What bike repairs/maintenance have you done today?
Discussion
Today I discovered a new bike cleaning tool for cleaning the greasy gunk that sticks between sprockets.
The free wooden fork that comes with ready made fruit salads. Plenty strong enough and just the right width. By the way, I'm not suggesting people buy a box of 100, that's the only pic I could find.
The free wooden fork that comes with ready made fruit salads. Plenty strong enough and just the right width. By the way, I'm not suggesting people buy a box of 100, that's the only pic I could find.
Randy Winkman said:
Today I discovered a new bike cleaning tool for cleaning the greasy gunk that sticks between sprockets.
The free wooden fork that comes with ready made fruit salads. Plenty strong enough and just the right width. By the way, I'm not suggesting people buy a box of 100, that's the only pic I could find.
Handy! Gonna try that, been using cotton buds which are ok ish The free wooden fork that comes with ready made fruit salads. Plenty strong enough and just the right width. By the way, I'm not suggesting people buy a box of 100, that's the only pic I could find.
I tend to use either a toothbrush, or one of these:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/muc-off-claw-brush-1/
But every now and again I take the cassette off, putting a shoe lace through it to keep it in the right order/direction etc, and shove it in my small ultrasonic parts washer with some bilt hamber surfex HD.....comes up like brand new again!
That brush is really good though as the bristles are really firm so good to get to hard-to-reach places.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/muc-off-claw-brush-1/
But every now and again I take the cassette off, putting a shoe lace through it to keep it in the right order/direction etc, and shove it in my small ultrasonic parts washer with some bilt hamber surfex HD.....comes up like brand new again!
That brush is really good though as the bristles are really firm so good to get to hard-to-reach places.
CoolC said:
These are good for getting into the cassette.
Or just a pack of big fluffy pipe cleaners from the pound shop
Or just a pack of big fluffy pipe cleaners from the pound shop
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10X-PAIR-BRITISH-ARMY-TR...
@ £6.99 for ten pairs (20 items), they look pretty similar to the Weldtite ones at £3.99(ish) per 5...
Gnaaaaar!
My son's old Giant hardtail has had a hard life, mainly used as a commute bike wearing road slicks and confined to tarmac and easier hard-pack routes through a local pond/wildlife reserve area.
He's no good at keeping up-to-date with maintenance, and I've taken my eye off the ball, so to speak. So we were faced with a badly worn chain and cassette which we duly replaced, price (including buying myself a pair of Louis Garneau Tap Touch liner gloves) was pricematched to Wiggle at Evans Cycles at less than £30.
Good-oh.
I even managed to get him interested in doing the work, so after a few days where he had no daylight opportunities to do it, we got the chain re-sized and the cassette all fitted on Saturday afternoon.
I'd not considered the negative effect that a badly worn chain can have on a chainset over a prolonged period.
Turns out we need to replace the FSA Dyna-Drive 8-speed square taper crankset with something new. Either that or rummage around ebay trying to find out who has what chainrings that fit it. But I'm keen to just by-pass the chainring confusion nonsense at this price point, and just plump for a new complete crankset.
This is the front runner...
https://www.decathlon.co.uk/altus-24-34-42-170mm-c...
...based on price and local availability.
It's a 'SHIMANO ALTUS 24/34/42 170MM CHAINSET' that needs a square taper bottom bracket width of 68/73mm. The trouble is I can't find any info for either the old FSA one, or the potential replacement, with regard to chain line.
Questions.
1) Is it likely that the replacement Shimano item will put the chain line out by enough to notice?
2) Can I safely presume that FSA and Shimano are both going to be standard JIS taper dimensions?
3) Bottom bracket width? That's measured across the BB shell of the bike frame, right?
Or should I just MTFU, "grow a set", and buy the damned chainset and get it fitted? Am I overthinking this?
The alternative is to take it to a local shop and throw it at them, but that will knock the price up considerably...
My son's old Giant hardtail has had a hard life, mainly used as a commute bike wearing road slicks and confined to tarmac and easier hard-pack routes through a local pond/wildlife reserve area.
He's no good at keeping up-to-date with maintenance, and I've taken my eye off the ball, so to speak. So we were faced with a badly worn chain and cassette which we duly replaced, price (including buying myself a pair of Louis Garneau Tap Touch liner gloves) was pricematched to Wiggle at Evans Cycles at less than £30.
Good-oh.
I even managed to get him interested in doing the work, so after a few days where he had no daylight opportunities to do it, we got the chain re-sized and the cassette all fitted on Saturday afternoon.
I'd not considered the negative effect that a badly worn chain can have on a chainset over a prolonged period.
Turns out we need to replace the FSA Dyna-Drive 8-speed square taper crankset with something new. Either that or rummage around ebay trying to find out who has what chainrings that fit it. But I'm keen to just by-pass the chainring confusion nonsense at this price point, and just plump for a new complete crankset.
This is the front runner...
https://www.decathlon.co.uk/altus-24-34-42-170mm-c...
...based on price and local availability.
It's a 'SHIMANO ALTUS 24/34/42 170MM CHAINSET' that needs a square taper bottom bracket width of 68/73mm. The trouble is I can't find any info for either the old FSA one, or the potential replacement, with regard to chain line.
Questions.
1) Is it likely that the replacement Shimano item will put the chain line out by enough to notice?
2) Can I safely presume that FSA and Shimano are both going to be standard JIS taper dimensions?
3) Bottom bracket width? That's measured across the BB shell of the bike frame, right?
Or should I just MTFU, "grow a set", and buy the damned chainset and get it fitted? Am I overthinking this?
The alternative is to take it to a local shop and throw it at them, but that will knock the price up considerably...
My mountain bike got a pile of TLC. Chain off, wheels off, cleaned all over. The lubed up, including suspension lube, and put back together. Rode it to work today, it all feels lovely and plush. Success! Girlfriend is currently at the LBS getting her brakes bled, they were very spongy last weekend.
As I'm not able to ride my bike at the moment due to a knee injury I did a fork service on the cheap Suntour fork on my hardtail. It all came apart easily enough, and didn't look that bad inside considering it has done 5,000km, mostly off road. However when I put it back together I noticed that the rebound adjusted was stuck, then I realised that the nut thing at the bottom of the right leg wasn't coming undone, it was just spinning. Which means I can't take the fork apart again. Hopefully the rebound is at a decent setting, if not the only solution I can see is a new fork.
Craikeybaby said:
As I'm not able to ride my bike at the moment due to a knee injury I did a fork service on the cheap Suntour fork on my hardtail. It all came apart easily enough, and didn't look that bad inside considering it has done 5,000km, mostly off road. However when I put it back together I noticed that the rebound adjusted was stuck, then I realised that the nut thing at the bottom of the right leg wasn't coming undone, it was just spinning. Which means I can't take the fork apart again. Hopefully the rebound is at a decent setting, if not the only solution I can see is a new fork.
It seems that when I took the fork off I lost a headset spacer, which despite having a good look around the garage floor I can't locate. Reassembling the bike has to wait until I get new spacers. I think I'll leave it to the professionals next time...I sprayed some silicone on the belt of my commuter as it was squeaking.
I should probably have washed it or brushed it or something first but that thing is just indestructible. I do need new brake pads though and I need to replace the oil in the rear hub which is a 5 minute job.
Oh and the rear kojak is also looking a little worn. I should replace that.
I should probably have washed it or brushed it or something first but that thing is just indestructible. I do need new brake pads though and I need to replace the oil in the rear hub which is a 5 minute job.
Oh and the rear kojak is also looking a little worn. I should replace that.
Randy Winkman said:
Today I discovered a new bike cleaning tool for cleaning the greasy gunk that sticks between sprockets.
The free wooden fork that comes with ready made fruit salads. Plenty strong enough and just the right width. By the way, I'm not suggesting people buy a box of 100, that's the only pic I could find.
Mate, don’t kid yourself, we all know that’s a chip fork!The free wooden fork that comes with ready made fruit salads. Plenty strong enough and just the right width. By the way, I'm not suggesting people buy a box of 100, that's the only pic I could find.
Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff