Bicycle Safety Video: Brake Care & Maintenance Tips
Last updated Friday, November 8th, 2024
Bicycle Safety
Marc Shuman – Out in the community on Bike Safety
Here at Shuman Legal®, we like to get engaged in the community and support safe practices. We are here for you when accidents or personal injuries happen; we are also here for you to help you stay safe!
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We have partnered with West Town Bikes here in Chicago to create a series on Bicycle safety, this session covers Care and Maintenance – (brakes) for the bike and the rider, and to accompany the video, here is the transcription from Marc’s interview with Eli Faber, their head technician:
00:00 Marc Shuman: I’m Marc Shuman from Shuman Legal®. And we are at West Town Bikes in Chicago, speaking with Eli Faber, head technician, about bicycle safety. How are you doing, Eli?
00:09 Eli Faber: I’m doing alright, Marc.
00:10 MS: So today we’re gonna talk about bicycle care and maintenance. How often should you replace the brakes on your bike?
00:17 EF: Well, for rim brakes, you should typically replace them when they wear down to the wear line. So, I have two examples right here that I brought. Here is a brand new mountain bike rim brake pad, you can see this wear line right here. Your rim will start to eat away at this rubber, and when it gets down to the line, you should replace it. Here’s one where you can see it’s been very worn down, it’s coming close to the line right here. With these brakes, it’s a little harder to tell. When the pad wears down past one millimeter, it should be replaced. The width of three business cards is approximately one millimeter. So if you put it up next to your pad, you can check it against that.
01:06 MS: With respect to bike tires, how long are bike tires good for?
01:09 EF: If you ride every day, you should typically replace your tires every six months. Your rear tire wears a lot faster than the front since most of your weight is on the rear tire. So it’s not too uncommon to have to replace the rear one twice before replacing the front one.
01:22 MS: And do you also test the treads on a tire?
01:28 EF: Yeah, you can, quite the same way as with the brake. There’s a tread on the tire here. Show it to the camera. Once this tread starts to wear down, and the tire starts to look bald, that means it’s time to replace it.
01:44 MS: On the bike itself, how often should you lubricate the bike chain?
01:49 EF: A typical rule, if you ride every day, is to lubricate your chain once a month.
01:54 MS: Is that someone a person could do at home, or is that something they need to bring into the shop?
01:58 EF: You can definitely do it at home, just make sure you’re buying bike-specific lubricant. All you need to do is drip it over the chain, as you rotate the cranks backward.
02:07 MS: Thank you very much.
02:08 EF: You’re welcome.
There you have it! Some great advice and information that we hope will lead to you having a more enjoyable and safer experience on your bike!
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