On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast we chat about the weird and interesting noises emanating from your bicycle. Devlin Eyden gives us tips on the most common causes and what we are able to attend to ourselves at home to avoid these noises. We also find out how regular our bike services should be.

Brad Brown:         You’re listening to Ask Coach Parry Cycling today and I’m having a bit of a chuckle, Devlin. This question, it sounds like it’s me actually, because this is so typical and it’s got to do with bicycles making weird noises. It comes through from Shane and he’s saying: My bike is making weird noises. I serviced it about six months ago, it cost me nearly as much as my car cost to service, do I need to send it again? Are there things that I can do at home to prolong the gaps between these services?

Invest time to service your bike at home

Devlin Eyden:      Well, you know, it’s one of those ongoing nuisances that we have in the sport. Firstly, it depends on what the noise is. Whether it’s a creaking noise or a clicking noise or more of a rubbing sound. I think more than anything else, is it important when you do take your bike in for a service, to make sure that you actually ride the bike with the mechanic who is going to be working on the bike.

Because more often than not, we’re in a little bit of a hurry, we’ve dropped the bike off, we tell them there’s a noise and as Murphy’s Law would have it, the bike won’t make a noise when the mechanic rides it, but you get back on the bike and it’s the noise that you find.

I think it is important to make sure the mechanic is there with you when you do ride the bike so that he can hear the noise and they then have an idea of what they’re targeting.

Also, it could be just your bike. After a certain while, dust in certain moving parts could also be a reason for some of the noises, so just keep that in mind. With regards to prolonging the life of the gap between services, that’s going to come down to general maintenance. I think more than anything, making sure that your bike is always clean, especially we’re talking if you’re a mountain biker, for instance, your bike is going to need a little bit more of that tender loving care. Constant lubing the chain, making sure the hundreds of moving parts on the bike are always clean and well-greased up.

It is important that also when you start hearing little things, or for instance if your chain starts shredding, do yourself a favour and keep addressing the small things quite regularly. I know I’m guilty of it myself, but more often than not, you put off the little things, potentially for time or budget reasons and you put off the little things until at some point something serious goes wrong and it ends up costing you even more, you’re having to replace three or four other components. Just regular maintenance at home and keeping your bike clean and looking after it on your own is going to prolong the life of moving parts on the bike.

BB:         Absolutely and Shane, I agree, I’m also in the same boat. I tend to forget, but Devlin, six months, that is quite a long gap, but it’s not a time issue, it matters how much you ride and if you’re riding fairly often, you should be servicing your bike more than every six months.

DE:         Correct, and again it’s exactly that, how much you’re riding, how many miles you’re putting on the bike will largely depend on how many tyres you’re going through, chains and cassettes and that sort of thing. Regular maintenance on it is going to be vital.

BB:         If your tyres decompose because it’s been sitting in the garage for too long, that just means you’re not riding enough.

Devlin, thank you very much for your time, much appreciated. We look forward to catching up again next time out, here on the podcast.

Don’t forget, you can get your questions in, just head over to coachparry.com, while you’re there as well, if you’re looking for a personalised training program, check them out. Devlin is more than happy to help you out, just go to the navigation bar and you can check out the cycling coaching packages there, coachparry.com is where you can find it. We’ll put the links in the show notes of this episode as well.

Until next time, from the two of us, it’s cheers.