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

Cleaned the drive train today then checked the chain with the wear tool and its well worn so need not of bothered clean it! . Swopped it out for a spare that had a couple of hundred kms if even on it. All well except its that quite noisy on the largest 50t chainring - creaking sounds - it feels and sounds fine on the small ring 34t. Bought the bike second hand so no idea of the milage on the large ring but looks a bit worn to my untrained eyes!
The existing is this one FSH but would I get away with replacing with this Shram ?

Thanks took the plunge and ordered yesterday with free returns from Amazon had nothing to loose really!

If it's the sealant you're referring to, I've seen it go yellowish when dry. The sealant that exploded all over my bike, shoes, helmet and glasses from the wheel of the rider next to me certainly went yellow. I've been chipping away slowly at it for the last 12 months. Only about 10 % left. Awful stuff.

silverharp wrote: »

cheap way to get a replacement front wheel for a standard road bike in Dublin? second hand better as its for a bike that's old and will be replaced soon.

Wanted ad in the classifieds or search ‘bike wheel’ on Adverts and take your pick from plenty.

Stick a Torx key into it, rather than the 2mm Allen key. Once you get it open, you can adjust it with the Torx key - the torques are not that high on an adjustment screw like that.

In the future, if you screw it all the way in, and that's not enough, you need to back out the cable tension screw all the way, open the cable clamp bolt and pull the cable tighter and go again.

PS: Buy a good quality Allen key set - cheap stuff always damages the bolt at the smaller sizes (anything under 5mm)

I have to cycle 20 km tomorrow morning and I just pulled a broken spoke off the back wheel on my roadbike, the other 29 look fine, can I chance it?

If I put a 26 inch x 1.5 tube mountain bike into a 24 x 1.5 inch tyre on a front wheel of a mountain bike will it work ?
will it be safe to use at low speed for a few hours ? the wheel is a standard 24 inch type .

I recently had a situation where I was attempting to change my stem and while trying to remove the top cap, I ended up taking out the entire expander plug thingy from the front fork. It seems i probably overtightened the top cap screw at some point and it basically got wedged into the screw part of the expander plug (see top picture below). Anyway, the top cap screw is not coming out, so I ordered a new expander plug (pretty cheap off the internet*) but it has come with what might be an extra part that wasn’t on the one removed from the bike ( see bottom picture below....it’s the thin metal sheath around the outside).

As the bike is only ~5months old and was bought from new, I’m wondering why that part was not used....or should I not be using that sheath and it’s just part of the packaging?

*the downside of this is that the item came with no instructions

cdaly_ wrote: »

I'm gonna say the old sheath is still inside your fork. I presume its purpose is to prevent the expander plug from distorting the steerer.

Thanks...yeah, I thought of that too, but it is definitely not in the fork (shone a torch light down there and it’s dirty and dusty,but definitely no sheath).

Your comment on the purpose of the sheath makes sense

Catalina Poor Speech wrote: »

Would you believe that there's a specific tool for that? I don't have one.

There are a lot of sizes available and I am unsure which size I will need. Tried searching for the Cube specs but there's no mention of the spoke size. Is every spoke the same length or can they be a mix and match of lengths?

Just measure from the inside of the hook of the spoke at the hub, to the surface of the rim and add 2-3mm to account for the bit of spoke in the top of the nipple.

Spokes are usually measured in 2mm increments, so just get the closest to your figure - all you want to avoid is a spoke being too short (not enough threads gripping the nipple) or too long (threads bottom out in the nipple before correct tension is reached and/or spoke protrudes through the rim tape).

Spokes are usually the same length on both sides of the wheel, but if there is a deep dish on the rear, the drive side spokes may be a few mm shorter, so measure a spoke on the same side as the broken one.

It's important to get the length right if you're building a whole wheel, but one or two mm isn't going to be an issue with a single replacement.

Is there any way to stop rust progression if you have to have your bike outside quite a lot and aren't in locations where you would cover the bike?

Oh wise boardsies, help a brother out.

I’m building up a dolan preffissio with 11speed 105 5800 from my old bike. All going super but now the rear wheel won’t fit.

It’s a khamsin wheel with an 11 speed cassette on it. It seems to be too wide to fit in between the dropouts. Front one went in perfect!
Any ideas?

Type 17 wrote: »

Google says this is an alu frame (is yours alu?)

What's the difference in spacing?

Assuming that it's alu, if the shortfall is less than about 5mm, you can gently pull the frame open as you put the wheel in, but don't try to over-stretch the stays so that they stay permanently wide enough (AKA cold-setting), as you can over-do it and damage the frame, or else one stay will move more than the other, causing the frame to be mis-aligned.

I talked to Dolan and they said the same + file the paint in the painted dropout. Good news is they said they would sort me out if there were problems so +1 for after sales.