I will write this but I should first add the caveat that I work as a part-time mechanic/wheelbuilder at a bike shop so it's pretty easy for me to access all the tools I need whenever I need them.

I generally give my bike a good once-over every other week.
- lube the chain
- check the wear on the chain
- adjust the shifting
- true the wheels
- clean the whole bike

Probably once a month I pull the whole drivetrain off and give it a good cleaning, scrubbing the cassette and pulling the cranks off to get a better angle on cleaning the chainrings.

As for the BB, it's pretty easy depending on what you are running. You just need to get the BB tool appropriate for your BB. What are you running? Is it a newer Shimano two-piece crank with an external bearing? If so, it should be really easy. You just use a Shimano TL-FC16 crank arm tool and a 5mm hex key to loosen your non-drive crank, pull that crank off of the splined axle and pull the drive side crank through the BB shell then use a BB tool (I would recommend the Park BBT-9 because it has a TL-FC16 attached to it) to loosen the BB bearings. Just make sure to remember that, unlike your pedals, the drive side of your BB is reverse thread and your non-drive side is standard thread.

Also keep in mind that the torque specs on the BB is around 350 in/lbs

Good luck! :)

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my severely neglected blog

Thanks!

It's an FSA... Hope that's just an easy as you're making it sound!!

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Breakfast is for Closers

The maintenance habits of most of us are abyssmal. Remember folks, we are talking about rainc equipment here. It needs to be babied.

Here is a maintenance schedule we wrote on our website. It is very real-world and what we use on our bikes. This does not include the pre-race maintenance I do on my bike before every single race that includes:

• Removing race or training wheels and washing the bike.
• De-greasing the dirvetrain with mild, biodegradeable degreaser like Simple Green, diluted 50/50 with water.
• Drying the bike thouroughly and evacuating all the water by pedalling the drivetrain with a rear wheel or "dummy hub" in the rear dropouts.
• Spray the chain with WD40 to further evacuate water (the "WD" in WD40 stands for "Water Displacement").
• Wipe the WD40 off the chain and chainrings with a shop towel.
• Wax the frame: What good is a $4500 aerodynamic bike if the surface of the bike is covered with goo? it should be spotlessly clean, slippery and aerodynamic.
• Inspect your tires and race wheels thoroughly. Cuts? Wear? Dings in surface of wheel?
• Air your tires back up and inspect your valve extenders and valve stem on your disk if you're using one. These take a beating on race day when you;re inflating your tires. You don't want any disasters...
• Check you handlebar tape. Again, an aerodynamic concern here but also the thing you stare at during your whole ride so it should be professional and orderly. Putting new tape on your bike before a race reinforces that you are serious and well prepared.
• Install your race wheels on your bike and check the adjustment of dropout screws, etc.
• Lube your chain and wipe the excess lube off the chain and chainrings.
• Shift the bike thorugh the entire range of gears and take it for a test ride at full tire pressure.

Here's the maintenance schedule:

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/maintsched.shtml

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Most FSA cranks use the same spline pattern on the BB as Shimanos so you should be able to use all of the tools I told you about. It really is pretty easy so you should be just fine. Make sure to grease your BB and be really really really careful not to cross thread since your BB does have a fairly high number of threads per inch (although I think that goes without saying). I really like rock n' roll lithium (?) grease on mine.*

*We had a customer the other day who had bought a somewhat vintage Calfee and needed us to pull the BB for her and the person who had sold it to her had used red lock tite on the BB and we were totally unable to get it out. Totally beautiful frame ... ruined.

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my severely neglected blog