Bike maintenance clinic - Part 1

To help us prepare for our bike trip, Ryan gave us a private bike maintenance clinic at re-Cycles in Ottawa. He has been volunteering with re-Cycles for two years and is now a head mechanic. His favourite repair is truing bicycle wheels. "You can get right into it and your mind starts doing other things," says Ryan.

Ryan truing a wheel at re-Cycles

Ryan covered practically everything from what to check before heading out on a ride, to derailleur and brake adjustments, to repairing a broken chain, to truing a wheel and replacing a broken spoke.

Before heading out on your bike

We learned a mnemonic to help remember the basics to check before any bike ride. It's easy as ABC!

Air and accessories: tires filled to correct pressure and accessories properly in place
Brakes: brakes sufficiently tight and properly aligned
Chain: clean and lubricated

Please visit the Otesha Project website for more information.

Derailleur adjustments

The most common derailleur adjustments involve setting the inner and outer limits and fine-tuning with the barrel adjuster. We learned that the barrel adjuster can be found in different spots depending on your bike. 

Limit adjusting screws

Barrel adjuster B

Barrel adjuster A

Says Leslie, "The workshop was great. While I've done some basic maintenance before it's great to get a refresher, and to be reminded that if your bike is not working don't be afraid to play with it to figure out what's wrong, you're unlikely to make it worse!"

We are grateful to Ryan for being so generous with his time and for the support from re-Cycles to run the clinic. Stay tuned for future posts on other topics covered in this workshop.

In other news, we learned that Valerie will not be joining on the trip. She will be relocating to Singapore instead. While we are sad not to have her, we support her decision to seize this opportunity.

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