bike TOURS in tuscany
BIKE MAINTENANCE
A basic knowledge about how to repair and take care of your bike is very useful for the purpose of your safety and to help you in working out any trouble that might occur during your trips.
Summary
Introduction
The maintenance of your bike, the cleaning of its mechanical parts,
checking and cleaning its frame, brakes and derailleur gear are useful
not only to make your bicycle clean but more importantly safe and functioning.
A person really fond of cycling should be able to repair almost any
piece of his/her bike: he/she should know how to change the brakes
cable, the derailleur gear cable, to adjust gears, to change the chain
etc.
In any regard, a bicycle is a delicate machine and some repairs may
make the situation worse than before if we aren’t skilled. Therefore
we advise you to acquire the minimal skills so as to work the most
common troubles out and to understand by preventive
maintenance when
it’s time to take your bike to the mechanic’s.
A good preventive maintenance starts from the cleaning
of your bike,
that helps not only to make your bicycle cleaner but also to assure
more efficiency of the pedal rotations and the derailleur gear in particular.
Bike Cleaning
Naphtha and brush: cleaning a bike starts from removing dust and dirt
from the mechanical parts; a brush and a can of naphtha are enough
for a very good cleaning of the mechanical parts of your bike.
Firstly pass the brush soaked in naphtha through the chain so as to
remove dirt and sludge . Turn the pedals so that naphtha can pass all
over the chain and inside the links, then clean the other parts like
brakes and pedals, but have a special care of the derailleur gears.
Sponge and soap: after using naphtha, you have to remove dirt and grease.
If you’ve got it, you should use a garden hose to wash your bike
quickly, otherwise use sponge and soap immediately! Don’t be
afraid of making use of water and soap ( car shampoo will fit, too),
because there’s no chance of damaging the frame or the mechanical
parts of your bike.
Now it’s time to lubricate your bike and go! Once your bike’s
dry, the last but not least step is the lubrication
of the chain: at
this time you’re really ready to go and ride your bike, shiny,
in-perfect-working-condition!
Preventive Maintenance
Once your bicycle is clean it’s worthwhile to perform an inspection
so as to detect incipient failures. It will allow you to prevent disagreeable
troubles and will make your trips safer.
Handlebar:
while stopping the front wheel of your bike between your
legs, see that the handlebar is perfectly symmetrical with respect
to both the frame and the wheel and make sure that there’s no
rotational movement. If the stopped handlebar moves, the bolts linking
to the frame must be screwed tighter.
Brakes:
see that they are well tightened so to have good braking, because
brakes are of primary importance for your safety. Operate the levers
of the brakes and try to push your bike: it should stop immediately,
before the levers touch the handlebars.
Derailleur gear:
lift the rear wheel up, turn the pedals and try to
shift the various gears which should work without tension or strange
noises. In case of failure, try to lubricate the mechanical parts of
the derailleurs; otherwise, take your bike to the mechanic’s.
Tyres:
in racing bikes tyres are generally very thin, so the risk
of a puncture is high. Anyhow a special care of tyres will help you to
have a remarkable reduction of this risk.
Turn both the front and the
rear wheel of the bike and see that there aren’t any bulges,
scratches or small cuts. In this case change the tyre to prevent a
very likely puncture. Any way take a spare tube and all tools necessary
for repairing a puncture with you .
Wheels: how to change the inner tubes
It’s a very simple operation: first remove the tyre by the
special keys, then take the inner tube out and mount the new one
starting from the valve.
You should inspect the tyre before mounting the new inner tube so as
to carry possible nails, pins or any cause of punctures away. Before
closing the tyre, inflate the inner tube slightly in order to avoid “pinches” while
closing.
At the beginning it will seem to be very soft, so you can
simply use only your hands, but it will be more and more difficult
going on without the specific keys. In this last step be very careful
to avoid pinches when you use the key, otherwise you’re going
to have a flat tyre again even without riding your bicycle at all.
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