Mountain bikes and mountain biking are not cheap. And you’ll never ‘save’ money if you’re a mountain biker. But you can stop a lot of avoidable spending if you’re canny.
1. Ride from your back door
Even if the trails near home aren’t as rad or exciting as you might like, you can probably still string together a few sneaky local lines into a loop. Riding from home will save you the obvious cost of fuel if you were driving, but it will also likely save you other incidental costs like sandwiches, cups of tea, and emergency bike related purchases. There’s no risk of you driving all the way to the bike park only to realise you left your shoes at home, and there’s a decent chance you’ll be able to spot and fix any mechanicals before you get too far from home.
2. Fit mudguards
Fitting a front and decent sized rear mudguard will keep all sorts of clart from your being as you ride along. This will help stop all your clothes wearing out quite as quickly, since there’ll be less gritty mud on you to grind into your saddle or attack your waterproofs. It will also save you a bunch of laundry – cheaper in the short term on electricity costs, and in the long term on washing machine repairs.
3. Rinse your gear
Dunk your shoes and muddy gear into a bucket of rainwater, just to get the worst off them after a ride. It’ll make your gear and washing machine last longer.
4. Wash your bike (even just a quickie!)
Regularly cleaning your bike, especially your drivetrain, will make all the parts last a lot longer. It doesn’t need a lot of fancy soap and tools – an old toothbrush and a rag will go a long way. Just make sure you use a different brush on your drivetrain to the rest of your bike, to avoid spreading oily stickiness everywhere.
5. Measure your chain
Measuring your chain stretch and swapping it out once it gets worn will mean you get more life out of the cassette. It’s cheaper to swap the chain out than to wait until it all starts skipping gears and then need to swap the whole drivetrain.
6. Dry and lube your chain
Don’t just dump your bike in the shed after a wet ride. If you can’t wash your bike properly there and then, give it a quick rinse off with a watering can to get the worst off, dry the chain with a rag, and lube it. Make sure you get the lube in and about everywhere, avoiding rust spots next time you head to the shed.
7. Love your brakes
Taking your brake pads out every once in a while and giving the calliper a decent deep clean will help prevent expensive repairs. It will also give you chance to check how worn your pads are getting – swap them out before you start wearing out your rotors! Also, if the pads a wearing unevenly, it’s a sign something isn’t quite working properly. Investigate and repair before things get worse.
8. Buy in the wrong season
If you know you need some new winter gear, keep an eye out for sale offers in the heat of summer.
9. Wash your waterproofs
Waterproof fabrics need to be clean to repel water. Follow the care instructions and wash waterproofs regularly, adding a reproofing treatment where necessary.
10. Patch your waterproofs
Many waterproofs can be repaired with iron on patches. Fix small tears or holes before you catch it on something and make it too big to repair.
11. Dry your kit
Make a point of emptying your bag after a wet ride and drying everything out. This will stop items like kneepads, helmets and shoes going fusty and mouldy in a cold garage, and will stop any multi-tools from getting rusty.
12. Undo your laces
If you have lace up riding shoes, don’t be tempted to force your feet in and out of them with the laces done up. You’ll wear out the heels much faster, and if you leave them laced up when wet they’ll take a lot longer to dry.
13. Stop weighing stuff
Weight does matter… But not a lot. Certainly not enough to warrant spending money on things to save a few grams. Concentrate on improving your comfort level on your bike. A bone-jarring, neck-aching, calf-killing bike setup will tire you out much more than expensively shaving a pound off your bike’s weight.
14. YouTube is your friend
Need to know how to repair something? YouTube will have the answer.
15. Drivetrains haven’t got any better for a while
Stick with any drivetrain that affords you to run 1x with a clutch rear mech and have a big ol’ sprocket (50T+) cassette on the back. Shimano 11-speed was/is brilliant.
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