Maintenance

The following information has been provided by Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Introduction:

Bicycles are amazing, but they do need looking after

Component parts of your bicycle wear down as they are used, so we recommend carrying an inspection at least every 6 months, or every 3 months if you cover a larger mileage. You should service your bike every 12 months.

Some people enjoy learning to do this themselves, and others like to leave it to the professionals.

If you want to find a bike shop to look after your bike, just do a browser search and see which shops are convenient for you, and have good customer reviews.

The London Cycling Campaign promotes over 100 bike shops across London which you can view on a map https://membership.lcc.org.uk/bike-shop-directory

Closest to GOSH is Bikefix, 44 Emerald Street, a 4 minute walk from the main entrance https://bikefix.co.uk/home

They charge £95 for a standard service (comparable with Cycle Surgery cost of £90)

If you are a bargain hunter, I recommend The London Bicycle Repair Shop in Waterloo (SE1 8DQ) who will carry out a standard service for £60 and are excellent https://www.thelondonbicyclerepairshop.co.uk/about-us/

Changing a puncture:

Firstly, if you find yourself getting punctures on a regular basis, you might want to buy some puncture resistant tyres e.g. https://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/community/round-ups/round-up-puncture-resistant-tyres

You can either search for a local bike shop and ask them to repair the puncture, or you can do it yourself (with a few bits of kit & a spare inner tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6agbiDg_bI This usually takes about 10 – 15 minutes. 

Looking after your chain:

Chains get grubby in London, especially during Winter when the rainwater spreads dirt from the roads onto your bicycle and feet.

Here’s a video showing how to clean your chain. The more often you do this, the less bad it gets

https://www.cyclist.co.uk/tutorials/4525/video-how-to-clean-your-bike-chain-and-drivetrain-like-a-pro-in-just-five-minutes

Once your chain is clean, apply some wet lube https://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/community/how-to/how-to-lube-your-chain

Check your brake pads:

If you have rim brakes, you will be able to see when you have worn down the grooves

This video shows how easy it is to replace these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qAosYtV7bQ

Everything else…

Total Women’s Cycling has prepared loads of helpful videos, without any ‘man-splaining’

https://totalwomenscycling.com/road-cycling/maintenance

There are plenty of good sources of information, out there.

e.g. Global Cycling Network https://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/category/maintenance-mondays

If you are trying to do a task, just type this in an internet search browser, then GCN and you should be directed to a useful video.