Ridden hard....put away wet

I know that old saying refers to horses but what is it about bicycles that so many people think they can utterly neglect them and the machine should somehow magically still function well?

Leave them in dank basements or laying around the back of the house, leaning up on porches, left over the winter outside, ignored for a couple of years in the tool shed, no thought to grease or lube, corrosion and rust take over but pull them out one fine day and get on them and then be surprised they're messed up.

Bikes are not prissy things, they can take a real beating. This is constantly exhibited by the number of bikes still on the road after years (decades?) with absolutely never a thought of maintenance of any kind (until something breaks) and they keep on ticking.

The number of rusted bolts and nuts, frozen seat posts/stems, rusted and frozen cables and components, bad braking and shifting bikes I see are overwhelming and the majority of which could have been prevented with even a modicum of care.

Even a department store bike would be okay if it weren't subject to neglect (of course there's a connection between cheap bikes and neglect, the worst possible combination).

If one had almost any other kind of machine or appliance and subjected it to the kind treatment many people subject their bikes to, there would be a whole lot less functional stuff in the world.

Bikes don't ask much really, ride or leave them out in the wet, no problem: the best thing is to just ride them again on a dry day to air them out. Maybe store them for longer periods in as dry a location as possible. And yeah, a little maintenance and lube once in a while would go a long way in keeping them out of the scrap yard. .

Every website devoted to bicycles could have a little shrine near the entrance dedicated to Sheldon Brown. To those  familiar, this is not news, nor is Sheldon's passing almost 5 years ago. Still, as far as a web presence on the subject of bicycles, their repair, maintenance and just about anything and everything you'd care to find out or know about them, Sheldon Brown was and is unsurpassed. (To those who might not be familiar you can find it a handy index of Sheldon's work here ) I still use Sheldon's site to get myself out of trouble fixing bikes, particularly vintage bikes. It's hard to remember it all but Sheldon covered it, I've never not found what I was looking for on his site.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Sheldon a number of times over the years.when he was at the shop in Newton. He always set me straight and I always left knowing more than when I walked in.