Keeping your chain clean is essential, especially if you ride in the rain or other adverse weather conditions. Regular chain maintenance prevents rust and chain stiffness.

There are two camps in the debate over chain lubrication: proponents of lubrication and its opponents. The opponents’ argument is based on the idea that chain lubricants attract grime. When this grime becomes stuck to the chain, the opponents of lubrication believe it causes increased chain wear.

The camp promoting chain lubrication believes lubricants allow for longer chain life and reduced friction. There is little evidence to settle this debate. For more information about lubricating your chain, read on.

If your wheel has side-to-side play even when the skewer or axle nuts are tight, or after a hub has seen its fair share of use, it is time to overhaul the bearings and adjust the hubs.

- Cone wrenches (usually 13mm for the front and 15mm for the rear)
- Open-ended wrench (usually 17mm)
- Plenty of grease
- Replacement bearings (usually twenty 3/16” bearings for the front, eighteen 1/4 “ bearings for the rear)

The front derailleur pushes the chain from one chainring to another. It works very similarly to the rear derailleur by shifting the chain so that it falls onto a smaller chainring, or so that is pushes against a larger chainring and eventually catches the teeth. A properly adjusted front derailleur will shift between chainrings without allowing the chain to slip off in either direction.

If your cable housing is stiff, shows signs of damage, such as a kink, or is getting old, it may be a good idea to install replacements. Working on cable housings is not particularly difficult but does require the proper tools.

- Cable Cutters
- Wire Snips
- Awl or Similar Pointed Tool

Lift your wheel off the ground and give it a spin. If the wheel wobbles back and forth or up and down, it’s time to true it. Wheels come out of true through regular use. The rim is held at the correct angle to the hub by the pull of the spokes in equal directions. Hopping curbs, hitting rocks and the general punishment a bicycle endures is enough to knock a wheel out of true.

Chainrings are the one, two or three large sprockets attached to the drive side of your crankset. Shifting from one chainring to another gives you different gearing options while riding.

A chainring is ready to be replaced when its teeth have become worn from use. Typical signs of the need for replacement are slippage of the chain and (rarely) excessive noise.