Winter Ebike Maintenance…

I replaced the front brake pads a couple of months ago but always intended to wait till winter to attack the rear, both because the rear also needed a new tire and because I’ve seldom messed with multi-gear bikes before and all that ironmongery intimidates me.

Always had a problem visualizing windy things like belts and chains, so…


…I took a bunch of photographs before taking the wheel off in case I ended up having to unwind the chain or something. Turned out not to be necessary but you know what they say about how it’s better to have things you don’t need.

Anyway – the front brakes taught me that replacing pads was extremely simple, and it was. Until I tried to put the newly-shod rear wheel back on the bike without loosening the caliper. The rear pads were substantially more worn than the fronts, go figure, and it took the old man a minute or two to remember that I had adjusted the hell out of the rear brakes over more than five years and the caliper needed to be loosened, a lot, before the disk would fit between the new pads.

I have had a spare tire in storage since 2019, the same year I got the bike, so logistically the job couldn’t have been simpler. Intended to re-use the old tube until I inspected it…


Then decided…nah. I have a few spare tubes.

Got the machine back together, with no more hiccups once I remembered to loosen that brake caliper, tightened everything down, re-adjusted the caliper,


…stress-tested my nice cordless inflator…


…and took it outside for a brief test ride.


Ready for five more years!

Because the bike only sees pavement in town, I expect to have to do all this beside a dirt road at some point. So far, by some miracle, that hasn’t happened but it will. So I made a point of only doing all this with tools actually carried on the bike at all times. To my satisfaction, that worked quite well.

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
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One Response to Winter Ebike Maintenance…

  1. Tree Mike; eff bee eye code name, Foghorn Leghorn says:

    Good exercise, reconfirmed.

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