Tuning up your bike for Spring

Spring is a good time to take your bike into the shop and get a yearly tune-up. This is especially important if you haven't ridden all winter long. I typically use this as an excuse to upgrade a component on my bike. If you throw a lot of business their way or it's a good bike shop, they will give your bike a good once over for little or no cost at the same time.

For the DIY set, here's a list of things that every tune-ups should include.

• Clean the chain. Invest in a good chain lube, which should work well as a degreaser.
• Clean the cassette. Mine looks pretty bad after a season of riding. Remove the excess grease.
• Check to make sure the brakes are not rubbing. You will either need to center the breaks or tighten some spokes or both.
• Make sure the cables on the detailers have the correct amount of tension. I run a double, and my Shimano's front-derailleur shifter acts pretty nutty when the tension is out of whack.
• Check every bolt on the bike for correct torque. After a while you get a good feel for what's too tight and what's too loose.
• Give your frame a good once over. Look for any cracks. This is especially important with aluminum frames. Both of my bikes are aluminum, which has good and bad points, which are the subject of many heated debates. The point that I think has some validity is that despite aluminum's strength, when it fails, it does so catastrophically. You don't want a tiny crack to suddenly fail on 30 MPH descent. 

If you want some instructions on how to do these things yourself, I consider The Bicycling Guide To Complete Bicycle Maintenance & Repair by Todd Downs to be my Bible. Many people swear by Zinn & The Art of Road Bike Maintenance by Lennard Zinn.

Now, today is the first day of spring so get out there - no more excuses. Happy riding!