Debt of Disrepair: An Ode to Maintenance

Routine maintenance is an essential part of owning just about anything, but it’s one we often overlook. In this piece, Lucas explores the topic of caring for your things and provides some key points for contemplating the value of upkeep and repair. Whether you’re an absolute beginner or can wrench on bikes in your sleep, dive in here…

With additional photos by Cass Gilbert, Josh Meissner, Logan Watts, Mateja Kordic, Miles Arbour, Evan Christenson, and Neil Beltchenko

For most of my life, I was remarkably bad about maintaining my things. I knew the utility of caring for them, but when the time came—or had long passed—to sit down and give them the attention they needed, I was quick to find something more exciting to do instead, occasionally leading to things falling into a sorry state of neglect. My chains were thick with grease and grime and sometimes squeaked like hell. My leather boots were scuffed up and cracking. I’d watch small holes in clothing grow until they weren’t reasonably mendable. Occasionally, things stopped working, and I simply accepted brokenness as their natural state. That bike’s rear tire is just flat now. The lightbulb in the entryway is no longer in service. Maybe some of this sounds familiar.

  • SRAM Rival 1 Garbaruk 10-50T cassette, mullet drivetrain
  • DT Swiss Wheel Maintenance for Bikepacking

I’m still working off my debt of disrepair, but over the past few years, I’ve come to internalize the value of maintenance and put the once-abstract concepts of upkeep and restoration into practice. Doing so has paid dividends in myriad ways, saving me money, teaching me to cherish and better understand my things, and helping release me from the endless cycle of upgrades and wants. Entering the new year, I’m setting the intention to give the things I currently own the love they deserve rather than being tempted to accumulate new ones.

At its most foundational level, maintenance is cleaning your bike with soapy water when it’s dirty. It’s making sure your tires are inflated to the appropriate pressure and checking your brake pads for wear. It’s greasing your seatpost, lubing your chain, and double-checking that all bolts are tight. Maintenance can keep you safe and help ensure that your machines run well. Nearly everything requires servicing at some point, well beyond our two-wheeled companions, and doing so is your best bet at guaranteeing a long and trouble-free life for your stuff.

Evan Christenson Surly, 2023 Sea Otter Classic

But maintenance extends past the purely functional. It’s an act of respect for our finite personal and shared resources. In a world that moves at breakneck speed, slowing down to look after your things can offer the beautiful gift of stillness. A routine of care can create a ripple effect that reduces the need for more involved repairs or replacements downstream, freeing up time, energy, headspace, and funds for use where they matter most. Below, I outline a handful of key lessons that have helped me catalyze maintenance from concept to action.

Maintenance is Informative

I pedaled my trusty single-speed commuter around my old home in Berlin year-round and kept it locked up in the courtyard outside, where it sat in the rain more days than not. I can’t recall if I ever cleaned it, but it reliably transported me all over the city with its droopy chain and weak brakes nonetheless. A few years into owning it, the urge to give it a proper wash finally struck. When I took a spray bottle full of cleaner and a rag to it, carefully scrubbing and examining its well-worn components steel tubes, I spotted it. Hidden beneath a thick layer of grease and dirt, the rear dropout was cracked nearly all the way through. It was an emphatic lesson in the informative power of maintenance.

  • Remove Scratches From Your Bicycle Frame
  • Inside Ortlieb

Truly seeing your stuff is a vital part of understanding it, and pausing to attend to it is among the best places to begin. It’s normal to ride on (or drive in) something without knowing much about how it works, instead relying on someone else to fix any issues that inevitably arise. Supporting your local mechanic is all well and good, but it might surprise you to learn how empowering a fundamental grasp of how your things operate can be. I’m reminded of a scene from the offbeat World War II film from the 1970s, Kelly’s Heroes, in which tank commander Oddball is sitting in a courtyard sipping a glass of wine while his crew works on their broken-down tank. Someone asks why he isn’t helping, and Oddball (played by a young Donald Southerland) replies, “I only ride ’em. I don’t know what makes ’em work!” Don’t be an Oddball.

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  • Surly Cross-Check Modification

I mentioned in my 2024 Editor’s Dozen that I recently bought a fixer-upper vehicle after about a decade of being car-free, and as a beginner in the arena of wrenching on cars, even popping the hood and cleaning the engine bay has been hugely helpful in understanding what’s what and how things are interconnected. Before halting to gather information, I wouldn’t have been able to spot that broken strut, missing sway bar link, or upside-down air filter. The same thinking applies to bicycles, and maintenance doesn’t have to mean getting your hands dirty. It can be as easy as observing and inspecting. Rather than wondering why your rear derailleur isn’t shifting quite right, you might spot a broken jockey wheel after taking a little time to study it, leading to fewer surprises if you bring it to a professional. And when you’re ready to take things apart and attempt the service yourself, a whole new and exciting horizon of understanding awaits.

Maintenance is Economical

In addition to being instructive, properly maintaining your belongings is a budget-friendly practice that can save you considerable sums of cash over time. Depending on your version of maintenance and how involved you want to get, caring for your things might only require products you have around the house—a towel, some cleaner, maybe an old toothbrush. Going deeper, it might demand a few specialized tools, but they’re a worthy investment, provided you actually use them. It doesn’t take long for a quality set of Allen wrenches or a cable cutter to pay for itself. I recently saved around $300 by watching a few video tutorials on YouTube and buying some basic plumbing tools from my local hardware store (and I didn’t even flood the house).

Brooks England, Brooks Saddles

To be clear, I’m not proposing rushing out to buy every tool you could possibly need. Purchasing them as needed is a far more practical approach. And as with cooking from a recipe, the occasional bit of improvisation can save you from spending on something you’ll only use once. When possible, borrowing is a great option, too. Tools aside, as I wrote, maintenance doesn’t need to involve mastering mechanics. Some tasks are best left to the experts, and if you see yourself as the hands-off type, your local independent shop or technician would be glad to have your business.

In the context of bikes, putting a little capital into maintaining yours, whether once a season or every few years, can save you money by prolonging the life of various components and helping stop the desire for something newer or flashier from creeping in. Getting your bike back from a professional tune-up and falling in love with it all over again when it shifts snappily and stops on a dime is a tried-and-true way to find contentment with what you already have. Sadly, buying things out of boredom is all too common here in the United States, and giving your stuff a little notice is a far more cost- and resource-effective way to pass the time.

Maintenance is Meditative

In 2025, many of us spend our time glued to a desk and staring at a screen for work. I’m constantly switching between tabs (no fewer than 30 at any given time) and responding to a steady stream of inputs on Gmail, WhatsApp, Slack, Messenger, Instagram, texts, and comments here on the site. Beyond getting out for a ride, when I need a moment of calm, one of my favorite things to do is tackle a little offline project, which typically takes the form of maintenance or repair.

  • Rebuild Rear Derailleur
  • Shimano Mountain LX Rear Derailleur

Pausing to work on something with my hands is a precious ritual that helps slow down time and tune out the noise. It’s a chance to reconnect with the present moment and appreciate the tangible without the usual gear fetishism or overconsumption. I view it as a respectable way to love stuff without always needing to have more of it. With the right mindset, learning a skill like adjusting a brake and putting it into practice can be an equally rewarding and meditative experience.

For the desk worker, turning to a project away from the distractions of computers and phones presents an opportunity to slow down and notice easily missable details. Something as simple as cleaning the gunk off of each chainring tooth or spoke nipple is a chance to participate in the disappearing art of single-tasking. It does genuine good, too. Every time we return to the toolbox or workbench, we can preserve something physical and nurture a mindset of attention and care that we can carry into other facets of life.

Maintenance is Radical

In today’s consumer-driven society, intentional stewardship is an unconventional but desperately needed antidote to a throw-away culture that depends on ultra-short product lifecycles and cheaply made goods. Many brands would like to see you buy their new product every year despite the most marginal of gains or a new color often being the only value proposition. However, as evidenced by our ongoing Budget Bikepacking Build-Off challenge, for example, things that are well-made and mindfully cared for can easily outlast us. The steel hardtail you ride today could be the last frame you ever buy. The same is true of many things. Tastes and interests undeniably change, and there’s no shame in moving on from whatever the object is when you’re ready to part ways. Still, wouldn’t it be gratifying to know that you preserved something so the next person could enjoy it, and perhaps the next one after that?

  • Gear Repair
  • What Happened, Neza Peterca
  • 1988 Schwinn High Sierra, Budget Bikepacking Build-Off Logan Watts
  • 1986 Diamondback Ascent, Budget Bikepacking Build-Off
  • 1994 Schwinn Moab, budget bikepacking build-off

Keeping stuff out of landfills is necessary and good, and there’s a joy to be found in the process of mending and restoring instead of discarding and replacing. There’s a strong case to be made for purchasing quality items once, but that doesn’t mean the most expensive ones by default. We can find a happy (and vast) middle ground between a tool that will deform on its first use and one plated in gold for no discernible reason. Between the cheapest possible bike and one that costs several times our monthly income. We should see the merit in wearing a patched-up old down jacket that’s kept us warm on countless nights around the campfire rather than rushing out to get the latest and “greatest” merely because it was advertised to us online and looked cool.

black mountain cycles visit
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Maintenance is Necessary

Looking past the more abstract points above, it should be noted that some level of upkeep is mandatory for almost everything. Not doing any form of maintenance is like buying a new house plant, neglecting to give it any water or sunlight, and just buying a new one every time it dies. Maintenance might be scheduling an annual check-up even though you’re feeling perfectly fine today, texting an old friend you’ve fallen out of touch with, or remembering to speak a few words of the second language you’ve been trying to pick up before you lose it. A dash of preventative effort goes a long way when the alternative is no attention at all, and it’s never too late to start. Caring for our things is crucial, and by incorporating a little looking after into our day-to-day patterns, we lay the groundwork for more enjoyable and hassle-free experiences down the road.

An Ode to Maintenance

Ultimately, how we maintain things is an extension of how we care for ourselves and those surrounding us. A slight shift in perspective to view ourselves as stewards of our belongings and not the end users can be a powerful one. It has the capacity to benefit the mind, wallet, and planet alike. Cultivating a maintenance habit can be a fulfilling, productive, and worthwhile way to gain new insights, find calmness, shed excess possessions, and develop a healthy relationship with material objects.

Ryan Santoski Totem Cyclery Kona Rove

There was a time when I wore dirt and signs of heavy use almost as a badge of honor, relishing the leftover layer of dirt from the deserts of Jordan or the canyons of Utah caked to my bike’s bottom bracket and stuck in my bag’s zipper teeth. In my ongoing pursuit of prioritizing longevity, however, I now see the importance of tending to the things that need doing instead of leaving them until it’s too late and the damage is done. Give your bike a wash, patch that hole in your favorite cycling cap, and fix that cracked tent pole. Clichéd as it may sound, it’s true that if you’re good to your things, they’ll generally be good to you in return.

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If you’re at the beginning of your maintenance practice, there’s a high likelihood you’ll make a few things worse before they get better or find yourself at wit’s end on occasion. It’s all part of the process. For the longest time, I was infinitely better at taking things apart than fitting them back together, but the how and the why eventually started to click. In maintenance, as with many things, the beauty doesn’t always lie in the perfectly tuned final product but in the journey of care itself.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on maintenance and what it means to you. What’s your philosophy of caring for things? Are there technical resources you’d like to see us develop to help inform readers? Let me know in the conversation below!

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