Riding your bike will cause some small maintenance work on it, but don’t worry. It’s nothing too complicated and it’s not something that you will need to do often.
Here are the 5 most common bike repairs you need to know when owning a bike:
1. Flat tire
The most common repair you need to do to your bike is replacing a flat tire. It’s the most vulnerable part of a bike, being made of rubber and being in constant contact with the ground. There are a lot of causes for a flat tire to happen. Such as not being inflated enough, some debris cut through the tire, high jumps, heat, and so on.
2. Loose Bolts
As soon as your new bike will be ridden, at some point, it will start making squeaking noises. A common reason for this is because some nuts and bolts got loose. When fixing, be careful not to overtighten them. That will damage the threads on your bike, making it an expensive repair cost. A torque wrench will be an ideal tool for this job.
3. Loose Breaks
Regardless of whether you have rim or disk brakes, some change is needed when your brake levers are too loose. Since disk brakes are becoming more popular(you can read more about this here), the reference video will be about that. If you however have rim brakes, here’s a video for your bike as well(#video).
4. Bad Shifting
Bad shifting is a bummer and can be overwhelming at first since there are a lot of moving parts that make a shifter. Fear not, since this is often fixed without any special tools.
5. Dropped Chain
A dropped chain is a problem only if it happens often. A common cause of the chain dropping is when shifting uphill and applying too much pressure on the pedals. There’s an easy but dirty fix for this and it’s as simple as applying the chain back on the cassette.
Conclusion
It is important to know the most common bike repairs as they will happen at some point. Having this information will help you fix your bike in a couple of minutes. That way you can ho about your day and not have to worry about going to a bike shop for every small fix you encounter.