Step 1: Clean the Bike First
Clean the bike before you inspect it. Dirt hides cracks, wear marks and loose bolts, and a clean chain gives a true wear reading.
Use a brush and a bike degreaser on the chain, cassette, chainrings and rear derailleur pulleys. Rinse, dry the bike, then lube the chain. Keep degreaser and lube away from the rotors and brake pads, because oil on either one weakens braking. Our chain maintenance guide covers the method in full.
Step 2: Check the Drivetrain for Wear
Measure the chain with a chain checker and replace it at the wear limit for your drivetrain. A chain that is replaced on time protects the cassette and chainrings, which cost far more.
The limit depends on the number of speeds. Park Tool and SRAM figures are in our chain replacement guide: 0.5% for 11-speed and for 12-speed Shimano, 0.8% for SRAM Eagle and AXS, and 0.75% for 10-speed and below. Our chain wear measurement guide shows how to read the tool.
Then look at the teeth. Hooked or shark-fin shaped teeth on the cassette or chainrings mean the parts are worn together. A new chain on a worn cassette will skip under load.
Step 3: Check the Brakes
Check pad thickness, then check that the caliper sits centred over the rotor or rim. Replace pads that are close to the backing plate.
Canyon puts the replacement point at about 1.5 mm of pad material and notes that some manufacturers specify 2 mm. Check your brake maker's figure. Our brake pad guide lists the thresholds by brake type.
Next, spin each wheel and look for rub. Park Tool says "pad/rotor rub is the main symptom of a misaligned caliper", and an improperly seated wheel can cause the same sound, so reseat the wheel first. To centre a hydraulic disc caliper, loosen both mounting bolts, squeeze the lever, hold it, and snug the bolts. Park Tool gives about 6 to 8 Nm for the final torque.
Squeeze each lever as well. A spongy lever on a hydraulic brake means air or old fluid in the system. That is a bleed, and it is the first job on the shop list below.
Step 4: Check the Wheels and Tyres
Inflate the tyres to the right pressure, inspect them for cuts, then spin each wheel and shake it for play. These checks take about five minutes.
Look at the tread and sidewalls for cuts, embedded glass and worn rubber. Our tyre pressure guide explains why the number on the sidewall is a limit, not a target.
For wobble, Park Tool gives a tolerance of 0.5 mm or less side to side, about five sheets of printing paper, and 1 mm or less up and down. Its starting point for a correction is a quarter turn of the spoke nipple. If tightening the spokes does not remove the wobble, the rim is bent and needs replacement. Park Tool also says lacing a new rim onto an old hub is best left to professional mechanics.
Hold the rim and rock it side to side. Play at the hub means the bearings are loose or worn. On a cup-and-cone hub, a mechanic can adjust the bearings. A cartridge hub usually needs the cartridge replaced.
Step 5: Adjust the Shifting
If the chain hesitates or makes noise in some gears, adjust the cable tension with the barrel adjuster at the derailleur. Make small changes and test after each one.
Park Tool's rear derailleur guide describes the pattern. Hesitation on shifts toward the larger cogs usually means too much cable slack, so turn the barrel adjuster counter-clockwise. Slow shifts the other way point to the opposite direction. Canyon suggests about half a turn of the barrel adjuster as a typical adjustment.
If adjusting does not fix it, look at the cable and housing. Park Tool lists kinked, worn, frayed or corroded cable or housing as a cause of slow, inconsistent or missing shifts. Replace them, then re-index the derailleur, because new cable stretches and settles. A bent derailleur hanger also causes poor shifting, and a mechanic can check its alignment with a gauge. Our hanger guide explains why it matters.
Step 6: Check the Headset and Bottom Bracket
Check both bearings for play by hand. A bearing that moves or grinds needs adjustment or service.
For the headset, Park Tool says to apply the front brake and rock the bike back and forth with a hand over the headset, feeling for movement. Also pull the fork back and forth while turning the bars. The target is a headset adjusted "as loose as possible" with "no play". If it knocks, tighten the top cap bolt in steps of one eighth of a turn, with the stem bolts loosened first and retightened after each step.
For the bottom bracket, hold the bike steady and rock each crank arm side to side, then spin the cranks and listen. Play or a gritty feeling means the bearings need attention. Sealed cartridge bottom brackets are replaced, not serviced. See our bottom bracket service guide for intervals.
Step 7: Torque the Bolts
Check the stem, handlebar, seatpost, crank and accessory bolts against the torque printed on each part. A torque wrench or torque driver gives a repeatable result.
Canyon notes that most bike bolts sit between 4 and 8 Nm, and recommends tightening in three stages at 50%, 75% and 100% of the target. For stem and seatpost clamp bolts, 4 to 6 Nm is a common range, as covered in our basic bike maintenance guide. Carbon parts are the reason to follow the printed number exactly. They can fail from either too little or too much clamping force.
Step 8: Take a Test Ride
Ride the bike for 10 to 15 minutes before you call the job done. Shift through the gears, brake hard once at low speed, and listen.
Canyon recommends a structured test ride of that length. Check that the shifting is clean under load, that the brakes grab evenly, and that no new noise has appeared. A creak that was not there before the tune-up points at the last bolt or bearing you touched.
What a Shop Adds to a Home Tune-Up
A shop adds tools and experience for the jobs where a mistake is expensive. The shop menus in our bike tune-up cost guide show the pattern. A basic tune-up covers the adjustments and checks above. A standard tune-up adds a deep drivetrain clean, wheel truing and wheel bearing adjustment. An overhaul adds bearing overhauls, full cable and housing replacement, and hydraulic brake bleeding.
Leave these to a shop unless you have the tools and have practised:
- Hydraulic brake bleeds. Park Tool tells readers who are not comfortable bleeding to use a local retailer.
- Rebuilding or relacing a wheel. Park Tool calls it work best left to professionals.
- Bearing overhauls and press-fit bottom bracket work. They need presses and facing tools.
- Suspension damper service. It needs specialist tools.
A good plan is to do steps 1 to 8 at home through the season and book a shop for the yearly overhaul work. Shops quote labour separately from parts, so a bike that arrives with a measured chain and known pad wear gets a shorter, cheaper job.
How Componentry Helps You Keep Track of the Checklist
A checklist tells you what to check. It does not tell you when. Componentry adds the distance and ride time from every Strava, Garmin or Wahoo ride to each part on the bike you rode, so the chain, pads and tyres each carry their own wear figure.
That turns steps 2 to 4 into a short list: the parts approaching their limits are already flagged before you pick up a tool. Log each service when you finish it, and the next checklist starts from a dated record instead of from memory. A dated service history also helps at resale, which our guide to service history and resale value covers.
Sources and Further Reading
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