Lessons Learned: Bicycle Maintenance

This is one of the most important parts of a bicycle:

This is the part that your pedals attach to and keep the bike moving.....as long as they are not rusted solid as I've seen way too many times out here.

Keeping you bike maintained out here is vital!

I've been helping out in the Dive/Bike shop here for the last month or so while the owner is off-island on vacation. A few Kwaj residents have signed up as vendors and have stores with items you can't typically get here. The dive/bike shop sells diving equipment, lessons, bicycle parts and offers bicyle repair.

The most common bicycle ailment around here is the bottom bracket. So much so that we don't even have any in stock anymore. But from watching bike after bike come in to the shop and go out the door to the trash, one thing I've learned is DON'T WAIT! Don't wait until you'r pedals fall off, don't wait until they make a lot of noise while you are riding, don't wait until they start turning slowly or not at all.

Once that bottom bracket gets to a certain point...it won't come out. And if it won't come out, you have to get a new bike. There is no saving it. We're talking the difference between a $30 part and a $400 bike. (That's the going rate here for the Sun bikes which are the only ones that last longer than 6 months out here.

I've had my current bike for about 2 years now. So far I've replaced the fenders, the gear shifter and cables, the seat, the rear inner tube, and now the bottom bracket. I've been fairly lucky so far considering the only maintenance I really do to it beyond replace parts is to spray it down with a penetrating oil or liquid silicon every so often.