Originally posted by mattb123 Simple Green is good too, and as with anything just use it in the right places or at least not in the wrong ones and you're good to go.
My CK headset on my singlespeed is like 15 years old and has never missed a beat with almost no maintenance at all. That stuff seems to last forever.
I *think* the CK in my road bike is about that old. I haven't heard the same longevity about their hubs, though-- the consensus seems to be that they take a long time to break in, and you have to frequently adjust bearing preload fairly frequently to get them rolling smooth.
Psyched to be having Mavics on my road bike now, though, as the set of CrossMaxes on my MTB has been going strong for almost a decade, I've only had to service the rear, and that's been once.
Singlespeeds are too much fun. I've been thinking about getting rid of my Specialized Epic and putting together a nice SS 650b or 29er. Between the Fox fork and rear shock, hydraulic discs, and blowing through a set of tires each season, the maintenance of it is starting to take a big chunk of money out of me. Even now, I think the front brake is due for a bleed, and the F80 up front likely will need to as well.
When I had my old fully rigid SS 29er, I don't think I ever rode my full suspension bike... No maintenance to worry about either, with how BB7s are so easy to maintain and replace pads. Basically, a new organic pad up front, rotate the front pad to the back, make sure the chain was waxed up, and slap on some new tires with fresh sealent.