Cycling UK Forum

Some of us have rather a lot of bikes and it can be pretty tough remembering when you last did a job on one - changed casette/chain etc serviced wheel bearings etc.

I don't particularly enjoy maintaining wheel bearings for instance so don't want to do it unnecessarily.

Anyone use a spreadsheet or have a template for one?

At the moment I have a motley collection of freeform notes but tbink it would be a good idea to use a spreadsheet - I use a chromebook which has its own "sheets" prog but it will import Msoft Excel.

I stress that I have no intention of recording mileage - a step too far for me.


(I did look on the excellent Park Tools site - thought they might have one to encourage folk to wield/buy tools, but couldn't find anything)

Screenshot of mine from a while back.
I use Numbers ......... and application on an AppleMac.

will have a look through that for suggested headings, so thanks.

a "mileage nut" I see

(I know we have a few as some folk seem to know to the inch how long some of their bits have lasted)

I have only one bike, but I decided to keep a maintenance record from the day it was new. In those days I had no computer, but when I got one I transferred all the data from paper onto Excel, then once it's on there it's quick and easy to tot up how many miles you're getting out of components etc. A lot of my spreadsheets are very elaborate, but that one's just a simple column for mileage, date, component type, and details of reason for change, with a few extra calculations for component life. I didn't put in a column for cost, but the prices are all recorded separately in my accounts, so I could add them retrospectively if the mood took me.

Sweep wrote: ↑13 Feb 2022, 1:44pm
a "mileage nut" I see

(I know we have a few as some folk seem to know to the inch how long some of their bits have lasted)

That's me!

Latterly, I've done many fewer miles, so the maintenance and obsession have decreased somewhat.
I was doing 4,000+ miles a year a few short years ago, but 2021 had me down to 900odd. 2020 was 1,500, and 2019 was 1,500 too

2018 was 2,500 but 2017 was just short of 3,000miles.

Keep it simple, notebook, 2B pencil and eraser.

Update any maintenance with a simple date and mileage entry, rough idea below:

The geezer with a notebook and a 2B pencil wins.

I use an exercise book with a separate page or pages for each bike.

I also have a spreadsheet for tyres because they are
(1) the most expensive consumable in terms of pence/mile, and
(2) they tend to get swapped from wheel to wheel and bike to bike.
The spreadsheet is not optimised for ease of updating; I ought to write myself a User Manual .

Sweep wrote: ↑13 Feb 2022, 1:20pm
Anyone use a spreadsheet or have a template for one?

I do keep a computerised record, simply so I have access to it at work or home or wherever but I would say Excel is a bit over-kill. A table in a word doc is plenty sufficient. Like others I just list date, mileage and the bits I've replaced.

I work with spreadsheets for a living so setting one up for mileage, purchases and major works was a doddle. It helped me track when things needed changing.

I started offsetting my bike commutes against the purchase price of bikes and accessories to understand the break-even point. It took me just short of 3 years commuting full-time to recover my investments.

Sweep wrote: ↑13 Feb 2022, 1:20pm I stress that I have no intention of recording mileage - a step too far for me.

I use an excel workbook, separate columns for each bike, separate sheets for maintenance (Done and due), tyre and puncture log, costs, Rohloff oil change dates and mileage. There's stuff I might enter and never look at again, but in the past there's been times I wished I'd had that information. It's become habit, put the tools away, make a cup of tea, type in what I've just done, it only takes a couple of minutes.
I'm not sure mine would have much function without the distance, are you just going to guess that? Maybe you'd be close enough, but my usage varies so much from bike to bike and year to year that I don't think I could do it.

Sweep wrote: ↑13 Feb 2022, 1:20pm Some of us have rather a lot of bikes and it can be pretty tough remembering when you last did a job on one - changed casette/chain etc serviced wheel bearings etc.

I don't particularly enjoy maintaining wheel bearings for instance so don't want to do it unnecessarily.

Anyone use a spreadsheet or have a template for one?

At the moment I have a motley collection of freeform notes but tbink it would be a good idea to use a spreadsheet - I use a chromebook which has its own "sheets" prog but it will import Msoft Excel.

I stress that I have no intention of recording mileage - a step too far for me.


(I did look on the excellent Park Tools site - thought they might have one to encourage folk to wield/buy tools, but couldn't find anything)

For goodness sake........

Replace the chain before it wrecks the cassette....do this when the wear gauge tells you to.... then you can get 10 years out of a cassette viewtopic.php?t=116834&hilit=reverse+we ... e&start=45

Service the pedal and wheel bearings etc annually.....I maintain the "summer" bikes in the winter, and vice versa. You don't need to do the headset every year on a bike with mudguards, but then theres not much lost if you do a headset and it didn't need doing?

If you use road STIs maybe replace the cables annually to be on the safe side?

Tyres/brake blocks as needed, shirley?....BB unit when they get play.

A bike used daily for commuting will need more attention than my (now) wholly recreational bikes.

Regardless of the need for it, building your own spreadsheet is very easy. Just start with the columns you think necessary. It's not set in stone and you can add or remove as you want.

You can have a sheet in the book for each bike, or each event, or whatever - or just one sheet.

I'd far rather use a spreadsheet than a table (as per M' Word) because they are much more flexible.

For my tours I normally keep a diary, but it usually only has date, distance, town, hotel, etc. I like the paper diary, however for my last less exotic tour, I decided to just use a spreadsheet. Created on 2nd night of tour. Dead easy to create and update on my phone. I added columns as I thought of other things to record.

I would just play around a bit and see what you can create.

I can rustle up a spreadsheet easily enough, what i really need is a mechanic!