I will put it like this: your race DEPENDS on your bike being in tip-top shape. Does your favourite rock'n'roller have just one guitar? Didn't think so. Spare bikes, like spare race wheels, spare wetsuits, and spare running shoes should just be part of your complement of equipment. I stopped racing years ago, yet only in the last year, I got rid of damned near everything, and yet I coud EASILY race tomorrow. If you only have one bike, you are a poseur wanker, and yes- I mean that lovingly.

Errr, let me get this straight. It takes me 15 minutes to swap out new brake and shift cables, adjust the derailleurs and cut the cables and cap them. Are you saying you can drop off your bike, get the work done and get home from the LBS in 15 minutes? You are missing the point, it will SAVE you time and SAVE you money.

If you just don't want to do it then that is another thing entirely and a fair say....to each their own. But to say it saves you time is ridunkulous! Tune up your bike while you are on a conference call like I do? It's the best wind bag speaker phone material EVER! With the exception of something major like headset/fork issues most repairs or replacements can be done in just a few minutes. Heck not 2 weeks ago I took off my chain, cranks, and bb cups, installed the new bb and had it all ready to ride in 20 minutes and I am no Tour wrench.

I clean the chain, and if it's time for the frame's yearly bath I do that as well. After all it's carbon so who cares about stuff clinging to the frame. Those blobs of sports drink are really homemade gels.

If the bike is in good working order, and 5 min per week with only a bit of knowledge can keep a bike running rather well.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I wax my bike's every month or so also. It helps make it easier to clean of road debree and dried up worms. I rinse it and wipe it down after every ride. That should become second nature for everyone. Plus we all know a waxed bike is a fast bike :)

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Official Polar Ambassador
http://www.google.com/...P7RiWyEVwpunlsc2JtQQ

tom d. wrote a great article about this very topic:

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/features/prerace.shtml

that said, i used to work in a shop when i was in college and i'll never forget what the head wrench told me. he said, "son, ain't no one gonna EVER care as much about your bike as you do!". his words still resonate with me so while i will take my bike to a shop where i've known the manager/head wrench for 15 years for a once over before a big race, very rarely will anything need to be done because i take the time to wash/lube my bike at least every 3-4 rides.

true story: one of my best friends is a fairly quick marathoner (sub 2:40) who did IMCAL back in '01. he dabbled in tris and said that he was "retiring" after he checked an IM off his to-do list. as he had no intention of racing again that season (IMCAL was in may) he chose NOT to replace the tires that he did ALL his IM training on. while they were worn, he figured that they could easily go another 112 miles. on raceday he had not one, not two, but THREE flats because he was too cheap to pop for new tires before his IM! moral: check your equipment and spend the money to make sure raceday isn't ruined for lack of a $20 part BEFORE your race!

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Michael in Fresno
"Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man" V. Corleone

There are very few people that I trust to work on my bike.

I do allmost all of the work on my bikes.

jaretj

I would not take it right before a race, but a month or two prior to fine tune the shifting. The guy I take it to lives in the town where I work and he built, fitted, and has a lot of time invested in my bike.

I prefer to do NOTHING in regards to my own bike maintenance. I don't maintain my car myself, nor do I do fix my house. Now I can do the basics, but there are acquired skills/tools of people that specialize in a single thing. I do fix my own computer, but I am in IT, but not in computer support.

In general I have NO patience and rushing through something that I am barreling down a hill unprotected on surrouned by distracted drivers is a scary thought.

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Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

I have been on both sides. Having worked pre Kona tuneups a few years, you would not believe the shape of some pretty fast guys rides. I have worked on pros bikes with brake blocks that drag, headsets that barely turn and cranks that barely spin. Some folks do not take very good care of their stuff. Or have sweat damaged their stuff to death.
Then I have been lazy and let a pretty good mechanic touch up on my bike prerace and had a bolt come loose. I like to work on my own bikes before races so if something messes up the guy in the mirror is responsible.

In the 5 years, ~15K miles I've had my bike, I've done all my own work, which is to say replacing the chain/cassette 3 times and lubing/wiping the chain once a week, replacing the tires when they are shot. Yeah, I'm usually ridin' dirty. It's most noticeable when I pull the bike sticker off after a race and you see the clean spot where the sticker pulled off the dirt.

The bike gets washed by the Lord every time it rains during a ride. Shifting is as crisp as it was on day 1 without ever having been adjusted.

I have had this discussion before:

brought my bike in with about 700 miles on a new chain/cassette:
LBS: (fumbles around with chain checker) "You need a new chain. The cassette looks pretty worn also. It'll be around $200. We have a 48 hour turnaround policy."
Me: "Wha? Why...what is the downside to riding it how it is now?"
LBS: "Well, the cassette will wear out quicker."
Me; "Quicker than 700 miles?"
LBS: "Um, well, shifting will be a problem as it wears."
Me: "Well, it's shifting perfectly right now."
LBS: "If you switch cassettes the chain will probably skip."
Me: "I'm not switching cassettes."
LBS: "Well, your might be OK for a little while then..."

That was ~3,000 miles ago. Still shifting perfectly, no skips, etc. I want to change my gearing for this year, so I've got a new cassette/chain on the way, $115 for both.

I have never used the park chain checker but understand it tends to give some false negatives, like failing a brand new chain out of the bag. I have a rolhoff checker and it's a good investment if you have multiple bikes and ride in crummy conditions, I can never keep all those chains straight and hate wrecking these new expensive cassettes.

I've never had a chain fail with a chain checker.

My mountain bike chain was so bad that the side plates were loose and broke. The chain ruined the cassette (which was cheap anyway) but it still passed my Park chain checker :I

I thought that was odd so I never base my chain wear on the checker, I always give it a twist to see how the side plates are holding together. Now that method is subjective but it has served me well.

jaretj

i read that if you measure center to center, a fresh chain should be 12 inches under tension and that over 1/8 of an inch more is time to replace.

I suppose it's possible that my chain checker is long :(

I've never measured one of my chains with a ruler

jaretj

I hate ruining expensive cassetes, too. I gave up the Dura-Ace cassette for Ultegra or Force. But now, chains are ridiculously expensive, too. I will likely go through 3 chains and 2 or 3 cassettes this year. About 10k miles.

I always go over my bike the night before a race. Check all the cables, check the chain, shifting, tires, brakes, tightness of all bolts etc. I had a race on Sunday, so Saturday afternoon, while going over the bike, I noticed that the bike was just not shifting perfect. Tried to make adjustments via barrel adjuster, set limit screws, cable etc to no avail. Then I noticed that the B-Tension screw looked like it was bent and not sitting correctly. Started to back it out and the thing snapped. Panicked, I started calling LBSs for a replacement at 5:00 p.m. All of them closed except one. Got to the store with about 5 minutes to spare and they charged my $5 for the screw. I thought that was a bit excessive but I did not/will not complain as I was in a jam. Got home, screwed it in and it shifted perfectly. Happy I did my pre-race little tune-up.

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Roar Lion Roar

OK - I have to give a shout out to the shops in Boulder.

In particular, Colorado MultiSport and Boulder Cycle Sport. These guys are racers and have world class wrenches on staff
who can dial in my bike better and faster than I ever could.

I was in CMS 2 years ago (during the Olympics) and I looked over and saw a road bike with a MATT REED decal. I asked if
that was his training bike and they said 'Nah, that's the bike he'll be racing in Beijing next week - we're shipping it out today'.

I've had similar experience with BCS...

If Big Matt can trust his Olympic rig to them, then yeah, I'll pay to have the same guy dial my ride.

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" I take my gear out of my car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of of their lives shocks me. "
(opening lines from Tim Krabbe's The Rider , 1978

In my experience, bike shops do not care about you or your bike, just getting it in and out. Even at Get a Grip, one of the better tri shops in Chicago, I had to clean the bike off after a new headset install as they were storing it outside (with all the other bikes).

I leave things that require specific tools to the LBS (bottom brackets, headsets) and do everything else myself. When I have more time, I won't even let them do that.

I am now the go to guy for friends and acquaintances when they have bike issues. I cannot tell you how many time someone says "I just paid $75 for a tune-up". Frayed cables, missing ends, misaligned cleats, loose headsets, crunchy bearings, just plain wrong.

Having done all my own work, I have never had an equipment-related DNF, or even so much as a flat in a race.

Plus, it is really easy, and for me, fun

What are some At-Home Tips for maximizing speed for race day? If I'm not going to take it to a shop, what can I do at home other than just clean it?

Er....you dug up an 8 year old thread and asked a question of a guy who hasn't logged into ST since 2010. Anyway....

1. Clean it & wax the chain.
2. Make sure it shifts correctly.
3. Make sure all the bolts are tight.
4. Make sure the brakes aren't rubbing.

In general I don't like to do much to my bike the week before a race. I keep my bike in good working order at all times. So, I don't want until race week to look the bike over and do wholesale maintenance. So, two weeks out, I'm just looking the bike over to make sure I haven't missed something. I prefer to make sure everything is done at least 2 weeks out, and the bike is in full race config at that point. Then I can discover and deal with any kinks on all rides in that last two weeks. That way I'm totally confident in it mechanically.

Well firstly, anything a shop can do, you can probably do yourself. So the question then becomes "what are some tips for maximising speed for race day". And that question has been answered many, many times before.
There are many answers depending on what you're willing to do or spend, and how much you care about every last tiny advantage.

Quick version - drive train in good condition, clean and lubricated with a good, low resistance lubricant (one of the parrafin wax/ PTFE variations is probably fastest). If you really want to optimise you could remove bearing seals, carefully choose your cassette to favour ideal chain line for the course, and maximise usage of larger chainrings and sprockets (and larger jockey wheels) to avoid small chain radii. I wouldn't bother with those myself. Well set up, clean and well lubed is good enough for me.
Next, is tyres and tubes, perhaps this should have been first since it's probably the biggest gain. If you don't ride on good tyres and tubes in training, at least switch over a while before you race. Gatorskins and basic butyl tubes may cost you so much power that no other upgrade, save a good position, can regain for you. Life is too short for bad tyres.
Check your brakes work well (clean your rims and pads!) and ensure they aren't dragging!