Take care of your bike, and your bike will take care of you. Still, stuff happens that’s beyond our control, and mechanical problems are just a part of mountain biking. We want to know which type of mechanical issue you face most often on the trail.
What’s #2? Tell us in the comments below.
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8 Comments
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Regarding drivetrain issues the biggest offender here are cranksets. These have more force applied to them quantitatively than anything else and most of them have assorted washers, pre-load rings, chain ring bolts and retention bolts that will loosen. My fix on these is having moved both of my bikes to Canfield AM cranks. These have no pre-load rings or additional adapters to worry about. They are held on by a single bolt at a higher torque value than anything else on the market. As for chainring bolts, specifically the 3-bolt SRAM single ring interface a trick a mechanic clued me in on is to use titanium bolts for these. These use a higher torque number than the standard steel bolts and they do not deform which leads to loosening and noise.
As for headsets, the omnipresent integrated standard ones get clobbered with sweat and filth particularly the upper assembly. Waterproof grease and proper pre-load are your friends here, but keep an eye on the top cap seals. When they wear out, they become a filthy/noisy mess.
Lastly, get decent torque wrenches, learn how to use them and do so, every time.
3 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
3 weeks ago