What bike repairs/maintenance have you done today?

[pembo]

If you lived nearer I'd have given you a crank puller, I keep getting them with tool sets and have no use for them. Might be worth asking around people locally.

[Your Dad]

Just spent 3 hours fettling a Giant TCX that looked like it had never been given any TLC. Chain and cassette are now silver instead of black. Swapped the chainrings too, gone are the factory 46/36 and replaced with 50/34.

[Max5476]

pembo said:

If you lived nearer I'd have given you a crank puller, I keep getting them with tool sets and have no use for them. Might be worth asking around people locally.

Thanks for the thought, they aren't expensive, and i definitely know enough cyclists to beg / borrow / steal the tools from friends and colleagues. I think i will drop it in the bike shop next week, as ill be riding the motorbike into work, and know a few people who have got stuck with seized bottom brackets before.

[yellowjack]

Before riding today, I replaced the CR2032 battery in my Bontrager 'Duotrap' speed/cadence sensor.


Well - I need something to tell me how stupidly low my cadence is!

Today's average 62 rpm - maximum 167 rpm. Why I bother with a cadence sensor and a HRM I'll never know. I never actually use the data for anything useful anyway!!!

[Rich_W]

yellowjack said:

Before riding today, I replaced the CR2032 battery in my Bontrager 'Duotrap' speed/cadence sensor.


Well - I need something to tell me how stupidly low my cadence is!

Today's average 62 rpm - maximum 167 rpm. Why I bother with a cadence sensor and a HRM I'll never know. I never actually use the data for anything useful anyway!!!

Cadence is so overrated. But people swear by it.


Like you I had a Cateye with cadence* and I now know I spin at around 75-80. But what I'm supposed to do with that who knows. The irony is that when I do strength sessions on the Turbo. I'm only churning over at around 50-55 or so. I know though, that the latter is doing my training more good....

Your cadence depends on height, muscle strength, everything. This coverall "ideal rpm" is as ste as saying everyone should swim like Michael Phelps, forgetting that Phelps "wingspan" is longer than his height, which is pretty rare in Humans! Or we should all run like Usain Bolt even when you're running a marathon


* Which subsequently died after 5 years. Decided I ddnt need one with Cadence so bought another Cateye without. That lasted 3 rides! Utter ste!

[E65Ross]

Rich_W said:

yellowjack said:

Before riding today, I replaced the CR2032 battery in my Bontrager 'Duotrap' speed/cadence sensor.


Well - I need something to tell me how stupidly low my cadence is!

Today's average 62 rpm - maximum 167 rpm. Why I bother with a cadence sensor and a HRM I'll never know. I never actually use the data for anything useful anyway!!!

Cadence is so overrated. But people swear by it.


Like you I had a Cateye with cadence* and I now know I spin at around 75-80. But what I'm supposed to do with that who knows. The irony is that when I do strength sessions on the Turbo. I'm only churning over at around 50-55 or so. I know though, that the latter is doing my training more good....

Your cadence depends on height, muscle strength, everything. This coverall "ideal rpm" is as ste as saying everyone should swim like Michael Phelps, forgetting that Phelps "wingspan" is longer than his height, which is pretty rare in Humans! Or we should all run like Usain Bolt even when you're running a marathon


* Which subsequently died after 5 years. Decided I ddnt need one with Cadence so bought another Cateye without. That lasted 3 rides! Utter ste!

The sweeping statement about "ideal rpm" is only true to a certain extent. Research has been done and for the majority of people something higher than 50-55rpm IS more efficient. It also puts less torque through your knee joints, too. Having an rpm of, say, 90rpm will utilise less intra-muscular glycogen stores, meaning that on a longer ride, when it comes to doing sprints or something during or near the end of the ride, you'll be in a better position to put in some anaerobic efforts.

Yes, it does depend on many factors, muscle fibre type being quite a key one. Whilst cadences also vary quite significantly in the pro-peloton....it speaks volumes that you don't ever see anyone doing 50rpm even on very hard efforts.....

[Shuttle Cock]

Sorted the indexing out on my Giant, as it would skip randomly in the middle of the cassette, and also geased the seat post to stop it creaking.

[Cabinet Enforcer]

There's too much maintenance in this thread, time for a proper fixing stuff post

Recently I was trying to get the pub bike to change gear without having to push the rear mech with your foot. A new inner and outer gear cable, complete with some machined brass ferrules to fit the frame was fitted, as I was adjusting the mech, I noticed a slight buckle in the rear wheel and gave the spokes a squeeze to assess the problem.

A large chunk of hub flange pinged off, and a number of spokes declared a hub related hard brexit.

It seems the hope screw on hub had succumbed to the "they all do that sir" stress corrosion cracking failure. Quite a bit of cursing commenced at this juncture.

A combination of violence, heat and gentle hammering convinced the hub into its constituent parts, and it became clear that both hub flanges were shot, so I decided to mangle up some new ones:



A few drops of loctite later and the hub was back in action, I replicated the hub dimensions so I could reuse the nice dB spokes and built it back up.



You can see the old hub flanges above the rebuilt hub. A new freewheel was fitted, as the old one didn't survive percussive removal, of course the gears still don't work, I think I am going to have to admit that the 24 year old mech is actually worn beyond rescue.

[CoolC]

Nice work that man

[AlmostUseful]

Wow.

I stripped my bike down last night. Recently bought a 2015 Specialized Enduro 29er with some horrifi mc graphics on it, gave it a quick rattle can job in satin black so I wasn't embarrassed to ride it and then took it out on the weekend. It creaks more than me.

PF30BB needs replacing, headset needs replacing, all pivot bearings need replacing. It will also be painted.

I was thinking of doing it myself but I've been told this morning that nitromors will damage the aluminium - now given that my recent experience with nitromors is that it doesn't even damage paint, how likely is it to damage the frame?

[louiebaby]

I've got rid of one set of creaks last night. 2 of the chain ring bolts were a bit loose.

Dunno how that happens...

I think the other "tick" is in the pedals, I think they're knackered.

[louiebaby]

The ticky-clicky roadie has gone in for a proper service, to make it feel all lovely and new again. I call this the tri-annual service, because I do most bits and pieces myself. I also asked them to cost up a full re-hanging with 11spd 105 to replace the aging 10spd. (It seems I've done 10k miles on Strava with that bike, and many k more before I was on Strava.

I've also pulled my winter-commuter MTB to pieces, and ordered the new bits for it:

• Chain
• Cassette
• Jockey wheels
• Front derailleur (managed to bring it back to life last year, but not this year
• Grips

If it feels solid enough for another winter, it'll be pressed into duty for that. If not, it will be the family / Forestry Commission trail type bike, and a new commuter through Cycle To Work will be procured.

[Paul Drawmer]

Put my 25 yr old Saracen up on the stand to fit new gear cables, and found the BB was shot. Old style cup and cone, new sealed unit on the way from Chain Reaction.
1. Impressed that its lasted so long
2. Pleased that a modern replacement only costs a tenner.

Now I'll get on with replacing the gear cables!

[Max5476]

Max5476 said:

Thanks for the thought, they aren't expensive, and i definitely know enough cyclists to beg / borrow / steal the tools from friends and colleagues. I think i will drop it in the bike shop next week, as ill be riding the motorbike into work, and know a few people who have got stuck with seized bottom brackets before.

Looks like it has worked, new BB fitted by the LBC last week, and cycle to work was much smoother (and quieter) today.

[yellowjack]

Monday I rode a silly century in the Chilterns in the rain. Not my fault you understand - Carol bloomin' Kirkwood needs to shoulder some of the blame for her shoddy weather forecast that morning.

Anyway. Foolishly I did it on my 'nice' road bike. Such was the persistence and the volume of rain that a lot of "bounce back" of water and grit from the road landed on the frame. Some of that grit worked it's way in between the cranks and the frame, and lots of it made a right racket when trapped betwixt pad and rim braking on the downhills.

Yesterday I inspected and cleaned the rims, and removed the pads to clean them up too. Stanley knife to clear the gaps on the face of the pad, and to trim off the slight lip on the pads, detergent to was the grey gunk off, and 320 grit wet'n'dry to clean up the face of the pads.

Then, as the water had dried/evaporated off overnight, I dry-brushed the grit from the frame. It was only recently treated to a cranks-off wash and polish for summer, but now the grit that had trapped itself between the cranks and the frame has taken off some of the paint in the bottom bracket area. Added to the poorly adjusted chain catcher allowing a dropped chain to rip a layer of red paint off the downtube recently, and I could very nearly weep at the state of my bike.

On the bright side, though, it's clean again now, and there seems to be no lasting mechanical issues...


...so far!

[yellowjack]

Well. That's summer over and done with then...


Today I cleaned the dry lube off my chain, and replaced it with wet lube. And then I swapped out a near slick Racing Ralph tyre on my rear wheel for a nice chunky Nobby Nic to match the one on the front wheel. I needed it too, as the Ralph would never have got me up a couple of muddy climbs on this afternoon's ride. Can't see me putting the Racing Ralphs back on again until next summer now...

[Bobley]

I just fitted a 9 speed MTB cassette, to a 10 speed road hub, with an 8 speed Acera mech and a 9 speed Alivio shifter and chucked it on an absolutely rotten Dawes Giro pub bike which already had a 10 speed compact crank and the old 8 speed chain.... and it works?

[louiebaby]

louiebaby said:

The ticky-clicky roadie has gone in for a proper service, to make it feel all lovely and new again. I call this the tri-annual service, because I do most bits and pieces myself. I also asked them to cost up a full re-hanging with 11spd 105 to replace the aging 10spd. (It seems I've done 10k miles on Strava with that bike, and many k more before I was on Strava.

I've also pulled my winter-commuter MTB to pieces, and ordered the new bits for it:

• Chain
• Cassette
• Jockey wheels
• Front derailleur (managed to bring it back to life last year, but not this year
• Grips

If it feels solid enough for another winter, it'll be pressed into duty for that. If not, it will be the family / Forestry Commission trail type bike, and a new commuter through Cycle To Work will be procured.

This is all fitted now. (I'm a bit slack really.) All I need to do now is index the gears and I'm good to go (probably.)

I've also change the tyres, tubes and discs on one of these:

That job was a proper pain in the arse. The rules of Cargo-Bike-Club:

1. Don't get a puncture.
2. DON'T GET A fkING PUNCTURE.

(The missus uses it for delivering our children to school.)

[anonymous-user]

louiebaby said:

This is all fitted now. (I'm a bit slack really.) All I need to do now is index the gears and I'm good to go (probably.)

I've also change the tyres, tubes and discs on one of these:

That job was a proper pain in the arse. The rules of Cargo-Bike-Club:

1. Don't get a puncture.
2. DON'T GET A fkING PUNCTURE.

(The missus uses it for delivering our children to school.)

Would these double ended inner tubes help?

https://gaadi.de/?lang=en

[louiebaby]

JPJPJP said:

Would these double ended inner tubes help?

https://gaadi.de/?lang=en

Looks like a good idea. Yes, they would have helped. About 3 days ago.