Manage and Track Maintenance Schedules

Question

I'm wondering how people manage the required (and completed) maintenance for their bikes, especially when you have a couple each with completely different component sets (i.e. a road bike, a XC, a cruiser, etc). It seems most components are intended to get service every XX hours or miles or seasonally, while others when they're worn out or broken (I guess prevent extensive damage vs. replace wear & tear).

I'm a software developer so naturally thinking of building a web app for this (amongst other features) but would rather use something that already exists if it's available.

Looking for input on everything from "I track it in a 3-ring notebook" to "my personal mechanic takes care of all that"

Answer 1

There are many different philosophies about how much maintenance a bicycle needs, and on what schedule or basis it should be performed.

As I prefer to never be worried about whether my bikes will fail under me on a ride, I am more meticulous than most. I currently have 4 bikes, each with different function.

I service each bike when it's time to change the chain. I do that at 1000 miles ridden. I have yet to need more than chains, cables, and lubrication, and I've never had a more serous mechanical than a flat tire on a ride since I started this maintenance scheme.

Your question, though, is about how I keep track of that regime. I've tried several things, including an Excel sheet, a Rails based web app I built, and just logging the miles on paper, but the problem with all of them is that they are dependent on me to remember to use them.

Given my chosen schedule, if I forget to log a day, or a week, of riding it's not going to hurt me.

But what I'd love to see is an iPhone/Android bike computer app with the ability to set more than 2 bikes, and to set maintenance reminders based on GPS miles logged for each bike. Perhaps with an "x distance or y time, whichever comes first" based reminder, with the mileage and timeframe user adjustable.

Haven't found it yet though. My bike computer will let me set a mileage reminder, but I'd need one on each bike.

Answer 2

When it breaks I fix it. I check wear on the chain (with a stretch gauge) every few months, and when I need to replace my rear cluster (as evidenced by poor shifting) it's time to repack the bearings. (This works out to about 5000 miles for me.)

A bike kept inside in a dry environment doesn't deteriorate, save for the tires [and maybe, I suppose, hydraulic brake fluid]. (Yes, the lube does deteriorate, but it would take 30 years or so for it to be far enough gone to worry about.) So no need for service every 3 months or some such -- it's purely based on mileage and wear-and-tear.

What can break??

Note that the things that can actually break on a bike are quite unpredictable. If chain, sprockets, and bearings are serviced regularly, tires (and brake pads) replaced when worn/cracked, cables and shifters given a spot of lube occasionally, and the cables examined for fraying and wear on the same occasions, there isn't much else you can do.

Spokes can break, but you don't know if that will be at 100 miles or 10K, so you basically have to wait for one or two to break to know that it's time to relace the wheel. Freehub pawls, shifter pawls and springs, derailer springs, etc generally last forever but can fail without warning (though usually a bad pawl will begin to slip before it goes out entirely). A broken chain is generally the result of a seriously worn drive train, serious maladjustment of the derailers, or really lousy shifting on the part of the cyclist. Fork/frame failures occur, but only on bikes that have been seriously abused. Blowouts, of course, can occur, but are largely insensitive to maintenance.

Probably the most likely failure (other than tire problems) is simply a bolt falling out somewhere. This is most common on racks and fenders, but can, eg, occur (in rare circumstances) on the bolt holding in a derailer idler wheel. So tightening bolts isn't a bad thing to do occasionally (if you know which ones to tighten and how tight).

Answer 3

Strava logs your rides, and you can choose from one of your pre-configured bikes. In the options, you can keep a track of when you changed a chain or tyre, and Strava will tally the distance each part has gone. It is not perfect because it doesn't tally time (for fork servicing) and doesn't know if the distance was easy road riding or hard MTB. It also doesn't account for wet and dirty winter riding vs dry summer riding.

“I love to ride a clean bike” - versus “I don’t want my bike to fall apart while riding but creaks and noises are ok” should be a scale of 1-5 with 1/5 being the latter and 5/5 the fastidious mechanic and rider so it just set a schedule with both "must-do" and "nice-to-do" tasks, to compliment what type of mechanic/ rider you are.

Example of Strava's "accumulated mileage" screen:

Another downside of Strava is you can only choose bike components from their list. As per blue box, the "front shock" and Seatpost parts have been reused as something else. You also can't have more than one of anything, so if you ride a trike, can't have two front or two rear tyres.

Strava also can't deal with moving a part from one bike to another, or entering an initial wear if you're fitting a used part with a known mileage.