E-MTB maintenance schedule: every ride, every month, by the mile and every year

An e-MTB needs the same jobs as any mountain bike, just more often. Here's the schedule I'd follow: a quick check before every ride, a proper look once a month, parts replaced by the mile, and the suspension, brakes and drive system serviced by the hour and the calendar.

The intervals in miles, hours and months are the starting estimates from the free Plus1 Garage, built from the part makers' guidance and adjusted for e-bikes. I've put the makers' own figures alongside. Treat every number as a starting point: a chain checker, the pad limit and your own eyes have the final word.

Why an e-MTB needs a tighter schedule

Torque and weight. DJI's Avinox M2S motor 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. Everything that drives, stops and grips the bike takes more load, so it wears out sooner.

The starting estimates in this guide shorten part life for an e-bike like this:

What	Share of a normal bike's life
Chain, cassette and chainring	60%
Brake pads and rotors	70%
Front tyre	55%
Rear tyre	50%
Fork, shock and headset servicing	85%
Pivot bearing checks	80%

Then there's where you ride. I've ridden e-MTBs in the Forest of Dean since 2018, and our 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. On the starting estimates, riding mostly in the wet cuts the chain, cassette, chainring and rotors to 0.55 of their e-bike life, the front pads to 0.5 and the rear pads to 0.45. Fox says much the same about suspension: if you often ride in wet, muddy or winter conditions, service more often.

Before every ride

Two minutes in the car park, or before you roll out of the shed. These are routine checks, not jobs with a due date.

Check	What you're looking for
Tyres	Pressure where you like it, and no cuts in the sidewalls
Brakes	A firm lever and a bite point that stays put. A soft lever or a wandering bite point means a bleed is due now.
Chain	Clean and lubed, not dry
Bolts	A quick bolt check. Leave the motor bolts to the dealer.
Battery	Charged, with the connectors clean and dry. DJI's Avinox manual says never grease them.
Cold mornings	Below 0 °C, Bosch recommends bringing the battery into a heated room and letting it warm to room temperature before you ride.

After every ride, especially a wet one

• No pressure washer, no steam cleaner. Bosch says high pressure can force water into the bearings of the motor, hubs and rear frame. DJI's Avinox manual warns that a high-pressure spray on the motor, battery or electrics may cause a fire.
• Battery off, covers shut. Avinox says to turn the battery off and close the charging-port and Type-C covers before cleaning. Bosch suggests taking the battery and display off, or covering them with a cloth or film.
• Plain water is fine. Bosch says water is never wrong, as long as it doesn't come from a steam cleaner. On the drive system, Avinox suggests a soft dry cloth, or a damp cloth and neutral detergent if needed. Fox says to clean a shock with mild soap and water only and wipe it dry with a soft towel.
• Dry and relube the chain. A wet winter shortens its life enough without leaving it dirty.
• Look at the fork legs. An oil ring after a ride is one of the signs a lower-leg service is due.

My guide to cleaning an e-bike goes through it step by step. For charging and storage, see e-bike battery care.

Every month

Once a month, and more often through a wet winter, get the bike on a stand and measure rather than guess.

Check	Replace or act when
Chain wear	0.5% on 11, 12 and 13-speed chains; 0.75% on 10-speed and below (Park Tool). The Garage suggests a three-point checker, as two-sided ones can misread SRAM Flattop chains.
Brake pads	SRAM: under 3 mm for pad and backing plate together. Shimano: 0.5 mm of pad material or less.
Rotors	At the minimum stamped on the rotor. Shimano says stop using the brakes at 1.5 mm, or if the aluminium shows.
Rear tyre	Centre knobs worn to about half height
Front tyre	Edge knobs rounded or torn, casing showing, or sidewall cuts
Fork	Dry legs, an oil ring after a ride, or a knock: book the lower-leg service now
Tubeless sealant	Every 3 months. Shake the wheel, and if nothing sloshes, top it up.

The chain check is the one that saves the most money. Park Tool says a worn chain slips under load or causes chain suck, that running one past its limit wears out your cogs and chainrings early, and that a cassette costs far more than a chain. There's more in my guides to e-bike chain wear, e-MTB brake pads and e-MTB tyres.

By the mile: parts that wear out

These are the starting estimates in miles. "E-bike" is the normal life times the e-bike factor. "E-bike, mostly wet" puts the wet-riding factor on top, on drip lube.

Part	Normal bike	E-bike	E-bike, mostly wet
Chain	900	540	about 300
Cassette	2,700	1,620	about 890
Chainring	3,600	2,160	about 1,190
Front pads	620	about 430	about 220
Rear pads	500	350	about 160
Rotors	1,500 (or 12 months)	1,050	about 580
Front tyre	1,100	about 600	no wet adjustment
Rear tyre	620	310	no wet adjustment

Here's the chain worked through: 900 × 0.6 = 540 miles on an e-bike, then 540 × 0.55, about 300 miles, ridden mostly in the wet. Ride mostly in the dry and it goes the other way: the drivetrain gets 1.25 times its life and the pads 1.3 times. Lube matters too. A waxed chain lasts twice as long as one on drip lube, and wet lube gets 0.7.

To put the wet number in real terms: on that starting estimate, someone riding 30 miles a week in the wet would reach it in about ten weeks. That's why the monthly check matters most in winter.

By the hour and the calendar: suspension, brakes and bearings

Suspension makers count in hours. If you don't log yours, the calendar is the backstop.

Service	Starting estimate	E-bike	What the makers say
Fork lower-leg service	50 hours, 400 miles or 6 months	340 miles	RockShox's chart starts lower-leg services at 50 hours
Full fork service	125 hours, 1,000 miles or 12 months	850 miles	Fox air-spring forks (32, 36, F-Series, FLOAT, TALAS): every 100 hours or annually. RockShox: 100 hours on most older forks, 200 on newer ones (per a bike shop's summary)
Shock air-can service	50 hours or 400 miles	340 miles	Fox: air sleeve every 30 hours
Full shock service	125 hours, 1,000 miles or 12 months	850 miles	Fox: every 100 hours or annually. RockShox: 100 to 200 hours, by model
Pivot bearings (check)	100 hours, 800 miles or 6 months	640 miles
Headset	100 hours, 800 miles or 12 months	680 miles
Dropper service	100 hours, 800 miles or 12 months	No change
Brake bleed	12 months	No change	Sooner if the lever goes soft or the bite point wanders

Fox's rear shock fluid service is done by Fox or an authorised service centre, so it's a booking, not a Sunday job. What a lowers service involves, and how it differs from a full service, is in my e-MTB suspension service guide.

Every year: the drive system and the battery

Job	When	Notes
Drive system dealer service	1,850 miles or 12 months	Sooner if the cranks have play, it grinds or knocks under load, or there's water or rust at the motor seals
Firmware (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	Around 96 months	Or at 70% health, or when the range has clearly dropped

If you lay the bike up for the winter, store the battery properly. Bosch says to take the battery and display off and keep them somewhere dry at room temperature, ideally 10 to 20 °C, at 30 to 60% charge. DJI's Avinox manual says to take the battery out of the frame for long-term storage, keep it at about 30% charge, and store it somewhere cool and dry, out of direct sunlight, between 0 and 40 °C.

Avinox riders can also set a charge limit of 100, 95, 80 or 70% in the Avinox Ride app. My guide on how to maintain DJI Avinox covers the manual in full, and DJI Avinox tips covers the modes and the charge limit. Still choosing a bike? Here are the DJI Avinox e-bikes you can buy. If your last bike wasn't an e-bike, expect whichever you pick to eat parts faster.

Why a schedule beats memory

The trouble with a schedule is keeping to it. On an e-bike the miles pile up quickly, and every job runs on a different clock: the chain by the mile, the fork by the hour, the sealant every three months, the bleed once a year. Nobody remembers all of that, and the jobs you forget are the expensive ones.

That's what the Garage is for. Type in the odometer off your display now and then, and every part gets a bar: fine, coming up (from 80% of its life) or due. You get a reminder on the day something's due, and nothing else. Checked a part and it's fine? Tell it, or set where it is in its life in one tap. It's a free tracker with best-guess numbers you can correct, not a mechanic, so the chain checker and the dealer still have the final say. Here's how it all works.