Bike Maintenance

mcr2c384 said:

They've dumped about two inches of salt on the roads here for about an one inch of snow, if I ride three to four times a week, how many times should I clean chain, cassette, and cogs?

Wipe the bottom side of your frame off after you reach your destination ...

Clean & lube your chain/cassette/EVERYTHING every evening on days that your ride!

For winter riding internal gears are the only way to go.🙂

dougadam said:

For winter riding internal gears are the only way to go.🙂

What do you mean internal gears?

Regretably, I have a 1983 Fuji Sagres that I'm using to train on, and until I can buy a decent bike for myself. I don't know if it, being stainless steel, will corrode because of the salt.

mcr2c384 said:

What do you mean internal gears?

Regretably, I have a 1983 Fuji Sagres that I'm using to train on, and until I can buy a decent bike for myself. I don't know if it, being stainless steel, will corrode because of the salt.

Internal gears are gears which are housed inside the rear hub ...

The most obvious example would be any of the ubiquitous 3-speed hubs found on English 26" wheeled bikes. The disadvantage of a 3-speed hub is that the range is approximately 30% up-or-down from the theoretical middle ... so, if you have an 18t cog in back, your high gear is equivalent to having about a 13t, and the low gear would be something like having a 23t ... and, the single chainwheel in front is whatever it is (cranks with chainrings are subjectively better because they can be changed more easily to adjust the gearing).

More recently, Rohloff, SRAM & Shimano have produced internally geared hubs ... the Rohloff is exceedingly expensiive ... the other two are not particularly cheap, but are found on lower-intermediately priced bikes.

Now, with regard to you 1983 Fuji Sagres. It is probably NOT stainless steel ... CroMoly steel (Valite -- one of those meaningless in-house names). I doubt that there was anything wrong with the bike when it was new, so that means that YOU need to simply bring it back up to snuff OR upgrade the components with contemporary components.

Regardless of the steel your Fuji is made of, corrosion is a problem with ANY steel (except that "column"/pillar in India which I think was dated to the Gupta period).

While the components are certainly dated and possibly in a less than ideal state, your Fuji has a much nicer frame than you give it credit for being.

Not to categorize your cycling experience or background, so take this as a general comment, EVERY newbie with regard to bicycle "maintenance" should watch the movie BREAKING AWAY and observe how the protagonist takes a beater and theoretically makes it as good as it can be by cleaning & re-lubing it. A mediocre bike can be made better with maintenance ... or, a great bike/component can seem to be hopelessly terrible if allowed to become gummed up.

The so-called tune-up which most bike shops perform is so superficial OR unnecessary that they should go-to-Confession and ask for forgiveness after taking the people's money for work not performed.

MOST neglected bike parts can be given additional useful life by simple cleaning & proper lubrication ... some parts do wear out (chain, chainrings, cogs, bearings).

Yeah, your right it's a valite frame, I really like the frame, I am planning on stripping it of it's old parts and putting it back together with better components over the next year or two to have a nice bike. First thing to go are the shifters and derailers. Thanks of the response.