Bike Maintenance

I still remember the first time a shop mechanic asked me what cassette range I wanted on a new build, and I…

I swapped a 60mm stem for a 40mm on my trail bike a few seasons back, expecting a small tweak. Instead, the…

I trashed a rear wheel on a rock garden a few seasons back — not a broken spoke, just a wheel so…

I ran tubes for my first two seasons of real trail riding, right up until a rock garden on a local descent…

I once rode a 1,200-foot descent in the Wasatch with a lever that had gone soft on me halfway down — not…

I ran a chain past its replacement window once, on a multi-day trip where I didn’t have a chain checker with me….

I’ve walked more than one bike back to the trailhead, and it was never the frame or the derailleur that quit on…

I still remember trying to help a buddy swap gears on his hand-me-down hardtail and realizing halfway through that nothing about it…

I’ve had a chain snap on me twice—once on a fire road, which is just annoying, and once mid-climb on a technical…

I spent most of a season riding a shock that was 15 psi over-pressured because I never bothered to check it against…