Mountainboards take quite a beating and keep rolling. After a long day of riding, it’s not unusual for your board to be jammed with dirt, mud, grass, and whatever else you thrashed that day. Post-ride maintenance is an important habit to develop. Not only does it keep your board running smoother for longer, it also helps to prevent problems on the mountain when you might not be prepared to deal with it.
The level of maintenance you do depends on many factors: how hard you rode, what you rode on, if water was involved, if you live in a dry or wet place, and many more. I do most of my riding in coastal areas, so I have to deal with rust issues more than some riders. Typically I do the post-ride maintenance described below after each day of riding, then once a month or sometimes every other month, I’ll do some deeper mountainboard maintenance work.
The following maintenance steps are for an MBS mountainboard. Some differences might exist for other types of mountainboards.
1. First thing I do after inspecting my mountianboard for any obvious damage is assemble my tools: a rag, a toothbrush of some sort, tool (what ever you need to remove your wheels, and tighten the hardware on your trucks and bindings), water, and or Tri-Flow, or anything that claims to penetrate, clean, fight rust, and lubricate.
3. Wipe wheel bearing with rag and brush edges with toothbrush.
4. Squirt a small amount of WD-40 on a rag and wipe wheel bearing, break up any rust with toothbrush, then dry with rag.
5. Squirt with WD-40 each of the hub screws, then dry with rag.
6. Squirt with WD-40 each of the axle nuts, then dry with rag.
7. Set wheels aside.
8. Clean axles, using rag and WD-40, then dry with rag.
9. Wipe off any dirt from kingpin, kingpin nut, and kingpin bearings (both sides of truck), the same way you did for the wheel bearings.
10. Squirt each of these parts with WD-40 including the space between the metal and the plastic parts of the truck, then dry with rag.
11. If mountainboard has been squeaking a lot, squirt a small amount of WD-40 between the trucks and the deck. This sometimes does the trick.
12. Pour water on the rag and wipe clean the deck, then dry. This isn’t necessary but I do it as a way of bonding with my mountainboard. Take care of your board and it’ll take care of you.
13. Put wheels back on.
14. Tighten all hardware on bindings, and trucks.
Regular maintenance will keep your board happy. Don’t dread it. It’s a time to bond with your mountainboard and reflect on the ride.
