Cycle Clinic

Spring on your bike

Cycle ClinicYou wake up to a lovely sunny day, the Winter winds have died down, the frost is gone so you decide to take a ride on your bike.

Dressed as you normally do for a ride on your bike, you go to get your bike out of the shed, garage, or wherever it’s been all Winter, and…

Oh no! the tyres are flat.

Not quite the disaster you might fear, because you probably haven’t got to mend two punctures. Our tyre inner tubes are very good at keeping air in all the time we are riding but very often if they have been left unused for a long time some air gradually escapes, either through the rubber, or through the valves leaking a bit. Whatever it is very often after a lay-off the tyres have gone down and need to be pumped up.

Cycle ClinicWhile you are at it, look at the side walls of the tyres. If they’ve been flat with the weight of the bike on them it means that the tyres have been folded and creased and may have cracks in the side. They will still be useable but over time, maybe several Winters, the cracks could get worse and the tyre might fail before the tread has worn out.
If you do a high mileage, the tyre will probably wear out before the side walls fail, so possibly nothing to worry about unless the tyre is years old.

Once you have pumped up the tyres which will only take a few minutes, check that the chain is not seized up.

If your bike has been stored in a nice dry shed or garage, and if you oiled the chain before Winter set in, it will probably be ready to go, but if your bike has to live outside, even under a tarp. or cover of some kind the steel of the chain will have started to rust.

It may only be surface rust, again it may still be ready to ride, but I have seen chains that have got ‘set’ in a tight curve where it has been round the gear wheels all Winter without moving and the rust has bound the links into place. So, try turning your pedal wheel backwards, and feel if the links are free. If it is stiff to turn, and particularly if there is a ‘kink’ in the chain you will use a lot of energy just trying to turn the pedals, let alone going forward. However, it may just need oiling and wiggling a bit to get it free. Once you have got it moving, oil the chain again and turn the pedals backwards a few times then wipe off the surplus oil, and you should be ready to go. This will, I’m afraid, take longer than pumping the tyres, but not all afternoon.

At last, you are ready to get on your bike, and enjoy the Spring!

By
Mike Skiffins, Portsmouth CTC
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