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If you’re a mountain bike owner or enthusiast it’s a good idea to be able to maintain your own bike. To some people mountain bike maintenance can seem a bit daunting, especially if you think you’re not a “mechanical” person, but it doesn’t have to be scary. Once you start having a go and getting to grips with it you’ll be amazed at how easy it is, and your enjoyment of riding will most likely improve massively as well.

Once you feel confident that you can perform your own mountain bike repairs you can go further, for longer, on more challenging trails without the worry in the back of your mind that your bike might break down and you couldn’t fix it.

Mountain bike maintenance can be half the fun of riding as you’ll feel safe in the knowledge that you’ve looked after your own bike, after all who can you trust more than yourself? Even the best mechanic in the world won’t love your bike as much as you do so it’s a good idea to start looking after it yourself, if you don’t already. It doesn’t have to be complicated if you take it one step at a time and get yourself the right basic tools to start with. Over time you’ll probably end up picking up new tools as you learn more about your bike and it’s parts.

Mountain bike maintenance is also a good thing to learn, as you’ll find you can keep your bike going for longer and save yourself money. It’s amazing how long a well-loved, well-maintained bike can go for so start giving yours a little TLC and lengthen it’s life span! If you know at least the basics such as changing the tyres and lubricating the chain you’ll save yourself a load of money by doing this occasionally to maintain your bike. You won’t have to pay anyone else to perform these tasks for you and by being pro-active you’ll prevent breakages that would otherwise require a reaction, which usually costs a whole lot more than prevention. Just think maintenance is generally better and cheaper than repair.

It should be about more than the money though as performing your own mountain bike maintenance can also prevent accidents and get you out of scrapes when you’re a long way from home. Breakdowns will always happen, even to the best riders or the best bikes, it’s just the nature of the sport, so it’s better to be prepared and be able to deal with them. One of the most important things to think about is carrying the right tools that you might need to perform repairs, and then a bit of enthusiasm to learn about basic maintenance.

You can buy complete basic tool kits to carry with you as you’re going to want a more compact tool kit than you might use at home, or you can put your own tool kit together. Either way make sure you test all the tools at home before you take them out with you. For more information about tools read this article on Mountain Bike Tools.

If you want to start learning about mountain bike maintenance ask a friend for help who already knows what they’re doing or pick yourself up a good book with diagrams that breaks down the parts of a bike and takes you through basic repairs to more complicated maintenance. If you already perform your own maintenance keep up the good work and help your friends out who want to learn. The articles on this site have been written to provide tips and advice to anyone wanting to perform their own mountain bike maintenance.