Starting to use a bike again, got a problem....

[Maty]

Up to getting my driving license I was constantly on a bike, everywhere I went, obviously since getting a car I have hardly ever ridden.

Well I'm 26 now and realising that I do no exercise whatsoever and it's staring to show. I've tried the gym thing, swimming bores me and running just isn't for me so I've decided to start riding again. I've got the bike back out of the garage and to be honest it's in pretty good nick, were not talking suspension and disc brakes here but it will do the job for now! My plan is to just use it to ride to the office and back when I have no appointments and the occasional ride in the evenings. No major off road stuff, mixture of canals, roads etc etc. As I said the bike is in good nick, it has been taken out again a few times over the years so the chain etc are all fine.

So my problem, I took the back wheel off and I can move the cogs about, I am presuming bearings are gone??? Now I replaced the back wheel (just the wheel) about 8 months ago on another occasion when I decided to get the bike out again. I replaced the wheel because the spokes were falling out, but I had the old cogs fitted to the new wheel for some reason. It may have been down to the cost, I cant remember but what I want to know is can a shop replace the bearings and the cogs for me and how much is this going to cost me? Sorry I am not aware of the technical terms here!

Also what about tires? At the moment its got knobbly off road ones on, what would you recommend for a mixture of roads and bridal path type stuff???

Buying another bike is not an option just yet, however if I do get into it again then I will look to buying something new but for the time being I can think of better things to be spending £400+ on. Plus this bike is perfectly fine for the job, it's fairly light and apart from the gear problem it works well!

The beast in question..



Thanks,

[stu8975]

what model atx is it, cant make out the no's? If its a freewheel then it should be replaceable fairly easily, but beware you may have to change your chain and chainrings if they are too worn. If its a cassette type, then no, its doesnt have any bearings, what it may be is the freehub (the bit the cassette slides onto), now considering the age of the bike (circa 1996) you might have trouble getting a replacement freehub as they are pretty much wheel specific and arent too cheap (about £50 for a modern 9 speed version). but 1st thing, check its not the wheel axle thats loose, or freewheel/cassette lockring may just need tightening...do you have a close up pic of the freewheel/cassette? if its a cassette it may have a model no on the smallest sprocket.

[Maty]

Hi, thanks for the reply. It's an ATX840.

I've had a look and I can make out;

Shimano Interactive Glide A

And then on the smallest cog it says;

UC1





Not the best pictures I know but they were off a Blackberry!

[Parrot of Doom]

The freewheel bearings are shot. Not a difficult job for a bike shop, 20 minutes or so. The cassette will probably be fine.

[Maty]

Good stuff!

How much should I be looking at?

[P-Jay]

£20ish I'd guess. Depending on what bearings it needs.

Whilst you're there have a look at some touring/semi slick tyres. It'll really get your cruising speed up if you're on the road/pathways most of the time. There's a few very good types out there, but what you want to use it for, it's probably best to just buy what they have going cheap rather than droppping £60 on a pair of Maxxis or something.

Tyre pressure also makes a big difference on road missions, Roadie run presures high enough to turn coal to diamonds, but they're very odd. They shave their legs for no performance advantage whatsoever for peats sake!

Edited by P-Jay on Tuesday 8th September 10:42

[Maty]

Cheers P-Jay.

What would you recommend tyre wise for say £40 a pair (which makes etc should I look at)? And when you say high pressures, how high are we talking?? I pumped the front up last night, the tioga's that are on now said 35-65psi!

[stu8975]

As long as the freehub bearing surfaces aren't kaput its an easy fix, price seems to vary between bike shops, it may need completely replacing due to the age of the bike, and shimano prices have gone through the roof. As far as tyres go, I used to run Maxxis Detonators 26x1.5, can be still had for about £30 a pair.Soooooper fast.

[Maty]

Where have all the bike shops gone???? Finally found one open and they are charging £30 to replace the cogs (whats the technical term here??). She also said I would probably need a new chain given the amount of play there was, seen as I have never changed the chain it's gotta be due a new one so £50 all in seems ok to me!

I'll have a look for the Maxxis tires. All it needs now is some new brake pads and I'm away!

Quite looking forward to it!

[stu8975]

The 'cogs' as she referred to are known as a 'cassette' on your bike. These DO NOT need replacing if its your freehub that's kaput, replacing the cassette will not fix the freehub, if it is the freehub that's indeed kaput. It could be that the cassette is simply loose, which would also cause play if you give the cassette a wiggle.The smallest sprocket has a lockring (the bit with the grooves cut into it on your pic) which keeps the sprockets nice n snug against each other and should be tight. The freehub wont sound too good it the bearings are shot and should be pretty noticable, will prob sound dry and rough. Not to convinced the 'she' knows whats shes on about.

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=44

Edited by stu8975 on Tuesday 8th September 12:43

[Maty]

Ah I understand now, "she" did take the wheel out the back to her "engineer" so I am presuming he knows what's going on! I'll find out when I go and pick it up later.

[timskipper]

Just to say to the OP good luck with the fitness - I'm doing the exact same thing (with a crappy old Apollo MTB converted to road use) for the same reasons!



Tim

[Maty]

Cheers Tim, first ride coming up tonight! Genuinely cant wait, picked the wrong time of year to start though, Doh!!

Good luck with the apollo!

[angusc43]

Hi - Good luck.

I recently dug out a lightly-used 1994 DiamondBack Ascent EX and started commuting in anger. I'm averaging over three commutes a week. wich equates to 50-ish miles a week. I do most of it a fair old pace. It's a great cardio work out and it keeps the wight off.

A decent old MB is perfectly up to the job.

Get some slicks or semi-slicks and that will help. I've stuck to big old fat tyres as they help absorb a lot of the broken tarmac in central London. And they are good for kerb hopping when negotiating traffic queues.

[Maty]

Ok so I got the first ride out of the way last night. I used mapmyrun.co.uk to see how far I managed and I did 5.5 miles, with some work at a house I'm doing up in between. Ended up riding home in the pissing down rain.....which was fun!

Couple of things I noticed. First of all the bike is great, considering its been used a handfull of times in the past 11 years it ran really well. Few clicks and noises from the gears at times and I can't get into the highest gear on the front (where the pedals are) so down hill I cant get any real speed up. I've tried adjusting the derailleur but I dont know what I'm supposed to be doing and I've made it worse. Also the chain is slightly catching on the front derailleur, I've got a high and low screw but they dont seem to be having much effect! Any ideas?

Also the seat is far too hard, that bit between your nuts and your yaris, yeah well that's very sore today! Can anyone recommend me a decent comfortable seat.

I am also not too confident on the road, feel as though I'm in the way of everyone and to be honest, for some reason, felt a little stupid!

[Xenocide]

Maty said:

Ok so I got the first ride out of the way last night. I used mapmyrun.co.uk to see how far I managed and I did 5.5 miles, with some work at a house I'm doing up in between. Ended up riding home in the pissing down rain.....which was fun!

Couple of things I noticed. First of all the bike is great, considering its been used a handfull of times in the past 11 years it ran really well. Few clicks and noises from the gears at times and I can't get into the highest gear on the front (where the pedals are) so down hill I cant get any real speed up. I've tried adjusting the derailleur but I dont know what I'm supposed to be doing and I've made it worse. Also the chain is slightly catching on the front derailleur, I've got a high and low screw but they dont seem to be having much effect! Any ideas?

Also the seat is far too hard, that bit between your nuts and your yaris, yeah well that's very sore today! Can anyone recommend me a decent comfortable seat.

I am also not too confident on the road, feel as though I'm in the way of everyone and to be honest, for some reason, felt a little stupid!

Ok on the front mech you've got two screws, High reach and low reach. They do what they say on the tin. (These might be backwards depending on what sort of mech you have, one where the cable comes from the top, or one where the cable comes from the bottom)

When the cable is slack, the L screw will adjust how it sits at it's lowest level.
When the cable it taught, the H screw will adjust it's maximum movement, like a stop.

If the bike's been sat for a while it's probably that the cable has stretched needs tightening a bit. There's two ways of doing this. There might be a barrel adjuster on the handlebar control, just adjust that so it sticks out a bit further. More likely is the cable at the mech end needs adjusting. To do this, you need:

Three hands
Pliers
Screwdriver

Put the handlebar control so the cable is at it's most slack (Again depends what sort of mech you have as to weather this is high or low gear, probably low) and grab the end of the cable with the pliers and undo the holding screw. Give the cable a bit of a tug and pull, say, 1cm through the screw and do the screw back up again. You'll need to play with the barrel adjuster again (put it to its lowest point when you start adjusting).

You'd aiming to have the cable tight when the mech is at it's lowest point but not moving the mech at all. When you use the handlebar control it should move immediatly and not take up any slack.

Hope that made sense. It did in my head!

[Maty]

Yeah that makes sense, after reading a couple of times. I'll give it a try tonight.

Also lubrication, ooh err!! Seeing as the bike has been stood for a while what exactly should I be lubricating and what should I be using??

[Xenocide]

Maty said:

Yeah that makes sense, after reading a couple of times. I'll give it a try tonight.

Also lubrication, ooh err!! Seeing as the bike has been stood for a while what exactly should I be lubricating and what should I be using??

3 in one will be ok for the chain, spin the pedals backwards and put it on the inside of the chain.

Clean it was parafin first if needed

[Maty]

What about seats, I've got the ride home coming up, only a couple of miles but dreading the seat!

[timskipper]

Maty said:

What about seats, I've got the ride home coming up, only a couple of miles but dreading the seat!

Get some proper lycra cycling shorts - they have padding in the appropriate area!