{"id":13875,"date":"2025-08-08T12:11:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T10:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/?p=13875"},"modified":"2025-08-08T12:11:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T10:11:19","slug":"on-riding-a-freshly-serviced-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/on-riding-a-freshly-serviced-bike\/","title":{"rendered":"On Riding a Freshly Serviced Bike"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

On Wednesday morning I rode my bike into Geneva to drop it off for a service. In the evening I went for a group ride that was heading in the direction I wanted, before leaving the group and riding for home. I didn’t ride much on Wednesday, but I was tired. I believe that walking in cycling clothes, to catch a train, twice, does tire us more than walking in normal clothes.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I went for the first proper ride with the freshly serviced bike and the experience was great. I suspect that it helps that I am more rested after last week’s intense cycling, five days out of seven.<\/p>\n

This year I rode the bike 2500 kilometres, and my bike hasn’t been serviced for several years. The key reasons for this is that during the pandemic I didn’t want to risk injury, and then after the pandemic I enjoyed riding, but cars frustrated me, through their behaviour.<\/p>\n

This year, thanks to having three or four groups to ride with I am using the bike regularly.<\/p>\n

Braking<\/h2>\n

Before the service I was riding down hills more carefully. I was riding slowly and safely, so that when I braked I didn’t risk brake failure or skidding. Since the service I feel much more confident descending. I feel that the bike will do what I expect. This allows me to descend faster. I still remain safe. The key point is that I feel safer now.<\/p>\n

Gears<\/h2>\n

Gear shifting is also much smoother now. When I tell the bike to change from one gear to another it’s instant. I don’t need to pedal and wait for the change. I give the order and it shifts. This is welcome when riding uphill.<\/p>\n

Yesterday when heading up from the roundabout by the lake towards the graveyard I felt the chain slip twice. I was putting out a lot of power. I might need to have that checked. For the rest of the ride it felt fine.<\/p>\n

Ball Bearings and Rolling Resistance<\/h2>\n

You can feel when a bike is more sluggish. With Four Season tyres I could feel more resistance. A year or two ago I could feel that my bike was slightly slower.<\/p>\n

Now that the bike has been serviced properly I feel the difference. I feel that I am struggling less on the climbs, and that I am the limiting factor, rather than the bike.<\/p>\n

The Home Workshop<\/h2>\n

When it comes to replacing tires and brakes I can do this myself, but for other tasks I prefer to let someone with more experience do it. While cycling uphill from the lake side towards the Signal de Bougy I had a conversation with someone who spoke about doing his own services, rather than taking his bike to a shop.<\/p>\n

When you look at the price of the tools, bike stand and more it’s easier to go to a bike shop. I would be tempted to pay for a service where I do the work, under the supervision and instruction of a mechanic.<\/p>\n

I have tried to do my own maintenance but eventually the front brake disk on that bike jammed and I broke my arm.<\/p>\n

I tried servicing the gears once or twice with that other bike, but I wasn’t happy with the result.<\/p>\n

And Finally<\/h2>\n

The last time my bike was serviced was during a trip to Spain and that service has lasted for up to seven years so it really was time for a proper service. I plan to do them more regularly, now that I ride so often. A well maintained bike is more pleasant to ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>On Wednesday morning I rode my bike into Geneva to drop it off for a service. In the evening I went for a group ride that was heading in the direction I wanted, before leaving the group and riding for home. I didn’t ride much on Wednesday, but I was tired. I believe that walking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[255],"tags":[6966,741,6962,733,6967,5149,1005,6951],"class_list":["post-13875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-swiss-walks","tag-bicycle","tag-bike","tag-brakes","tag-cycling","tag-gears","tag-maintenance","tag-safety","tag-service"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13876,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13875\/revisions\/13876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}