So maybe you've been doing some home maintenance on your bike. Maybe you've fixed a flat, or dutifully lubed your chain. Now your hands look like this:
Band-aid.
The grime that comes off your bike is a special kind of filth. It's especially tenacious and resistant to regular soap. I know, I wash my hands a dozen times a day. I use a heavy duty, gritty citrus hand cleaner, that comes in a heavy duty quantity.
But let's say you don't want to buy a gallon of heavy-duty, professional strength hand cleaner. One of my other favorites is Lava soap (it's made with pumice... get it?). Also gritty, and available in bar form at your neighborhood grocery store. It's not as quick as the citrus stuff and I think it takes a little more elbow grease to remove bike grease with Lava, so I like to pair it with a nice nail brush.
But maybe you don't have your Lava soap handy, or you hate volcanoes. In a pinch, you can use dish soap. WAIT! Don't wash just yet. To really, really get all the grease off your hands you have to scrub your hands with liquid dish soap DRY. That's the trick. Put the soap on your dry, bike grimy hands, scrub it in, then wash it off with warm water. You might have to go in for another round, but it works much better if your hands are dry for the first round. Trust me.
It's good to get your hands dirty every once in a while (or every day), but it's also good to clean them in case you want to have a sandwich or something.
So the basics are covered. What if you want to learn more? As promised here are the details about... I'm not sure what to call it yet... Advanced bicycle instruction? Bicycle maintenance tutoring? One to one maintenance classes? Individual bicycle maintenance instruction?
Want to learn something (or everything) specific about your bike? Maybe what you're looking for isn't covered in the offerings of the various bicycle maintenance classes out there. Or maybe the large class format isn't for you. Hub Bicycle is now offering individual bicycle maintenance instruction. In this class the student/teacher ratio is 1:1.
It's up to you what's covered during your instruction time, but examples of topics include:
wheel maintenance
wheel building
drive train maintenance and adjustment
bleeding hydraulic brakes
suspension maintenance and adjustment
bearing overhauls
head to toe (or handle bar to tires) tuning
Email me (still emilyathubbicycledotcom) with your thoughts, and we can put together the curriculum for your bike class. Evening and weekend times are available so we can find time to fit into your schedule. The cost is $60/hour for instruction and use of shop space & tools. Any components needed (hubs, spokes, rims, bleed kits, drive train parts, etc.) are 15% off retail price.
The most frequently asked question I get this time of year is "What should I do to get my bike ready for winter?" To which I usually respond, "Are you going to ride through the winter?" Let's pretend you just answered, "Yes." (Check here about tucking your bike in for a long winter's nap). Cool, so you're going to brave the winter. Good choice. What you need is chain lube.
A neglected chain sounds to me like an angry metal skeleton chasing you down the road. That sound hurts my heart. Not only does it sound angry, it also wears out faster. What causes a chain to sound like that? The short answer is winter. With it's rain/sleet/slush/snow/salt/sand and whatnot.
Lubing your chain is the best and easiest maintenance you can perform to keep your ride rolling through the winter. You have to think moderation here- too little is not good, and too much is not good. Here's how I do it:
1. Drip chain lube along the inside of the chain as you backpedal the crank with your other hand to coat the whole chain.
2. After you've coated the chain, continue to backpedal for a while (20 seconds-ish?) to let the lube work its way into the chain.
3. Wipe off the extra with a rag. You just want it on the inside of the parts where the friction happens. Lube on the outside will attract dirt, which wears things out faster, which defeats one of the points of this exercise.
See that junk on the rag? Not only did you lubricate, but you also cleaned it. A twofer!
What kind of lube should you use? Good question. There are plenty of choices, and I bet if you asked 10 bike mechanics what their favorite is, you'd get 10 different answers. My favorite is Boeshield T-9 (or just "T-9" to its friends...). I like it because it's light, and clean so it doesn't attract a bunch of junk. It's also good for lubing cables/housing, and flushing out various moving parts (shifters, derailleurs, whathaveyou...). It's even good for non-bike things. Like this little guy I fixed today:
I also like Tri Flow. It's a little heavier, but still pretty clean. The original stuff smells vaguely of bananas. It's the smell of my first real job...oh, the good ol' days. The thing about these lighter chain lubes is that you need to apply them more often. Hear those angry birds again? Get caught in a rain/sleet/snow storm? Time to reapply!
Alright folks, Charlie and I are off on adventures next week, so we'll see you on the 27th. Happy Thanksgiving!
