Your Pre-Season Bike Tune-Up Checklist: Getting Ready for Riding Season

Whether your bike's been sitting through an off-season or just needs its annual deep service, a proper pre-season tune-up catches small issues before they become trailside mechanicals once riding season starts in earnest.

Drivetrain Deep Clean and Inspection

• Degrease and clean the chain, cassette, and chainrings thoroughly — built-up grime accelerates wear on all three.
• Check chain wear with a chain checker tool; a stretched chain damages cassettes and chainrings if left too long.
• Inspect derailleur pulley wheels for wear and smooth rotation.
• Re-lubricate the clean, dry chain with appropriate lube for your typical riding conditions.

Brakes

• Check pad thickness on both wheels; replace if worn close to the wear indicator line.
• Bleed hydraulic brakes if the lever feels spongy — air in the system degrades braking performance gradually enough that riders often don't notice until it's significant.
• Inspect rotors for wear grooves or warping.

Suspension

• Check air pressure/sag on fork and shock — seals can slowly leak air over months of storage.
• Look for oil residue on stanchions, which can indicate a seal service is due.
• If it's been a full season or more since the last service, schedule a suspension service before the season starts rather than during it.

Tires and Wheels

• Check tire wear and sidewall condition; small season-old sidewall damage can fail unexpectedly under load.
• Check tubeless sealant levels — sealant dries out over months of storage and needs topping up.
• Spin wheels to check for trueness and listen for any bearing roughness.

Bolts and Fasteners

• Torque-check stem, seatpost clamp, and disc rotor bolts to spec — these can loosen slightly over a storage period.
• Check pivot bolts on full-suspension frames for proper torque and any play.

Cables and Housing

• Inspect shift and brake cable housing for cracking or fraying, especially at bends.
• Check that shifting is crisp across the full range of gears; cable stretch over time is a common cause of imprecise shifting.

The Pre-Season Test Ride

After servicing, do a short test ride on familiar terrain before your first "real" ride of the season — braking, shifting, and suspension all feel different after a fresh service, and it's better to notice any issues in a low-stakes setting.

A thorough pre-season tune-up takes an afternoon but prevents the far more annoying experience of a mechanical failure three miles into your first big ride of the year.

Bike dialed in? Make sure your kit is too — shop our latest apparel for the season ahead.

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