The essentials to bike maintenance – Allen keys and a bottle of wine! Slow changing gears, brakes that don’t bring a bike to a quick stop and strange creaks coming from near your pedals. Everyone recognises the symptoms of a bike in need of ...
bicycle maintenance
Learn to effortlessly maintain your bike in a weekend
Some of the feedback I’ve been receiving from the first 50 people who tested the Bike Maintenance in a Weekend course has been amazing: “What I especially liked was the mechanic was very soft spoken, easy to understand, and did not talk down, as you ...
What is stopping people from maintaining their bikes themselves?
Doing your own routine bike maintenance has many benefits. You can instantly fix your bike, without relying on the timetable of the local bike shop. You can save significant amounts of money on bike shop repairs. It can also be reassuring to know ...
Why do Boris Bikes hardly ever get punctures?
Have you ever wondered why cycle hire scheme bikes from around the world hardly ever get punctures? If you look closely at the tyres, you’ll find the answer. They tend to use Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres. These tyres have a “five millimeter thick ...
Best bike maintenance stand
Maintaining your bike becomes a whole lot more fun after you’ve purchased a bike maintenance stand. Otherwise, bikes have an annoying habit of constantly tipping over to one side, just as you are about to make an adjustment. Fortunately, the price ...
Replacing Single Speed Freewheel or BMX Freewheel
If you ride around on a single speed bike or a BMX, then once every one to two years you need to replace the freewheel cog. It became apparent that my freewheel needed replacing on my bike after I kept hearing a clonking sound, each time I’d be ...
How to restore your old bike
Not all Londoners have access to a brand new, top of the range bicycle. Many, have a 10 year old hand me down mountain bike from their sister. One such person is my friend Laura. She recently asked me: What do you think of the bike? As someone who ...
Five of the Most Common Bike Maintenance Tools You’ll Need
If you want to be able to look after your bike yourself, you’ll need a basic set of tools to start off with. Allen Keys Also called hex keys, Allen keys are an essential for bike maintenance. Everything from adjusting your brakes, to tightening ...
The tennis ball trick for single speed bikes
This is one of those little bike maintenance tricks that I just had to share! For a while I struggled with punctures on my single speed bike. The problem was, it was difficult to pull the wheel back to get the chain adequately tensioned and at the ...
Bottom Bracket Removal Guide
One of the repairs being added to our Bike Doctor app (iPhone and Android) is how to remove your bottom bracket. Why, oh why, would you want to do that? The bottom bracket is often the source of many irritating creaks on your bike. If you hear ...
Stopping your bike from squeaking
A persistent squeak, creek or click can be a torturous experience for a cyclist. All bikes suffer from them, from time to time and they are a good wake up call that something isn’t quite right. Today, I’ll be sharing part of the maintenance section ...
What goes in to a bike service?
Today, I took my bike in to Lunar Cycles to discover what goes in to a bike service. Something that has always been a bit of a mystery to me. This is the service frequently used bikes should have at least once per year. Lunar Cycles charge £65 for ...
The London Cyclist guide to cleaning your bike even when you’ve not got the room to do it
Keeping your bike clean when you’ve not really got the room to do it is a pain. However, it is something that should be in your calendar at least once a month. It should be one of those things, you shouldn’t even think about having to do. “Oh, it’s ...
Free bicycle maintenance classes in London
If you want to learn the basics to bicycle maintenance then a number of free courses and workshops exist in London. They can help you reduce the cost of your bicycle maintenance by completing basic tasks such as replacing brake pads. Below is a ...
Best bicycle toolkits
If you are getting more into your bicycle maintenance you’ll quickly discover you need a few extra tools that are not included in your standard B&Q toolbox. Especially when it comes to more advanced maintenance tasks such as hub bearing ...
Suspension fork sag adjustment
One of the new repairs shortly coming to Bike Doctor is suspension sag adjustment. This is something that all mountain bike riders should do on a new mountain bike to account for their weight and riding style. It should also form part of an ...
Replacing hydraulic disk brake pads
Big thank you to Mark’s Cycle Repairs for helping me put this repair together for the Bike Doctor App (Already in iPhone version, soon to be in Android version) Mark offers excellent prices and repairs for all sorts of bikes and if you live in the ...
Replacing jockey wheels
We next come up to a source of squeakiness that I’ve decided to squash! My jockey wheels often result in my friends pointing and laughing at me as I squeak up a hill. They are nearly 5 years old so it’s time for a replacement. If your jockey wheels ...
Fixing the most common mechanical problem with bikes in London
I’m trying to turn right. I’m waiting for a gap in the traffic. Suddenly, I spot it. I push my foot down on the pedal expecting a smooth forward motion. Instead, I hear a horrible grinding sound. My foot slides further than I expected and the bike ...
Overhauling your old bike part 1
As I mentioned last week it’s pretty easy for someone to bring a neglected bike back to life. Making it squeak free, trouble free and fast. Best of all you’ll actually be proud to ride your bike again knowing you’ve done the repairs yourself. In ...