Lubricating your bike
Rusty or un-lubricated chains and cables can literally slow you down and cause irritating noises and premature wear. A properly lubed bike not only improves gear shifting but also extends chain and sprocket life.
It’s a common misconception that spraying a bit WD40 on your bike will solve all your problems! Unfortunately this is not the case.
The modern bicycle is complex piece of equipment made up of many precision parts, after washing a bike WD40 is ok for dispersing water (we recommend using Teflon based TF2) from all the little nooks and crannies of these parts but that’s about as far as it goes.
These days bicycle lubricants have moved on a long way. Here at Saddle Safari we try to stock only the best bicycle lubricants available.
Finish Line lubes offer something for every rider. This includes a Wet lube for wet & muddy conditions (repels water). A Dry lube for dry & dusty terrain (repels dust) and a Ceramic lube offering maximum wear protection, making it ideal for bikes with new gear systems (ideally road bikes); this will leave a tough coating, much harder wearing than a standard wax lube.
Once you’ve decided which lube is best for your current riding conditions, then its just a case of applying to the correct areas. Follow the simple step by step guide below and remember that you should only apply fresh lube after thoroughly cleaning and removing the old stuff first!
Gears
1. Place your bicycle over newspapers or in a place that can get dirty and lean it against something that still allows the pedals to rotate freely.
2. Using your chosen lubricant drip oil onto the center rollers of the chain. It is best to apply lube to the part of the chain that touches the gears. Try to avoid lubing the sprockets of the bike as the excess oil is unnecessary and can turn in to a grinding paste as the dirt sticks to it, this can prematurely wear out gears. The lube applied to the chain will spread during gear shifts, this will be more than enough for all of the sprockets.
3. Hold a rag under the chain to prevent lube from dripping onto the wheel and causing potential braking problems.
4. Slowly spin the pedal backwards while continuing to drip lube onto the chain. Once the chain is covered entirely in a thin coating of lube stop lubing!
5. Grab the chain lightly with a rag and spin the pedals backwards. This removes excess lube that can attract dirt and wear out your chain. Be very careful with your fingers at this point as you don’t want them getting dragged under the sprockets!
6. Wipe any excess or splattered oil off the bike with a rag paying special attention to the rim.
Cables
1. Different bikes will have different cable routing so have a good look at what goes where before going any further.
2. Starting with the rear gear cable; pedal the bike around and click the right hand gear shifter so that the chain is on the largest rear sprocket.
3. Now WITHOUT PEDALING click the right hand shifter back down to the other extreme. This will allow the gear cable to become very slack.
4. The extra slackness of the inner cable should now allow you to remove the black outer cable from all of the ‘cable stops on the frame’ be careful not to kink the cable anywhere as this will cause shifting problems also remember DO NOT TURN THE PEDALS.
5. Now the cable is loose and fully exposed you can start adding lube. Ensure that you slide the black outer cable out of the way to lubricate the cable underneath.
6. Now you should be ready to feed the black outer cable back into the cable stops. Again be careful not to damage or kink the cable.
7. Once all of the lengths of black cable outer are safely back in their original positions you can now gently turn the pedals allowing the chain to drop back down to the smallest sprocket.
8. Follow the same steps to lubricate your front gear cable but this time using the left hand shifter to change gear. To lube the brake cables you must first release the brake caliper (this can vary between different brake systems) then lube the cable as with the gears.
