5 Steps To Winterise Your Bike
5 Steps to Winterise Your Bike
- Tyres – grip is key to confidence and tyres are essential for grip. On the road it’s good to move to a winter or all-season tyre with better compounds for cold weather and increased siping for water dispersal. Off road it’s been a wet start to winter and it’s looking like full mud tyres could be this season’s must have accessory.
- Mudguards – ride longer, cleaner & drier. Not only do mudguards keep the worst of the wet & filth off of you, they also keep it off your vulnerable bike components. For the road riders do yourself and those you ride with a favour and fit guards with the maximum amount of coverage you can to stop everyone & everything getting sprayed. For MTB, recent developments/designs have made the mudguard cool again, so keep the grit out of your eyes and protect your expensive components like fork & shocks.
- Service – if you’re heading out in the dead of winter you want your ride to be as hassle free as possible. A good service can highlight any potential problems to prevent any mid-ride mechanical misery and ensure your bike is working as it should.
- Wash & Lube – it may seem obvious, but your pride & joy is going to need increased love over the winter season. Rain, mud and the dreaded road salt will all do their best to eat away at your components, get yourself into a good pre & post ride maintenance routine and you should encounter less problems. See the earlier blog post how to wash your bike properly
- Buy a winter bike – this one may seem a little extreme but in the long term can have numerous benefits. You’ve spent a small fortune (or large in some cases) spec’ing, tweaking and fettling your bike don’t let winter take the shine off it. A winter road bike with increased clearance for bigger volume tyre, mudguards and disc brakes will get you out more whilst preserving your now summer “best bike”. You’ll be stronger next year for it as well. For those embarking on a winter of mud plugging it might be worth considering a winter hardtail. No pivot bearings to think of, no rear shock to service just good old-fashioned fun riding. Hone your skills ready for next year’s loam.
Give us a shout at the Hub if you want any help or advice putting this plan in to action. Neil
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