Running a complete tune-up in order
Okay. Last lesson of the class, and it's not really new material. It's the order. You've got every piece already, brakes, wheel truing, chain, shifting. This is just me telling you what order to do them in so you're not undoing your own work halfway through.
Here's the thing… people learn each skill fine in isolation and then go home and do them in a random order and get frustrated when stuff that was fine breaks again. There's a logic to the sequence. Let's walk it.
The order, and why
1. Wheels first. True your wheels before you touch the brakes. If your wheel's got a wobble and you adjust your brake pads to that wobbly wheel, you've just tuned your brakes to a problem you're about to fix. Then the wheel's true and the brakes rub again. Fix the wheel, then set the brakes to match a wheel that's actually spinning straight.
2. Brakes second. Clean the rims or rotors, check your pad alignment, get the barrel adjusters where they need to be, make sure nothing's rubbing anywhere in the rotation. Spin the wheel by hand and listen. You want quiet.
3. Chain third. Clean it, degrease it if it's gunked up, then lube it and wipe it down. Do this after the brakes, not before, because chain lube gets everywhere if you're not careful and you do not want fresh lube anywhere near your brake pads or rotor. That's a real one, not me being dramatic. Lube on a rim or a rotor means your brakes won't bite right no matter how well you adjusted them in step two. Wipe your hands, wipe your tools, keep the lube bottle away from the brake area entirely while you're working.
4. Shifting last. Check your derailleur, run through the gears, adjust the limit screws or cable tension if you need to. Shifting is the most forgiving thing to leave for last because it doesn't interact with the other three the way they interact with each other. But you want a clean, lubed chain before you fine-tune shifting, because a dry or gunked chain will skip and stick and make you think you have a derailleur problem when you actually just have a chain problem.
That's the order. Wheels, brakes, chain, shifting. If you only remember one thing, remember that lube comes after brakes, not before.
Working through it at home
Give yourself more time than you think. First full tune-up, budget an hour and a half, maybe two, especially if your bike's been neglected a while. Don't rush it because you're trying to get out the door for a ride. That's low key how people round off bolts and pinch tubes, they're moving too fast because they told themselves twenty minutes.
Which, actually, let me tell you about a bolt.
I had a seatpost clamp bolt on an old commuter, one of the cheap ones, and I was in a hurry and it wasn't turning easy so I just leaned into it harder with the wrong size Allen key. Figured I could muscle through it. Rounded the head clean off. Now I've got a bolt that won't turn with anything and won't come out and the seatpost's stuck at the wrong height. Had to drill it out, which is not a fun Saturday activity, and then go buy a replacement bolt anyway, so all that muscling saved me exactly zero time and cost me a drill bit and an afternoon.
Right tool, gentle first. That's the rule now. If a bolt's not turning with reasonable pressure and the correct size tool, stop. Check the size again. Check for corrosion or paint in the threads. Don't just add force. Force is how you turn a two-minute job into a two-hour job.
Going through your own bike, start to finish
Flip it over or get it on a stand if you've got one. Work the order. Wheels: spin each one, watch for wobble against your zip-tie or your brake pad reference point, true it if it needs it. Brakes: squeeze the levers, watch the pads engage, check for rub with the wheel spinning free, adjust the barrel adjusters. Chain: shift down to the smallest ring so there's slack, pull it through a rag, degrease if it's black and gritty, lube light, wipe it down like it owes you money. Shifting: run it through every gear, front and back, listen for any hesitation or skip, adjust the barrel adjuster on the shifter cable if something's dragging.
Ten, fifteen minutes each once you've done it a couple times. That'll get you most of the way there for a bike that's just been sitting around getting used regularly, nothing dramatic wrong with it.
And honestly, most of what people think needs new parts just needs this. Clean it, adjust it, true it, lube it right. New brake pads and new cables are for when the old ones are actually worn out, not for when they're just dirty. You'd be surprised how often "dirty" is the whole diagnosis.
Before next time
Run this full sequence on your own bike this week, wheels to shifting, in order, and see how long it actually takes you start to finish. Next time we ride the Murdock together and find out if it held.