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

magicbastarder wrote: »

changed the chain on the main bike today - the factory grease looks like the sort of stuff which would attract dust; i assume it's best to wipe it off?

also, anyone have any creative uses for old chains rather than me just binning it?

No... leave the new chain as is! It's the best lube and lasts quite well.
Can't help with ideas for the old chain as I bin old chains.

There's no need to clean brake discs on motor vehicles because, even with relatively gentle driving, they get hot enough to burn off any contamination. Only some bikes (such as downhill mountain bikes and road bikes on long descents) heat their discs in this way - most bike discs, if they get contaminated, won't be able to clear it with heat.

The other issue is that most people don't realise this, and aren't careful about preventing oil getting on the discs - the airborne drift from using an aerosol lube on the chain can easily be enough. If using a spray near the drivetrain, slip a sheet of cardboard with a suitable slot in it, in between the disc and the spokes, to keep overspray/drift away from the brake.

However, if you're careful with the lube, or you do lots of fast/long descending, you should never need to do any disc-cleaning

I managed to get one out by removing the bottom bracket, drilling a 12mm hole in the bottom of the BB shell, drilling a hole through the exposed part of the seat post and putting an old hub-axle through it.
With the frame upside down, we dropped a length of 10mm rebar down the hole in the BB shell, to rest against the hub axle and pounded the seat post out with a lump hammer.
Bike refitted with a new cassette bottom bracket, so the hole in the BB shell doesn't matter.

However, we tried this with a different bike which had a suspension seat post stuck in it (thinner walls and a screwed-in plug at the bottom of the seat post) - we couldn't get the plug out to get the rebar to go through the seat post up to where an axle would be drilled through, so we had to risk beating the plug with the rebar - the plug threads failed and the plug went up inside the seat post, spreading it and the seat tube of the frame - frame written off (but it was a cheap ladies shopping bike, so not a huge loss).

whats the best Way to clean a horrifically dirty chain.....the usual spray that I use is being no help

I'm in the process of changing the cables on my Planet X RT-58 Carbon, with internal routing. I've hit a snag with the Front Derailleur cable.

It passes through a guide under the bottom bracket, then into some (what looks like) cable liner (I used something similar guide the brake cable through the frame, which worked well).
Here's a pic of under the BB where I've unscrewed the guide, and slackened the cable. You can see the black liner which protects the cable from the elements underneath the BB:



My trouble is: The cable wont pass through the hole at the bottom of the frame (where it exits the frame and goes up into the front DR) without significant force. I'm afraid if I pull it back through the frame, I won't be able to push the new cable back through the hole. There's A LOT of friction there. I tried passing cable inner liner down through this tiny hole but it wont fit, so I can't use that method:


Anyone have any tips or advice for this?

The other strange element to this problem, is the black cable liner under the frame seems rooted in the frame at the back end. I wonder how far it goes, and whether it is supposed to exit the frame a little where the cable comes out to feed the Front Derailleur.

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks for any help.

Type 17 wrote: »

Have you removed the old cable wire? It's the wire that's rusted and expanded by the water spray from the rear wheel (terrible frame design).

If you get the old cable out and clean out the hole with spray-lube, the new (non rusty, therefore non-expanded) wire will slide in fine (coat it with grease to delay (but not prevent) a re-occurrence).

The black cable liner helps a little at the start (dry cable), but once things get wet, it actually acts to hold moisture against the steel, promoting corrosion.

I haven't tried removing it yet as I'm afraid I won't get the new cable back through the corroded hole. That's sound advice about spray lube, thanks. I reckon there's a lot of road gunk in the hole itself. When fiddling with it, the black cable liner felt secured into the back end. Any chance it runs all the way up to the hole? Indeed bad frame design. PX only did one run of these RT-58 Carbons afaik. Probably for reasons like this one.

Type 17 wrote: »

Have you removed the old cable wire? It's the wire that's rusted and expanded by the water spray from the rear wheel (terrible frame design).

If you get the old cable out and clean out the hole with spray-lube, the new (non rusty, therefore non-expanded) wire will slide in fine (coat it with grease to delay (but not prevent) a re-occurrence).

The black cable liner helps a little at the start (dry cable), but once things get wet, it actually acts to hold moisture against the steel, promoting corrosion.

I presume you should use stainless steel wires in these applications?

cdaly_ wrote: »

I presume you should use stainless steel wires in these applications?

Yes, if you've had issues with corrosion, it's better to use stainless steel cables. However, note that they tend to have a shorter life expectancy than plain steel ones in road bike drop bar shifters - the strands fatigue and break earlier on the tight turns inside the shifters, about 20mm from the nipple.

Weepsie wrote: »

Thinking of once and for all cleaning and regreasing a bottom bracket for myself. Not sure where to start beyond the usual videos, but what should I use for he actual cleaning and greasing?

A clean cloth and Grease. I use multi purpose grease, which is available from Halfords.

But how you do this depends on the type of BB you have. Example, if you have an Octalink BB, your wasting your time as its a sealed unit.

This is an Octalink BB : http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/en/shimano-105-5500-octalink-bottom-bracket/rp-prod906

You sure it's the BB causing the creaking noise?

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/post/95230558

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Would a "try it and see" approach work with the brakes?

I mean, they'll either work or they won't, won't they? Or is there more to it?

Pretty much all combinations will work in the sense that they will bring the pads against the rim, but modulation, control and even braking force may be compromised with the wrong combination.

cython wrote: »

When you should be in the small chainring are you able to push the front mech inward towards the frame? The obvious candidate in this situation is either a sticking cable (unlikely due to the tension normally involved) or a stuck/broken front mech. If you can easily push the front mech in it suggests the spring in it is gone, and if you can push it in but it takes force the front mech may be dirty/gunked up. They'd be the first ports of call for me.

It might also be a simple cable tension issue. If your cables are still relatively new (in terms of mileage anyway), they might still be stretching a bit. There should be a barrel adjuster poking out of the shifter handle. Try turning that anti-clockwise a quarter turn at a time, then check the shifting to see if the derailleur has adequate cable tension to shift up.

magicbastarder wrote: »

given the day that's in it (i.e. when it starts lashing just as you leave work and stops just as you get home) - disc brakes squealing in the wet. causes? solutions?
it's mainly the front brake. for all the talk of disc brakes working equally well in wet and dry, there's a noticeable falloff in braking performance for me in the wet.

Sounds like your pads are contaminated.
Most would say replacement but I've had good success with cleaning the pads with acetone after giving them a light sanding with 1000grit paper.

magicbastarder wrote: »

where do you get the acetone? is nail polish remover enough, or do you need to get pure stuff?

One option:

http://www.adverts.ie/other-electronics/1-litre-pure-100-acetone/6432336

MiCk B. :-)

I've been working on the old hard tail. Forks basically siezed on me on first single track in years. Managed to take them apart following a you tube video. Full of crap and the stanchions are all rusted. Is it worth sanding them down and then greasing them up to feck and seeing how they go? What's the worst that'll happen - just seize on me again?

They're suntour xcm, on a trek 4500 (which I got second hand from biking.ie years ago at this stage). I'll only be using it on the built trails of ballinastoe for the time being - skipped bump n grind and expressway over the weekend once I knew the forks were essentially stuck, but the rest have really been smoothed out since I was last there. N+1 is really looking like an MTB but is a weeks, possibly months away, after which the trek will become full on beater really (and I'll probably look for rigid forks at that stage).

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

The cranks should bolt up to the Sora rings, I wouldn't use the 105 rings with the 9spd chain but other than that all should be well.

Cheers. So is the spacing the same on the chainset? My Front Derailleur wont be under or over traveling when shifting the chain?

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

I'm far from expert level but to me you would need the BB to match the cranks and then the rings to match the chain and rear cassette.

The front mech to my mind would be fine, there's loads of adjustment in them

I'm planning on replacing the whole chainset as the cranks themselves aren't sold seperately to my knowledge. So I'd need a new bottom bracket too. My current set up is an FSA Vero (the rest is 9 speed Sora).
Cheers