Plus1 Garage: a free bike maintenance app for e-MTB riders

The Plus1 Garage is a free bike maintenance app. Add your bike, type in the miles off your e-bike's display now and then, and it tells you when the chain, brake pads, tyres, fork and the rest are due. It suits e-MTB riders above all, because an e-bike's torque and weight wear parts out faster than you'd think, and nobody can keep all those numbers in their head.

It's free, there are no ads, and it's on iPhone and Android. Here's what it does, how it works, what it tracks and, just as important, what it can't do.

What is the Plus1 Garage?

Plus1 is the free app I built for finding people to ride with. The Garage is its third tab, next to Rides and Inbox, and it's a service tracker for your bikes:

• Add your bike from a list of 905, 224 of them e-bikes. Pick yours and the motor, fork, shock, groupset and brakes are filled in. If it isn't listed, add your own.
• Give it your miles. On an e-bike, type the odometer straight off the display now and then.
• Every part gets a bar: fine, coming up or due.
• You get a reminder on the day something's due, and nothing else.

Behind the bars are real service intervals from the part makers, adjusted for e-bikes, wet riding and your chain lube. It knows a hard-chrome T-type chain outlasts a basic one, that e-bikes chew drivetrains, and that a wet winter wears everything faster.

Who it's for: e-MTB riders above all

It works for any bike, and most of the bikes in the list aren't e-bikes. But e-MTB riders get the most out of it, for two reasons: torque and weight.

Take DJI's Avinox M2S motor. It gives up to 130 N·m in its regular assist modes and up to 150 N·m in Boost, according to the Avinox FAQ. The Avinox M2S bikes that E-MOUNTAINBIKE lists from Amflow, Atherton, Megamo, Mondraker, Pivot and Raymon weigh 21.4 to 24.2 kg in the sizes it quotes. All of that goes through one chain, one cassette, your brake pads and two tyres, and it wears them out sooner. The Garage's starting estimates give an e-bike's drivetrain 60% of a normal bike's life, the brakes 70% and the rear tyre half. Lightweight (SL) motors get half that penalty, so an SL bike's chain gets 80% rather than 60%.

I've ridden e-MTBs in the Forest of Dean since 2018, and the way people ride here has changed. More and more riders self-shuttle the downhill tracks at the Cycle Centre on e-bikes. I've timed it: in turbo on a modern e-bike it's about 45 seconds to the first stage, then about another minute to the top of the push-up. A perfect day is about 12 runs. That's a brilliant day out, and it's also twelve climbs in turbo through one chain. My downhill and uplift guide has the rest.

Then there's our weather, and Forest of Dean winters are wet. Some of the riding here is clay-based and turns to ice in the wet. Some is loam cut down to the stone, with loam flying about all year round. A fair bit of it ends up in your drivetrain and on your brakes, which is why the Garage shortens their life if you mostly ride in the wet.

Why it exists: small jobs get expensive when you forget them

Most maintenance isn't hard. Remembering is. Here are two examples of what forgetting costs.

A worn chain eats the cassette. Park Tool says running a chain beyond its wear limit prematurely wears your cogs and chainrings, and that a cassette costs far more to replace than a chain (Park Tool). Change the chain on time and the cassette carries on. Leave it and you're buying both.

A missed fork service costs you a ride. Fox's owner's manual lists a service every 100 hours or annually for its air-spring forks (the 32, 36, F-Series, FLOAT and TALAS), including a lower-leg oil change. It also says that if you often ride in wet, muddy or winter conditions, you should service more often (Fox service intervals). Leave it and you find out on the trail, with dry legs, an oil ring after a ride or a knock, and the bike goes to the shop instead of the woods.

On an e-bike, both come round sooner. The Garage keeps count so you don't have to.

How it works, step by step

1. Open the Garage tab in Plus1.
2. Add your bike. Search the list and pick yours. The motor, fork, shock, groupset and brakes come filled in: it knows 221 components so far. Not there? Add your own.
3. Give it your miles. E-bike displays keep a lifetime distance, so read it off and type it in, then update it now and then. For a bike without a display, set a rough guess once (how often you ride and for how long) and it keeps counting, or use your Strava total.
4. Read the bars. Every part shows fine, coming up or due. "Coming up" starts when a part reaches 80% of its life, so you've time to order the bits.
5. Get a reminder when something's due. On the day, and only then: one notification per bike per day at most.
6. Correct it. Checked a part and it's fine? Tap "Doesn't need replacing yet". Know better than the app? "Not right? Set where it is in its life" sets any part's life in one tap.

The small routine jobs (tyre pressure, chain lube, a bolt check, washing the e-bike safely, keeping the battery contacts clean) are a checklist, never "due". Nobody needs an app nagging them to pump up their tyres.

What the Garage tracks

These are the Garage's starting estimates, for UK mixed conditions on drip lube. The e-bike column is the normal life multiplied by the e-bike factor, for a full-power motor; the factor shortens miles and hours, not months. You can change any of them.

Drivetrain, brakes and tyres

Part	Normal bike	E-bike	Replace when
Chain	900 miles	540 miles	0.5% stretch on 11 and 12-speed, 0.75% on 10-speed and below
Cassette	2,700 miles	1,620 miles	A new chain skips under load, or the teeth look hooked or thin
Chainring	3,600 miles	2,160 miles	Hooked or shark-fin teeth
Front pads	620 miles	about 430 miles	At the maker's limit: SRAM under 3 mm pad plus backing plate, Shimano 0.5 mm of pad material
Rear pads	500 miles	350 miles	Same limits
Rotors	1,500 miles or 12 months	1,050 miles	At the minimum stamped on the rotor (Shimano 1.5 mm)
Front tyre	1,100 miles	about 600 miles	Edge knobs rounded or torn, casing showing, sidewall cuts
Rear tyre	620 miles	310 miles	Centre knobs worn to about half height

Suspension and servicing

Job	Normal bike	E-bike	Due now if
Fork lower-leg service	400 miles, 50 hours or 6 months	340 miles	Dry legs, an oil ring after a ride, or a knock
Full fork service	1,000 miles, 125 hours or 12 months	850 miles
Shock air-can service (air shocks)	400 miles or 50 hours	340 miles
Full shock service	1,000 miles, 125 hours or 12 months	850 miles
Pivot bearings (check)	800 miles, 100 hours or 6 months	640 miles
Headset	800 miles, 100 hours or 12 months	680 miles
Dropper service	800 miles, 100 hours or 12 months	No change
Brake bleed	12 months	No change	The lever feels soft or the bite point wanders
Tubeless sealant	3 months	No change	Shake the wheel: no slosh means top up

The e-bike system

Job	When	Notes
Drive system dealer service	1,850 miles or 12 months	Book in sooner if the cranks have play, it grinds or knocks under load, or there's water or rust at the motor seals. Motor bolts are dealer work.
Firmware update (check)	Every 6 months	Avinox riders update through the Avinox Ride app.
Battery health check	Every 12 months	80% or less is getting tired; 70% or less is worn out.
Battery replacement	96 months	Or at 70% health, or when the range has clearly dropped.

For the same numbers laid out as a schedule, with the wet-weather figures and what the part makers say, see my e-MTB maintenance schedule.

Wet, dry, wax: how your riding changes the numbers

Those starting estimates assume UK mixed conditions and drip lube. The Garage adjusts them:

• Mostly wet: chain, cassette and chainring get 0.55 of their life, rotors 0.55, front pads 0.5 and rear pads 0.45.
• Mostly dry: the drivetrain gets 1.25 times its life and the pads 1.3 times.
• Chain lube: a waxed chain lasts twice as long as one on drip lube; wet lube gets 0.7.

Here's how that plays out. An e-bike chain starts at 900 × 0.6 = 540 miles. Ride mostly in the wet on drip lube and that becomes 540 × 0.55, about 300 miles. That's the starting estimate. A chain checker has the final word.

The Garage's own advice is to use a three-point checker, because two-sided checkers can misread SRAM Flattop chains. Park Tool's CC-4 is designed to work with SRAM T-Type and Flattop chains and shows 0.5% and 0.75% wear. My e-bike chain wear guide goes through measuring it properly, and the brake pads guide does the same for pads and rotors.

Privacy: what other riders can see

• Your bike on your profile is your choice. Show it off, or keep it private.
• Service history is always private. Nobody else sees what you've replaced or when.
• The Garage only knows the miles you give it. Your Plus1 rides don't feed it.

What it can't do

I'd rather you knew the limits up front.

• Every number is a best guess. They're built on the part makers' intervals and adjusted for e-bikes, wet riding and lube, but your riding, your weight and your trails are your own. If a part's still fine, tell it.
• It doesn't measure anything. It can't see your chain or your pads. A chain checker, a look at the pads and a thumb on your tyre knobs decide. The makers matter too: Park Tool points out that many drivetrain makers have their own recommendations, so check yours.
• It's only as good as your miles. If you don't update the odometer now and then, it falls behind.
• It isn't a mechanic. Motor bolts and anything inside the drive system are dealer work, and Fox's rear shock fluid service is done by Fox or an authorised service centre. Never open a motor or a battery.
• A battery problem isn't a reminder. If a battery is swollen, damaged or showing an error, stop using it and don't charge it. Take it to your dealer.

If you ride a DJI Avinox bike, my Avinox maintenance guide covers what the manual says about cleaning, storage and firmware. For the rest of the bike, start with the maintenance schedule, then the guides on suspension servicing, battery care and cleaning an e-bike.