How To Refurbish & Refresh An Old Bike

Your Mountain Bike or Road Bike will more than likely feel like an old friend, a bike you have owned for a while will feel familiar and you can expect to understand how the bike performs, knowing the bikes limits and also your own limits whilst riding the bike. 

Although some riders choose to change their bikes often, many do not - and for those keeping their bike for long periods of time - there is a challenge on how to keep such a bike performing at its best, without the bike feeling tired. 

Below, we run through a few different ways you can keep an older bike in good running condition, allowing you to enjoy it more and maybe even preventing you from changing the bike to a newer, more expensive model. 

Replace the Tyres

A fresh set of rubber can make a dramatic difference and impact on your bike. There are a few tell tale signs that you need a new set of tyres on your bike. On road bikes, older tyres can become flat in the centre of the tyre, and on mountain bikes the aggressive tread pattern of the tyre can be worn down and scrubbed off. 

As well as looking in poor condition, tyres become harder over time on the bike - providing inferior performance compared to newer tyres. 

Changing the tyres on an older bike is also a great opportunity to upgrade the rubber that you are using, with more specialist tyres or a different tyre size - allowing a different and better performance vs older tyres. 

New Cables

Cables on a bike are responsible for two of the most important parts of riding a bike - gear changes and braking. Replacing old, rusty and worn out cables with newer cables provides massive benefits - including sharpening up gear changes and braking performance. 

Saddles & Grips

One of the easiest ways to update your bike, is to replace your handlebar grips or handlebar tape - providing a change of appearance and ensuring maximum comfort for the hands. As well as replacing these, also think about replacing the saddle of your bike. Bike Saddles become worn over time, with the foam and the shell of the saddle itself providing less support and comfort. It may be that you replace the saddle with a like for like model, alternatively - you can purchase a bike saddle which is more suited to your requirements. 

New Chain

The chain is responsible for propelling your bike forward, and a worn out bike chain provides all kinds of problems for the rider, equalling an unsatisfactory ride. Looking at a new chain is also the perfect time to review other areas of your drivetrain, which may be overly worn and require replacement. 

Book a Service

All bikes benefit from servicing by a professional, for a relatively low cost. Mountain Bikes benefit from a professional service most, with suspension components benefiting most from service and attention. Suspension manufacturers typically quote long service intervals, but as a rough idea RockShox suggest a suspension service for every 100 hours of riding. 

Bike Components & Maintenance

At Westbrook Cycles, we stock and supply a complete range of road bike and mountain bike components and maintenance equipment which can be purchased across our site.