I have toured with people who have spotless bikes that are freshly adjusted by professional mechanics. It's hard not to notice that those people are faster than me.

My bike gets some maintenance before a tour to make sure the tires, brake pads, chain, cables, cleats, etc are in good enough condition to last for a bike tour. But during a tour my bike is simply a tool that I expect to be reliable. I pump the tires about every 10 days and lube/clean the chain if/when it gets noisy. I don't spend much time fixing flat tires or anything else.

My bike is not perfectly maintained but I have the ability to adjust or repair most things. Tighten any bolt. Repair a flat tire. Repair a broken chain. Replace a shift cable. Adjust/replace brake pads. Replace a broken spoke. Over 33 years, a broken frame is my only mechanical breakdown that ended a tour prematurely.

I keep notes in my iPhone on each bike I own.  Mileage and date of service for part replacement and regular maintenance.  I like to see how many miles I can get out of chains, tires etc.  Comes in handy, especially when I talk to my LBS about the bike and its components.  It gets a little tricky however, when I attempt to track the use of my Diverge and its two wheel sets. I haven't done a good job of that.  I do most of my own maintenance and adjustment, except when it gets tricky.  But there are times when life gets busy and my bikes suffer from "Corn planting" or "harvesting disease".

Oh, my gosh.  You’re way on the other side of the spectrum from me.  Occasionally I’ll make notes on maintenance to the bike or the car, but then I can’t even remember where the notes were.  

I’m definitely from the Greg School of Minimal Maintenance.  Tyres pumped and chain oiled, and that’s usually enough. In my younger days I was much more diligent and capable with bike mechanics. Nowadays I tend to ride about 8000-10,000 km (several sets of tyres) and then take my bedraggled commuter bike to an excellent bike mechanic and have it fully serviced. 

On tour, the only extra maintenance (other than oil and air) I do is regularly check rack bolts. 

My latest and somewhat excessive purchase is a 29er, off-seal bike packing tourer with tubeless tyres. Every 3 months it needs a top up of tyre sealant, so I do this simple procedure.

It's funny you should ask!

My idea of bike maintenance was basically.....if it keeps moving forward when the pedals turn I don't think about it.   I paid for that this year when the frame rust became a little too much.

So the last couple of months I decided to remove as much rust as possible on the frame.  I have friends who know about these things and confirmed that it was surface rust but that it needed to be attended to.  So I spent a couple of months working at it a little at a time, going down to bare metal on about half of the surface area.

Then it was 3 coats of primer, sanding, etc, and several coats of rustoleum spray paint.  I am not comparing it to a professional paint job but for a DIY job I am thrilled with the results that far exceeded my expectations.  And now the frame is better protected against worse rust.

But it got better because I decided to reassemble the bike myself.  I had not removed the cranks or handlebars (I just masked those) but I removed everything else.  Over the past few days I have been slowly reassembling, learning how to install and adjust the brakes, installing the chain (then removing it and reinstalling when I got it wrong the first time ;-).    Youtube was tremendously helpful.  I think I got it all right and I may even take her out on her maiden voyage tomorrow.  I will also take it to a shop to have them look it over to make sure I did everything right.

I never felt very confident about something breaking down before this.  Even brake adjustments meant finding a bike store.  But I am thrilled to have done this, even though it was time consuming and at times frustrating.  I can make simple repairs on the road and will do a little better job maintaining the bike in the future.

Wow, Karen, good for you. That’s the best way to get to know your bike. I’ve gotten to know my trike a lot better since I was doing so much around installing and fussing with the e-assist, but I was far from going down to bare metal. Not gonna touch cabling or brakes either. So yes that’s one more thing to be confident about on the road now, one less thing to be weighing on the back of your mind. Well done.

Thanks, Kathleen.  In another year or two I may repaint it again.  Either have it professionally done or strip the paint completely so I am 100% sure all the rust is off. 
I'm not sure which, but I don't feel intimidated by the project now and I would be able to complete it in a fraction of the time.

The couplers complicate things. I don't know how that would work if I wanted to strip the paint....

But I can cross that bridge when I get there.    Right now its all good and I can't wait to get out on the road.

Hi Karen.  I'm glad I asked at such an opportune time for you.  That's really cool how you took the bike by the horns and did so much of your own work.

I kind of made myself sound like a complete bike maintenance loser.  I was that way a few years ago, but I've gotten better.  Last year my mountain bike died due to my neglect, so I was forced to enlist my Long Haul Trucker into wintertime duty.  Since then I've performed some of my own work on brakes and derailleur cables.  I don't know what got into me, but when I experienced steering problems, I went so far as to disassemble my headset, clean it out, and hope I could put everything back together in the right place.

I amazed myself.  Everything worked, and it still does.  Now, thanks to your inspiration, I might try to do something about that surface rust on my frame.

Before and after pics!   If I paint it again I will remove all the parts.  But the project kind of progressed from “remove a bit of rust and clear coat” to a “the project scope has expanded”. 😂🤷‍♀️

I rode around the neighborhood and all is well.  Tomorrow I will assemble the rack and go on a longer ride.

I admire and applaud your ambition!

I've had two bikes painted, but never done the deed on my own as I know what rubbish I am with a rattle can.