Maintenance Course Syllabus
Our 6-week maintenance courses are offered in spring (March to April) and fall (October to November).
Week 1 : Get to know your bike
- General bike maintenance
- Oil a chain
- Adjust seats
- Bike fit and gear basics
- Fix a flat
Week 2 : Derailleurs
- How to adjust a drivetrain
- cable tension
- limit screws
- derailleur position (front)
- how to diagnose shifting problems
- Shifters
- Briefly cover different types of shifters and how they work
Week 3 : Brakes
- Discuss pros and cons of different types of brakes
- How to adjust calipers
- How to adjust vbrakes and cantis
- How to adjust disk brakes
- How to recable properly (brakes and shifters)
- different types of housing
- sensible routings
Week 4 : Wheels
- Anatomy of wheel
- Spoke tension
- Differences between front and rear wheel
- Lacing patterns
- Dish, Round, True
- freewheel vs cassette
- Wheel and tire sizes (ISO diameters!)
- Overhaul hub
- How to true a wheel
Week 5 : Headset, Stem, Bars
- Headset anatomy (first set of bearing in the class)
- Overhaul threadless headset
- Overhaul threaded headset
- Discuss quill and threadless stem
- I want my handlebars higher/lower and I have a quill/threadless stem. What are my options
- Handlebars
- Common diameters and shifter/lever compatibility
Week 6: BBs, Cranks, Pedals
- Overhaul BB
- External cup/internal cup BBs
- pros/cons of square taper vs 2 piece cranks
- Proper crank puller usage
- How to install chainrings
- How to install pedals
- clipless/cages/platforms/straps/whatever