A minimalist spring maintenance guide for lazy riders

Spring is here and, depending on where in Canada you are, you might be back on the trails now, soon or very soon-ish. Which means it’s time to get your bike ready for spring riding. Depending on how proactive (or not) you are as a home mechanic, that may also mean taking care of a few problems you said you’d deal with later when you put your bike away in the fall.

Now, a full service from a shop is probably the best way to start the year. If your local bike shop isn’t already fully booked up, it’s a great idea to have a proper mechanic give your bike a once-over before launching into the year. It can help catch any small problems before they turn into big problems that could keep you off the bike for a while.

Failing that, and I’ll admit I fail at that more years than I don’t, here’s a minimalist guide to things that you really should check before your first ride of the year. Consider it a bare minimum list of things that may have deteriorated or problems that might have developed while your bike was sitting over the winter. Most of the items on this list, as you’ll see, reflect a lesson I’ve learned the hard way. There’s no point in learning something the hard way twice, though, so read on and learn from my very self-inflicted misfortunes.

This list applies to mountain bikes, gravel bikes and, to an extent, road bikes.

A minimalist guide to spring maintenance

The back tire, nearly dry

The front tire? Still plenty of sealant in liquid form.

Tire Sealant

This one is not your fault. Sealant dries up over time, especially if your bike’s sat in one spot for months over the winter. Thankfully, topping up sealant is easy. There’s plenty of adapters that allow you to squeeze some sealant in through the valve stem, meaning you don’t even have to take the tire off the rim to check this off the list.

Here’s one important reminder, though: just because your tires survived one ride without topping up the sealant does not mean they’re actually ready for the season. I recently hauled out the gravel bike for a quick spin to enjoy the evening sun we’ve been getting the last couple weeks. The tires inflated fine and held air for the ride, but the back tire was entirely dry. That’s fine, until you hit anything. With no sealant left, any little puncture could have turned a short ride into a long walk home.

Sealant Pt.II – Valve Cores

Sealant…