maintain your bike
Our bikes are durable and need little maintenance. With a few simple steps you make sure you can enjoy riding your bike for a long time.
cleaning
When cleaning your bike, please never use a high pressure or steam cleaner, the seals are not built to withstand the pressure.
Use a hose, or bucket and sponge, to wet the bike and remove the majority of the mud and grime that has built up.
If you have a chain cleaning device use it to clean the chain, if not, you’ll simply have to apply a degreaser and use a brush. Make sure you have a specific brush for your chain and don’t use it on any other part of the bike, particularly the brakes. Contaminating your brake rotors with chain filth will ruin performance and may force you to replace your brake pads.
Use a soft brush to clean the whole bike down. The brushes combined with a detergent will loosen most of the remaining dirt from the bike. Remember the undersides and awkward bits that also need attention.
Use fresh water to rinse off the bike. Spin each wheel to rinse all the detergent out of the tread. Check all the dirt has been lifted off and revisit with the brush if any remains, then rinse again.
If you have a workstand, now is a good time to move the bike into it. Use an old dishcloth or chamois leather if you have one to dry the bike.
Apply lube to the chain while turning the pedals. Pay attention to manufacturer recommendations because it’s very easy to overdo it with lube.
suspension
Check your suspension pivots now and then for wear. We use high quality bearings, but if you ride a lot in wet and dirty circumstances, your bearings might wear quicker.
In some pivots in our suspension links we use needle bearings to be able to build a very compact suspension and carry extremely high loads.
These bearings are double sealed and we added extra x-ring seals to protect them from dirt and water. But if for some reason water or dirt will reach the inner compartment of these bearings, they may wear down quicker.
If you start to hear squeaking noises from your suspension links and you ride a lot in dirty and wet conditions, then contact your local bike shop to do a check.
Please also check the small rubber behind the rocker links. This rubber slightly preloads the system and takes out the small play that comes naturally with needle bearings that we use in our puma suspension. If for some reason it is damaged or got loose, it will not affect the riding. You might only hear a small clicking noise when lifting the rear end of the bike that is due to the natural play in the needle bearings.
brakes
How frequently you need to maintain your Magura brakes depends on how often you use your bike and the weather conditions. Check more frequently if you ride in extreme conditions.
A Magura brake pad is considered worn if the thickness of the pad plus the carrier plate is less then 2.5 mm at any point. The Magura rotor is considered worn if the thickness is less than 1.8 mm. Check and replace the brake pads and rotors when needed.
With the link below to the Magura instructions, you will be able to replace the pads, change the rotors and run a bleed session on your MT brakes.
gearbox
The magnesium Pinion gearbox is almost maintenance free. You only need to do an oil change every 10.000 kilometers. This is an easy job to do yourselves with the Pinion Oil Service Kit. On the Pinion website you will find instruction video’s.
