Good for the one day of summer. Else I go down from thick lube to thin lube of wet variety though could be Castro’s GTX FIDEL ALL THE WAY
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Stuff
Today's satisfactory bicycle maintenance
(470 posts)-
Posted 3 years ago #
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@IWARTS thanks! I will get my bottles ready
Posted 3 years ago # -
“Try before you buy. I have like litres of the stuff.”
“I wish this idea of topping up the Evans bottle with the good nozzle had come to me before“
Maybe The Bike Station should have a refill service.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I have some funnels I store for Mrs Garto when she gets all Piagetian with the curriculum to dispense high volume into wee jars
Posted 3 years ago # -
Piagetian, yes, but where do jars fit in?
(What are you filling them with?)
Posted 3 years ago # -
Water
Piaget insisted on jars, Robertson jam jars being his fave
Posted 3 years ago # -
Maybe The Bike Station should have a refill service.
That's an ethical quandary, innit? Clearly correct in principle, but that whopping markup may be keeping LBSs afloat? Or keeping Maddison afloat?
Posted 3 years ago # -
Wouldn’t it be more educational for kids to fill their own?
Posted 3 years ago # -
“but that whopping markup may be keeping LBSs afloat?”
Perhaps.
BUT
TBS offering a (slightly) ‘more ethical’ option is unlikely to affect LBS sales much.
Perhaps TBS should be developing a superior lubricant based on pre-compost vegetable peelings?
Posted 3 years ago # -
@chdot
If only The Bike Station had a research chemist to hand....somebody who could tell nitrogen from phosphorous.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago #
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Slightly scared by the knuckle-blade proximity.
I was actually taught a trick for sharpening the double-edged razor blades: you press them onto the inside of a tumbler and rub back and forwards.
My grandfather used to finish stropping his cutthroat razor on the palm of his hand.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I gave my bike a proper clean on Saturday to wash off the mud and salt. Now that I have tools I even removed and degreased the chain and cassette so they were 'squeaky' clean.
Once I put everything back on I checked for gear shifting and the rear gears wouldn't got to smaller rings. I have never had to fix the rear shifting all by myself I got onto watching the Park Tool videos. After some mocking about I found the gear cable got stuck in the tubing so it wasn't moving. I lubed cable so it was moving again and adjusted the rear derailleur.
I am not able to go to the biggest cog and @edinburgh87 told me that probably the cable is too stretched and I should replace it soon. So that will be a job (and learning) for another day.I went for a test ride and the shifting was working like a dream (without the biggest cog that is) and it meant I was able to go for a Sunday ride.
It definitely wasn't as bad and tricky as I always feared.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Great stuff Bill. Well worth learning the more regular maintenance and repair. Saves time and money (though there may be some frustration).
Posted 3 years ago # -
@amir thanks! Right now it also means I don't have to rely on a LBS or TBS to be open and available to help me out. So one of the impacts of Covid for me: I had to learn more about the bike maintenance.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I went through a long phase of preferring it if I couldn't quite reach the largest cog in case it jumped into the spokes and took out the shifter, wheel, both, or more. I keep forgetting to add one of those plastic spoke-protector things to other online orders.
I have finally added a set of Kool Stop pink-flavour brake pads to the new brakes I ordered before winterfeast, and have now retrieved some replacement brake cables from the box of bits and shall now make my singlespeed rideable again. Having been off the road since before the snowtimes the chain can last a few more months but I managed to find one of the replacement chain-tensioner things to replace the one which was too rusted to adjust.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I had to learn more about the bike maintenance.
It is a noble trade and a great joy provided you put that spacers back in right. Always the spacers.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“I am not able to go to the biggest cog ... probably the cable is too stretched and I should replace it soon.”
Well but.
Sounds like the cable just needs to be adjusted - turn knurled knob on rear mech.
Cables tend to stretch when used from new. After that less so, and just degenerate in various ways depending on usage and balance between weather and lubrication.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Quarter turn anti clockwise if gears slipping so maybe quarter turn clockwise if big cog unreachable
As if I know what I am talking about. I have put several rear mechs through the spokes in my time.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“I have put several rear mechs through the spokes in my time.“
Me too.
Of course there are two different things here - whether mech screw (there are two small ones for high and low ends of the range) is screwed in far enough to prevent mech touching spokes and cable adjustment so that mech moves enough to put chain on sprocket nearest to spokes.
‘Mech in spokes’ is most likely to be due to damage (hitting trees stumps etc) or laying bike down on ‘wrong side’ once too often.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I have "one of those plastic spoke-protector"
@chdot I actually completely unscrew the L screw and the chain still wasn't going there. I tried putting more tension of the cable (the knurled knob on rear mech clockwise) but it started making lots of noise on the lower cogs.
Posted 3 years ago # -
All of the following refers to frames with external cable routing (all of my bikes). Internal cable routing is the devil's work!
Anyway: it may be that the outer cable has a worn liner and this is leading to excessive friction when the inner cable pulls through it. Usually this results in "soggy" shifting rather than not being able to shift into a particular gear.
I tend to cheat a bit on outer replacement by replacing the little bit near the mech every time I replace the inner cable. It seems very prone to contamination and wear, possibly due to the comparatively tight bend required.
The rest of the outers (under the bar tape etc) get replaced if problems persist after replacing the little bit near the mech. The bits of outer under the bar tape are good for several years usually. Which appeals to my mean/thrifty streak!
Also, if the system has got contaminated bits of grit can cause intermittent problems. Somethings removing the inner and flushing the outer "downwards" (towards the mech) with any spray lube that has a straw can help.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@medium Dave, that is a good point about the internal routing which I do believe to be prevalent on Bill’s bike
Posted 3 years ago # -
@gembo @MediumDave yes, internal routing
Posted 3 years ago # -
Well, I hope for your sake the problem isn't with the liners inside the frame!
It took us most of an afternoon, a vacuum cleaner, a pair of tick tweezers and much breaking of rule 2 to replace the internal liners on my girlfriend's fancy bike. Wretched things.
On her bike the liner that went through the chainstay had worn through where it made a bend to get into the bottom bracket shell. This caused the inner cable to stick and various issues with shifting. You could feel the notchiness when pulling the cable between the mech and the BB shell.
On removing the inner cable to fix that we then discovered the liners in the down tube had separated into 2 parts which promptly fell out of the frame making getting the new liners and cable in place...challenging.
Good luck.
Posted 3 years ago # -
There is one weird trick for internal routing that mechanics don't want you to know.
Posted 3 years ago # -
On the way home from my POP installation last night there was a peculiar clunking/dragging/slewing from the rear. I initially suspected a broken spoke (though was only carrying panniers full of empty cardboard boxes) but narrowed it down to the rear hub or freewheel as I proceeded gingerly the rest of the way home, then determined in it to be the single BMX-type freewheel this morning as the wheel span freely when spun backwards but the freewheel barely turned by hand. Unfortunately, I had nothing to remove a single BMX-style freewheel with, which is why it's still the original one from when I built the bike as I couldn't get it off when I last replaced the chain and cranks, but I did have a whole new wheel's ingredients (ordered a couple of years ago ready for when the rim died) and the replacement freewheel from several years ago. The alternative was replacing the drivetrain of the geared bike and swapping off the winter spikes, so I managed to build the wheel in about an hour then remove the Marathon+ to get the tube out of it and install the new one (the most recently-ordered thing from Dec 2019) after another hour. I can now be relatively slow about getting the old freewheel off the old hub if I order the wee tool thing, or possibly opening it up to see what it's grinding if I can locate my pin spanner.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Single speed freewheels only about a tenner new. I'd just remove it, bin and replace.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Had an outing to Fife/Perth and Kinross last Thursday (a site visit to recce prior to arranging a non-cycling activity) and took the opportunity to ride back the long way. North Fife lovely. South Fife less so (Lochgelly, Cardenden). Not improved by my antique bar-end shifter popping its clogs just outside Thornton. Had a lovely good long look at the Rothes Colliery fanhouse[1] and a demolition gang at work on the remaining surface buildings while I bodged the shifter to work half-friction, half indexed.
There was still an elevated gangway to the where the downcast shaft would have been but nothing much recognizable as colliery. If anyone else wants to look I would make haste.
The satisfactory bit came on the train later when I finally got the thing apart enough to remove the bits of disintegrated shifter and switch to full friction mode. Kickin' it old skool...
Replacement is trickier though. Bicycle Works could not help (though they were most accommodating of my bizarre requests). Therefore I need to get to the Bike Station on Friday to see if they have an old 8speed bar end or downtube shifter I can repurpose. The MediumDave fleet of obsolete bicycles shall abide...
[1] https://canmore.org.uk/site/70464/rothes-colliery
The fanhouse is the odd looking thing with the "horns" in front of one of the pitheads
According to a sign on the wall it's occupied by a firm of fabricators who make ventilation equipment! I find this pleasing.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I bought a set of presta tubes for the EB, having a detached schraeder on the cheaper originals - an on the whim purchase as I was passing Willie Bains shop and pulled a U-ie on Pollokshaws Road to drop in
In other news - I've yet to fit them.....
Posted 2 years ago #
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