the 'there's no such thing as a stupid question' bike maintenance thread

traco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122057196#Comment_122057196

Thanks @CramCycle I know its not an ideal tourer but I don't know if touring is for me. I'd just like to get this set up and try a weekend of two or three 60-100km days as a trial. I am hoping that some minor twaeking here and there will get it good enough without going crazy as it rides well and with the new cables its feels nice and slick just not comfy longterm.

My Brompton has a Fizik Aliante R7 saddle and very little padding on it and I find that comfy with no padded shorts. It might be worth swapping them over and testing or adjusting the tilt on the felt one and see. They are both about 140mm wide but Felt one is softer.

I just did a quick check there and the handlebars seem about 50mm lower than the saddle. Its a Felt QX65 58cm frame, I'm 6'4" and 34" leg. I also pulled teh cap and steering tube is 28mm and current stem is already a bit over the top so no room for any additional spacers. I did find that on a longish spin over teh weekend that I was getting some wrist fatigue, like I was bearing too much weight on them hence the idea of swapping the stem.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122057406#Comment_122057406

Starting out, are you sure your saddle is not too high? Your bum is for sitting on, not your arms, they are for a steering and you should not be putting much weight at all on them. Could you consider a handlebar extender, I don't like them but it would be a cheap way to raise your bars, you cold then lower your seat a bit, or move it forward it there is space too. Maybe call into an LBS to see do they have any. A good rule of thumb is your legs should never be fully outstretched in a pedal stroke, should be an angle of roughly 30 degrees in your knee at the bottom of the stroke

Do you have drop bars? Important to move hands around to stop numbness developing. You can also get clip on grips as well if you want to keep it cheap.

In regards your Brompton, are you on it long enough to develop numbness? I like Fizik Aliante saddle but I know others it destroys so it is a very personal thing, certainly can't do any harm in trying it out.

traco

Definitely have a bend in my knees at the bottom of the down stroke. I wonder if the Felt saddle is tilted up a bit so moght try and adjust that.

Brompton seat time varies and haven't paid much attention but its way more comfy than the Felt. Here is another odd one for you. Took a bit of a scenic route home yesterday on the Brompton and two hours later took teh Felt to play a game of tennis. Its not far, maybe 1/1.5kms and up a small incline. Within about 500m I could feel both claves starting to slightly cramp on the Felt so there is definitley some major difference between both setups. It has happened before but usually I feel teh calf on the court but this time it was on the bike. Weird or maybe just old age degradation???

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122057222#Comment_122057222

i got my lbs to do it. not a job i was willing to take on myself in case things went wrong.

magicbastarder

so i picked up a new cassette and chain for the old Ti MTB i bought on here late last year; it's late 90s Deore XT so i got seven speed. except the cassette that came off is 8 speed, so the 7 speed cassette is too short, it slides side to side on the freehub even with the lockring tightened on. what are my options? bite the bullet and get an 8 speed cassette, or are 7 speed hubs readily available? are there any other compatibility issues?

magicbastarder

aha, from sheldon brown. so i need to use/source a spacer. worth noting that the rear hub on the bike is obviously not the original, so was obviously replaced with an 8 speed one.

Add a 4.5 mm spacer before installing a 7-speed cassette on an 8-, 9-, or 10-speed hub

nicksnikita

@jethrothe2nd

yes there’s a good reason for it, especially if your fork has a carbon steerer.

your stem should always be clamped to the section of the steerer that is supported, from the inside, by the bung inside the steerer tube.
Having excessive spacers above the stem means it’s possible that this is not the case, thus causing a crushing effect on the steerer tube.

To counteract it, a long bung can be inserted into the steerer. Otherwise it should be cut to the correct length…

Mundo7976

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122058310#Comment_122058310

Try a plastic spacer from a cassette if you have one spare, they sometimes work, if you need more, you could file a second one down to add to it.

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122058310#Comment_122058310

If you can't get a suitable spacer, sende a message, I'll turn one down for you on the lathe

traco

If you have access to a 3D printer you could make one the reactant size with a good internal structure

magicbastarder

Cheers all - dumb question, but I assume the spacer, if I source one, is best placed on the outside of the cassette rather than the inside?

edit: i note sheldon brown's wording is to add the spacer first.

traco

Would this work?

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing%3A2064758

magicbastarder

cheers - the sheldon brown link mentions a 4.5mm spacer - i managed to find two spacers from an old 105 cassette in the box, which combine to 4.35mm so here's hoping…

traco

If it doesn't work PM me the exact dimensions I can draw one up, print it out and post it to you. No clue how durable it would be but would get you going. I'd need the inside diameter, outside diameter and then the thickness you want.

magicbastarder

thanks for that, and to cletus too!

another maintenance issue i had which i managed to figure out myself; the front brake on my folding bike (a v-brake) basically stopped working. no matter how hard i pulled the brake lever, it'd barely engage. but when i got it up on the stand, and pinched the brake closed with my fingers, all was fine. it took me a couple of minutes to figure out what had happened:

the ferrule/stop at the end of the tube had actually slid back up the tube, probably by 2cm, so the end of the tube was hitting the brake arm itself, and preventing further takeup of tension in the cable. the reason it took a few minutes to figure this out was that the protruding tube was hidden by the rubber gaiter, so i didn't actually cop at first that this had happened. that was a couple of minutes of head scratching.

CramCycle

Anyone on the new Di2. Got mine on Saturday but there is no QR code on the shifters for pairing with the app. I presume i have to plug them into the battery with the rear derailleur to pair them (R8150 12 speed). Here is my query, which I will find out soon anyway, do I have to leave them plugged in via a junction box, permanently like the old Di2 or once they are paired, I can unplug them and use them as they are advertised, almost wireless.

what_traffic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122061337#Comment_122061337

Did this exact same repair on one of the kids bikes over the weekend that had just bought second hand. Front brake, material of the ferrule looked suspect, a bit "soft". (Needed to replace the whole 'noodle'-hope I am spellingthat correctly)

vintcerf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122075744#Comment_122075744

I managed to build a bike (first time doing it) in december using this guide. my shifters are running "wireless". i think for future updates I'll have to remove the seatpost and connect the shifters one at a time with a EW-SD300.

https://bettershifting.com/12-speed-di2-new-user-guide/

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122076688#Comment_122076688

Alas mine are the rim brake ultegra version which are apparently different than the rest and not actually wireless. Wish I'd known that before I put in a new BB. I'd have held back I think. Guess I'll be a few more days waiting for a long di2 cable (large frame) and a new BB. FML. First time I've been utterly disappointed with Shimano instructions as it was not clear to me at all.

omri

Anyone could explain why there sometimes are spacers for the bottom bracket, I think I used to have some on the deore xt cranks but there were none on the bike with the ultegra cranks. Is it something to do with the crankset, bottom bracket or frame itself ?

Seth Brundle

Over the last number of months, I've traced a rattle noise to my rear Scribe wheel, which reveals itself mainly over bumpy roads (initially I thought it was my mudguard so it's that kind of rattle). I checked the cassette was tight enough (it was) and figured that before I open it up I'd look at replacing the cassette which I did just now.

I've not yet tried it to see if the rattle is gone (fingers crossed) but what I did notice was that the grey piece on the freehub was broken leaving only the bit between the two screws. There is another of these things on the other side of the freehub (obviously not in the photo) but it is ok.

What is this piece and how important is it?
Is it ok that I've put a new cassette onto the freehub in this condition?

https://scribecycling.com/en-eu/products/centrelock-hub-set

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122082303#Comment_122082303

It would seem that they are "anti-bite steel strips to protect the splines from damage."

magicbastarder

So the part of the hub designed to protect the hub from damage, is damaged?

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122082352#Comment_122082352

That would be quite a succinct and astute observation...

nicksnikita

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122082303#Comment_122082303

you could eliminate the anti bite guard from your rattle enquiries by removing it and running the cassette on the freehub without it.
You could probably order a spare strip from Scribe. I remember doing this for a different brand of hub in the past

54and56

At the risk of disproving the thread title can anyone tell me how to re-attach the port cover for a 105 Di2 charging port? I went to charge it today and when flicking open the cover (possibly with a little too much force :-( ) the cover and it's retaining "hinge" just popped off and for the life of me I can't get the retaining hinge back into it's little slot despite having tried lubricating the tip of the hinge with washing up liquid. Is there a special tool (apart from myself!) needed to pop this back in place? I can bring it to my LBS but would prefer not to. I feel enough of an idiot admitting such stupidity here without having to endure an in-person version of same.

at1withmyself

@CramCycle I found this website very good when I recently installed that groupset

https://bettershifting.com/

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122103196#Comment_122103196

It looks like it should just clip into place...

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122103751#Comment_122103751

Thanks, alas I finished yesterday Had to get another Di2 wire (took a few days) when I found out that unlike all the other new Dio2, the rim brake ones are not wireless and do need to be routed through the battery, which I only learned after I had reinstalled the BB. All done now, having a bit of an issue with alignment in a way I have never had with old school cable shifters but I have all the gears I regularly use doing their job and the limits are in place so I won't lose the derailleur into the spokes or the chain into the frame. This said my junction box and other cables were additional and my LBS are taking them back, which is nice.

First impressions, pretty smooth but I find the GRX shifters more comfy (and probably would have went for these had they done rim brakes).

ironictoaster

Hi all,

I got my gravel bike serviced by the LBS. However, my disc brakes are starting to squeel just before the bike comes to a complete stop/ at traffic lights

It’s fine when braking at speed. There’s plenty of meat left on the pads so I don’t think I need to replace these?!

I have cleaned the rotor and pads with disc brake cleaner and gave them both a sanding with heavy grit sandpaper. Issue still persists. Any ideas before I go back to the bike shop?

Thanks!