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

Need to replace the freehub on my Giant SLR carbon wheel. However very hard to source one.

Number on it Z1620-1 does nothing in spares etc. Don't know the year.

LBS x 2 showed little interest in helping out. It looks very like sDT swiss. Anyone know

You know you can buy the bearings separately? its a bit fiddley to swap them out, but with a bit of patience its very doable.

Thanks, it's the bite on the body, the small cog on the cassette space is totally smooth. Cog just spins.

How would and should one degrease/clean a chain cleaning tool?

Maybe turps or white spirit? I've stopped using mine and now I just - remove the chain -> shake in white spirits -> shake in methylated spirits -> install -> lube. It really is a quick process

Id give it a scrub using a stiff bristled brush, rather than just leave it sit. That should help remove rust too (assuming is just flash rusted). Once its degreased and derusted, then I'd wash it with soapy water, dry it, and add lube. Lube is easier to add once the chain is back on the bike

Currently have a 53/39 crankset installed on the race bike. Want to swap out the inner 39 for a 36. Anything I should look out for in terms of the derailleur? It would seem to me that the position of the front derailleur is more dictated by the large chainring than the small.

I've got the same issue - new TA wheels with a QR frame and would appreciate some guidance.

Do I need two separate solutions for front and back i.e. a 12mm to 9mm adapter like the Dymoece on Amazon for the front and a QR hub adapter for the rear to change from 142mm to 135mm

Or do I need a QR hub adapter and a 12mm to 9mm adapter for the rear?

I've been searching for an integrated solution to avoid using both a 12mm to 9mm adapter and separate QR skewers but haven't managed to find anything.

Is there any better (or cheaper) options for the front wheel than the adapter and QR skewers?

Looks it will cost almost €100 for all of the above which is annoying as I didn't anticipate the extra cost due to confusion on the wheel description between QR & TA plus Bike24 ship the same wheels with QR adapters

Thoughts on this? Felt a slight grinding when coasting last week but it didn't always happen and nothing obvious when off the bike. Now it's making noise but again only seems to happen when on the bike, possibly just due to how often I'm coasting on the trails compared to spinning the wheel by hand a few times.

Had to get my gears adjusted last week as they were suddenly way off, whatever is happening seems to be throwing the gears off. When I start to pedal the chain seems to have to find the right gear again even though they were shifting nice and crisp earlier in the day.

Finally I am nearly finished a strip down and rebuild of my bike with a new bottom bracket, chain, cassette and chain ring, small ring had loads of life so just the big ring on the old chain set.

The new bottom bracket seems a bit stiff and I had to do a good bit of adjusting on limit screws when indexing the gears. I had reinstalled the crankset with a rubber and steel washer between the spider and BB and the left crank and BB as I believe this is how it was previous. The washer seems bigger than the spindle of the crankset by quiet a bit. Am I right in thinking this is where that washer came from and do I need it?

for clarity it is a press for 86.5 Bb with a shimano fc-4700

Without starting a new thread, has anyone here any experience with building their own bike?

I'm quite taken with the idea of trying to assemble something bases around the Elves Falath or Elgath frames.

There are some great youtube channels that go through the pros and cons of this, but I'm curious to see how people fared out with deliveries, taxes, import duty etc. Theres savings to be made over buying similar specced 'regular' bikes, but I'd like to gauge just how much hidden cost there is.