Overhauls at BratBike

An overhaul is a big job. We don't schedule much of anything else to happen on the same day as an overhaul, so we schedule them farther into the future than other jobs.

Imagine what happens if you smear some grease onto a plate and leave it on a shelf for three or four years. That smear will dry out, harden, and be much less useful as a lubricant. The same thing happens to the grease in all your bearings, only with the added stresses of moisture, dirt, and microscopic bits of metal worn off from the bearing races. Grease gets used up and it needs to be replaced.

Then again, everything is wearing in proportion to how much it gets used and how often it is cleaned and lubed. Here's a listing of things that wear out, with the short-lived ones at the top and the longer-lasting ones toward the bottom:

You are either doing preventive maintenance or damage control. If your bike rides OK and you're coming up to your third (mountain) or fourth (road) tuneup, you should spring for an overhaul if you are in preventive maintenance mode. Many people just keep riding until something is completely shot, then bring it in for a complete rebuild. This kind of damage control results in us replacing most or all the above parts at the same time.

An overhaul includes:

• Disassemble the bike down to the bare frame.
• Thorough cleaning and inspection of frame, fork, and all parts.
• Repack or replace wheel, crank, and head bearings.
• Rebuild bike with new parts as necessary.
• Tune it up. Same as a regular tune up (see).

Should you decide to have this work done, please mention to the service write-up person that you have read this web page. That will save you having to listen to this explanation all over again!

All this costs $300 plus parts.
As a very general example, a typical job on a $500-800 mountain bike could be expected to run $400-450. If it really needed everything down to chainrings and wheels, we would strongly advise you to buy another bike. We more commonly do complete overhauls on high-quality road bikes than on mountain bikes because the harsh conditions experienced by mountain bikes just grind everything up in a matter of three to five seasons of hard use.