April 30th, 2018 by Chris Chapman

Get your bike fit for the Tour De Yorkshire with these simple steps

As we write this, the office is gripped with the annual outbreak of biking fever. It’s Tour De Yorkshire season, meaning people across the country are gearing up for an exciting summer of cycling. If you’re one of them, there’s never been a better time of year to get into a regular routine of cycling. It’s a great social activity, is incredible exercise, and it can be incredibly therapeutic. That’s why it’s so important to take good care of your bike! Read on for 5 simple steps to getting the most out of your bike – it’ll be fit for the Tour De Yorkshire in no time, although we can’t guarantee that the rider will be!

1. Ride It Regularly

This first tip might seem a little strange, but riding your bike regularly is actually a great way to look after it! This is especially true if you keep your bike outdoors, where changes in temperature and weather can cause metal parts to warp and rust. Taking your bike for a ride at least once a week or so will get rid of a lot of the moisture that clings to it while it’s stationary. Make sure you put it through its paces and make use of all your gears and brakes. Bikes are a bit like people – if they don’t move for a long time, they become stiff and stop working properly! If you know you aren’t going to be riding your bike for a while, make sure you store it indoors if possible.

2. Check Your Tyres

Much like a car, you need to make sure your tyres have the right amount of air in. The specific amount of air you’ll need in your tyres varies, depending on how you’re riding and what type of bike you have. Road bikes will generally need a lot more air pressure in their tyres than mountain bikes. You should also take your weight into consideration. If you’re small and light, then you won’t need the tyre pressure to be as high as someone who’s built like Andre the Giant! As long as you’re within the safe range (around 90-110 PSI for road bikes), you can experiment slightly with your air pressure to get the most comfortable ride.

3. Braking Bad

Making sure your brakes are clean and working is absolutely vital. It’s a legal requirement to have two brakes on your bike, so you need to make sure they work properly. Your brakes actually have treads, just like your tyres do. Get in there and check the pads of your brakes before setting off on a long ride. Bicycle brake pads should have a grooved surface, but this can wear away over time, so make sure to inspect them closely. You also need to clean your brakes regularly, too. If your brakes are squeaking, that’s a tell-tale sign that there’s a lot of dirt between the brake pad and the wheel which is hindering your brake performance. It might sound like a small detail, but your brakes are easily the most important part of your bike, so you need them at 100% every time you go for a ride. Use a heavy-duty bike cleaner like Mud Free to get rid of those spots of dirt and make sure you can rely on your brakes – you never know when you’ll need them!

4. Get Some Appreciation for Lubrication

Lubricating your bike’s moving parts is another vital part of making your bike rides comfortable – but be careful! Little and often is the approach to take with lubricating your bike. Any moving parts (except your brake pads!) should be lubricated with small squirts of your lubricant. It’s better to put too little on and top it up than to put too much on and have to clean it all off again, so remember that when you’re lubricating your bike chain, gear shifters and other moving parts. Of course, the problem with using lubricant is that is tends to attract a lot of dirt over time, so…

5. Remember to Clean Your Bike!

We can’t stress the importance of this step enough. Even if you’re not taking your bike to the dirt track every day, you’ll still find a gritty film soon forming on your bike. This isn’t just bad news for your bike’s appearance, either. Unlike a car, most of a bicycle’s moving parts are exposed to the elements, meaning they’ll quickly attract dust, grit and grime. This can seriously impact the performance of your bike if you leave it to build up over time. Using a bottle of our special bike-cleaning Snow Foam every couple of months – or more often if you’re a regular rider – will keep your bike looking sparkling clean and performing at 100%. Follow up a Snow Foam pre-wash with a quick spray of Mud Free from your Snow Foam lance for the ultimate deep clean. An old toothbrush is your secret weapon when cleaning bikes, as you can use it to agitate the dirt in every nook and cranny of your bike while you’re cleaning to help the Snow Foam and Mud Free work their magic! If you want to be sure your bike will never let you down, show it some love every now and again with a good deep clean!