clean the rotors. 
  3. Check the cheap parts often for wear and replace them proactively. Chains, brake pads, and tires are relatively cheap but a worn-out chain will lead to a worn-out cassette, worn brake pads can wear out rotors or rims and it is cheaper to buy a new chain twice a year than replace a whole drivetrain once a year. You can check your chain’s wear with a cheap wear indicator tool, or bring your bike into your local shop and ask them to check it for you. If you replace brake pads before metal starts braking on metal, it will prolong the life of your wheels or your rotors. 
  4. Try to keep grit and sand out of your bottom bracket, hubs, and headset. After a wet or gritty ride, a quick spray, wipe, or blast of an air compressor will keep that sand from getting into your bearings and causing friction or creaks. If you notice resistance or creaks in any of these parts, repack and reseal the bearings, replace the bearing cartridge, or bring it into your shop! $30 for a new bottom bracket seems like a headache but nothing is as annoying for you or your riding partners as a bike that creaks with every pedal stroke.
  5. Run a wider tire, go tubeless, and drop your tire pressure for a more supple ride. Even if you are a pure road cyclist, you may find some roads feel more like a gravel ride in the winter with that layer of sand and gravel on the shoulder. Using a wider tire will soak up some of that chatter, going tubeless will decrease the chance you need to change a tube with frozen fingers, and lowering your tire pressure from your summertime 100 psi, will allow your tire to absorb sharp bumps making for a smoother ride and fewer punctures.

All of us at Climate Ride wish you safe riding this winter and hope that your consistency in bike maintenance matches your consistent winter riding schedule. Follow these tips all winter long, and both you and your bike will be ready for your next Climate Ride!

Whether you’re more of a chill wizard biker, or an AI bot guy trudging through the elements, we wish you happy trails!

Patrick Colleran is Climate Ride’s Logistics and Rider Coordinator. In addition to Climate Ride, he is currently and perpetually training for his next big bike tour, mountain bike season, a double century and his local cyclocross series.