wet weather bike tips

As you may have noticed, we have not been having our typical awesome winter here in Austin. It has been cold (anything under 60 is cold here) and it has been raining at least a couple of days a week for the last few weeks. Your bike will need a little extra help from you to keep it in good working shape. Besides the usual cleaning and chain lubing there are a couple of small things to do to make sure everything runs smoothly.

One of the first things to check is the brake pads. Wet rides tend to wear out brake pads pretty fast so you should check the wear on them every couple of weeks to ensure that they do not do any damage to your rims. If you ride on roads that tend to have a lot of mud and water it is not hard to wear through a set of pads in a couple of rides.

You will also need to lube your chain a little more often when it is wet to help the chain last longer as wet and muddy conditions will accelerate the wear that a chain puts on your chainrings and cassette.

One other small tip that your significant other might appreciate, don't bring your wet dirty bike inside the house, wash it or let it dry first so you don't end up with little mud puddles on your floor.

wet weather bike tips