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PedalSpokeCove

Index

All Maintenance Tasks

Grouped by interval rather than by part of the bike, because interval is the thing you can act on. Each page covers why the job matters, how the interval shifts for the way you ride, the steps in order, the mistakes people make, and the point at which the right answer is a mechanic.

Before you roll out, every single time

Every ride

  • Check Tire Pressure

    Tires leak through the tube and around the valve continuously, and narrow tires at high pressure lose a noticeable fraction of it in a few days.

    2 minutes · Anyone

  • The ABC Check Before Every Ride

    Nearly every mechanical problem that ruins a ride announces itself while the bike is standing still.

    45 seconds · Anyone

Once a week for a bike in regular use

Weekly

  • Check Lights and Reflectors

    Lights are the only maintenance item on the bike whose failure is invisible to you and obvious to everyone else.

    3 minutes · Anyone

  • Wipe Down the Drivetrain

    A chain does not wear out from use so much as from the grit it carries.

    4 minutes · Anyone

Once a month, or after roughly 200 miles

Monthly

  • Check Bolt Torque

    Almost nothing on a bike comes loose all at once.

    15 minutes · Some practice

  • Check Brake Pads

    Brake pads are the only part of the bike you deliberately wear out, and they give you a long, quiet warning before they run out.

    10 minutes · Some practice

  • Check Wheel Trueness and Spokes

    A wheel holds its shape because every spoke is pulling against every other one.

    10 minutes · Shop work if unsure

  • Clean and Lube the Chain

    Lubricant lives between the roller and the pin, inside the chain, and its whole job is to keep those two steel surfaces from touching.

    15 minutes · Anyone

  • E-Bike Connector and Motor Check

    The electrical parts of an e-bike are sealed and generally trouble-free, and almost every fault that does appear starts somewhere accessible: a connector that vibrated loose, a cable rubbed through against the frame, a mount that worked its way slack.

    10 minutes · Anyone

  • Inspect Tires for Wear and Cuts

    A tire is the only thing between the bike and the road, and it fails in two ways: slowly, as the tread wears flat and the casing thins, and suddenly, when a cut lets the tube push through.

    10 minutes · Anyone

Four times a year, at the change of weather

Seasonal

  • Check the Headset and Bearings

    Bearings fail politely.

    15 minutes · Shop work if unsure

  • Deep Clean and Degrease

    A wipe every week keeps the surface clean, but the drivetrain still accumulates a hard black paste in the places a rag cannot reach: between cassette sprockets, inside the derailleur cage, on the inner face of the chainring.

    1 hour · Anyone

  • Derailleur Indexing Tune

    Indexed shifting works because a fixed amount of cable pull moves the derailleur exactly one sprocket.

    25 minutes · Some practice

Once a year, on a date you can remember

Annual

Not on the calendar — done when something happens

Event-triggered

  • E-Bike Battery Care

    The battery is the most expensive part of the bike and the only part with a failure mode that involves fire.

    5 minutes, plus how you charge · Anyone

  • Patch or Replace a Tube

    A flat is the one failure that will happen to everybody, and it is the one that decides whether a bike is transport or a hobby.

    20 minutes · Anyone

All of it at once

The same list as a table

Sorted from the most frequent job down. If you would rather have these intervals adjusted for your own riding, the planner does that.

Standard intervals for every job on the site
JobIntervalTime on the jobYou or a shop
Check Tire PressureEvery ride2 minutesAnyone
The ABC Check Before Every RideEvery ride45 secondsAnyone
Check Lights and ReflectorsWeekly3 minutesAnyone
Wipe Down the DrivetrainWeekly4 minutesAnyone
Check Bolt TorqueMonthly15 minutesSome practice
Check Brake PadsMonthly10 minutesSome practice
Check Wheel Trueness and SpokesMonthly10 minutesShop work if unsure
Clean and Lube the ChainMonthly15 minutesAnyone
E-Bike Connector and Motor CheckMonthly10 minutesAnyone
Inspect Tires for Wear and CutsMonthly10 minutesAnyone
Check the Headset and BearingsSeasonal15 minutesShop work if unsure
Deep Clean and DegreaseSeasonal1 hourAnyone
Derailleur Indexing TuneSeasonal25 minutesSome practice
Helmet Inspection and ReplacementAnnual10 minutesAnyone
E-Bike Battery CareEvent-triggered5 minutes, plus how you chargeAnyone
Patch or Replace a TubeEvent-triggered20 minutesAnyone

Build Your Service Schedule adjusts all of these for miles, weather and where the bike sleeps.