Bike Maintenance Clinic

Presented by the Toronto Triathlon Club and hosted by Enduro Sport, this was an extremely dense seminar on triathlon bike maintenance. Cervélo man Chris took us through the most commonly known to the most obscure bike parts, with a particular focus on roadside maintenance during a race. I wish I'd had my bike in front of me to follow along. At least I had my bike buddy ML next to me so I could ask stupid questions, such as "what is the crank?"

Here are tips I can actually remember:

• the chain eventually wears out and stretches and should be changed once a year or so, otherwise it will wear out one side of the teeth on the cassette, and then that will also have to be replaced
• keeping your chain lubed will prevent the wear
• use wet lube in slushy winter conditions and dry lube for the summer, but degrease and clean with soap and water once in a while
• use a cotton cloth to clean the outside of the chain after applying lube, and the cloth should be lightly grey in the end, not black
• a chain breaker tool can be used to shorten a broken chain, so that the bike can be ridden home on the smaller gears
• if experiencing problems with shifting in one direction, may need to adjust the <blank>
• use a tire lever to take the tire off the rim, then pull the tube out, but not completely; inflate the tube to find the puncture, then find the same puncture along the tire and remove debris
• inflate the new tube, replace one side of the clincher tire, shove the tube in, then replace the other side of the tire, in order to avoid pinching and puncturing the tube
• when necessary, a tire boot can be fashioned from anything like a gel wrapper or similar item to get you to the end of the ride
• if you break a spoke on a ride, you must release the tension on its partner spoke with a spoke wrench so that the wheel will remain more-or-less true until you get back
• when replacing a spoke, make sure all spokes are de-tensioned and then re-tensioned together
• break pads should be very lightly angled so that they are closer to the tire at the farthest point along the tire's travel through the pads, which prevents catching at the closest point
• if you clean your bike often (soap and water will do), you can catch any defects such as cracks in the frame or parts wear
• brake and shifter cables can wear out by pinching, tearing or rusting at the ends and need to be replaced
• when removing and replacing the seat post or stem, a torque wrench should be used to adjust the bolts to the correct torque in order to prevent crushing the frame

 Okay, there was more, but I probably didn't understand it. Phew!