A maintenance thing that happens all too frequently (to me anyway)
02-26-20, 07:11 PM
#1
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A maintenance thing that happens all too frequently (to me anyway)
Does this ever happen to you?
You get some new part to replace something worn out, like tires or a cassette or whatever, and while installing the new thing you notice some other issue you hadn’t noticed before that makes you go “huh”. And then upon closer inspection you realize this new problem is way worse than the one you just spent money on new parts to fix?
Happens to me all the time.
Latest example: I destroyed a tubeless tire and spent money on a replacement and new tubeless valves. While installing the new tire, I kinda noticed a rather prominent ridge in my rim brake track, which made me go “huh”. After careful inspection and googling over the last two days, it is increasingly clear to me that the rim is pretty well worn out. My front rim is considerably less worn, indicating that I rely heavily on my rear brake when bleeding speed (not a good habit) and also that I need to clean my rear brake pads and rim more often. So good news, I don’t need a whole new wheelset, and my rear hub is fine, so I just need to rebuild a new rim onto my existing hub.
So my options:
— $150 for a new Hed Belgium + rim, reuse spokes, and rebuild the wheel myself. Which will result, after a lot of swearing,in a pretty good wheel.
— $250 for a new rim and new spokes and rebuild the wheel myself.This will result, after a lot of swearing, in a marginally better wheel with more reliable spokes.
— $350 to ship the hub to the wheel builder from whom I bought the wheel and have them rebuild it into a new rim with new spokes. This will result in an excellent wheel tensioned to NASA level precision.
You get some new part to replace something worn out, like tires or a cassette or whatever, and while installing the new thing you notice some other issue you hadn’t noticed before that makes you go “huh”. And then upon closer inspection you realize this new problem is way worse than the one you just spent money on new parts to fix?
Happens to me all the time.
Latest example: I destroyed a tubeless tire and spent money on a replacement and new tubeless valves. While installing the new tire, I kinda noticed a rather prominent ridge in my rim brake track, which made me go “huh”. After careful inspection and googling over the last two days, it is increasingly clear to me that the rim is pretty well worn out. My front rim is considerably less worn, indicating that I rely heavily on my rear brake when bleeding speed (not a good habit) and also that I need to clean my rear brake pads and rim more often. So good news, I don’t need a whole new wheelset, and my rear hub is fine, so I just need to rebuild a new rim onto my existing hub.
So my options:
— $150 for a new Hed Belgium + rim, reuse spokes, and rebuild the wheel myself. Which will result, after a lot of swearing,in a pretty good wheel.
— $250 for a new rim and new spokes and rebuild the wheel myself.This will result, after a lot of swearing, in a marginally better wheel with more reliable spokes.
— $350 to ship the hub to the wheel builder from whom I bought the wheel and have them rebuild it into a new rim with new spokes. This will result in an excellent wheel tensioned to NASA level precision.
02-26-20, 07:34 PM
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Sorry about your "discovery", but when you ride a lot, which I am assuming you do, stuff wears out, it is inevitable. When I was still doing my 9,000 km annual commute to work during the 9 month Montreal (at best) cycling season, stuff wore out, it was inevitable. If you ride in poor weather conditions on a regular basis, it may be time to look at a bike with disc brakes
02-26-20, 08:46 PM
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02-26-20, 09:23 PM
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Having a rear rim wear out first is common even if you use the front brake properly. The rear runs in the spray and dirt kicked up by the front and gathers a lot more crud that acts as a grinding compound. Almost all of my rim failures have been rear wheels and the single front rim failure was at 3X the mileage of it's rear mate.
02-26-20, 09:39 PM
#5
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$100 for spokes?
Are these proprietary?
Are these proprietary?
02-26-20, 10:22 PM
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02-26-20, 11:12 PM
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Similar sort of thing just happened to me today. Installed new Shimano cassette and chain. They're great. Now, I have a brand-new clicking sound with my left pedal stroke. Ha!!!! Two steps forward, one step back...
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02-27-20, 11:01 AM
#8
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Not on a regular basis, but it does happen. A while ago I got new pedals for my bike (bought used several months before) and when I unscrewed the old pedals it turned out that the threads in both the right side pedal and the crank were damaged - made me wonder how the pedal sat tightly in that. Had to look for new cranks too.
02-27-20, 11:38 AM
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It happens to everyone. Not necessarily in that order, but tracking down a little squeak, and finding split nipple holes.
Obviously starting small jobs like repacking bearings and finding PITS
Discovering a minor miscalculation from previous maintenance makes a nightmare today.
— $150 for a new Hed Belgium + rim, reuse spokes, and rebuild the wheel myself. Which will result, after a lot of swearing,in a pretty good wheel.
— $250 for a new rim and new spokes and rebuild the wheel myself.This will result, after a lot of swearing, in a marginally better wheel with more reliable spokes.
— $350 to ship the hub to the wheel builder from whom I bought the wheel and have them rebuild it into a new rim with new spokes. This will result in an excellent wheel tensioned to NASA level precision.
— $250 for a new rim and new spokes and rebuild the wheel myself.This will result, after a lot of swearing, in a marginally better wheel with more reliable spokes.
— $350 to ship the hub to the wheel builder from whom I bought the wheel and have them rebuild it into a new rim with new spokes. This will result in an excellent wheel tensioned to NASA level precision.
E-Bay: Black J-Bend or Straight CX-Ray ($2.25 Each x 28) + 10 = $73.
E-Bay: Silver Straight Pull, CX-Ray ($1.50 Each x 28) + $10 = $52.
This vendor cuts them to length including mm increments, but is closer to your quote
Last edited by CliffordK; 02-27-20 at 11:41 AM.
02-27-20, 12:12 PM
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Does this ever happen to you?
You get some new part to replace something worn out, like tires or a cassette or whatever, and while installing the new thing you notice some other issue you hadn’t noticed before that makes you go “huh”. And then upon closer inspection you realize this new problem is way worse than the one you just spent money on new parts to fix?
Happens to me all the time.
Latest example: I destroyed a tubeless tire and spent money on a replacement and new tubeless valves. While installing the new tire, I kinda noticed a rather prominent ridge in my rim brake track, which made me go “huh”. After careful inspection and googling over the last two days, it is increasingly clear to me that the rim is pretty well worn out. My front rim is considerably less worn, indicating that I rely heavily on my rear brake when bleeding speed (not a good habit) and also that I need to clean my rear brake pads and rim more often. So good news, I don’t need a whole new wheelset, and my rear hub is fine, so I just need to rebuild a new rim onto my existing hub.
So my options:
— $150 for a new Hed Belgium + rim, reuse spokes, and rebuild the wheel myself. Which will result, after a lot of swearing,in a pretty good wheel.
— $250 for a new rim and new spokes and rebuild the wheel myself.This will result, after a lot of swearing, in a marginally better wheel with more reliable spokes.
— $350 to ship the hub to the wheel builder from whom I bought the wheel and have them rebuild it into a new rim with new spokes. This will result in an excellent wheel tensioned to NASA level precision.
You get some new part to replace something worn out, like tires or a cassette or whatever, and while installing the new thing you notice some other issue you hadn’t noticed before that makes you go “huh”. And then upon closer inspection you realize this new problem is way worse than the one you just spent money on new parts to fix?
Happens to me all the time.
Latest example: I destroyed a tubeless tire and spent money on a replacement and new tubeless valves. While installing the new tire, I kinda noticed a rather prominent ridge in my rim brake track, which made me go “huh”. After careful inspection and googling over the last two days, it is increasingly clear to me that the rim is pretty well worn out. My front rim is considerably less worn, indicating that I rely heavily on my rear brake when bleeding speed (not a good habit) and also that I need to clean my rear brake pads and rim more often. So good news, I don’t need a whole new wheelset, and my rear hub is fine, so I just need to rebuild a new rim onto my existing hub.
So my options:
— $150 for a new Hed Belgium + rim, reuse spokes, and rebuild the wheel myself. Which will result, after a lot of swearing,in a pretty good wheel.
— $250 for a new rim and new spokes and rebuild the wheel myself.This will result, after a lot of swearing, in a marginally better wheel with more reliable spokes.
— $350 to ship the hub to the wheel builder from whom I bought the wheel and have them rebuild it into a new rim with new spokes. This will result in an excellent wheel tensioned to NASA level precision.
I think new spokes are not much benefit if the old ones can be relied on, unless there is new technology that you want to enjoy. Examples would be to upgrade from 2.0 straight spokes to 1.8/1.5/1.8 light butted spokes (or whatever size you think you can take) or to go to Sapim CX-rays, or to replace old galvanized spokes with stainless steel - shiny!
If my wheel builder was local I'd probably take the wheel there for a consult - is there a better rim choice to go-to now? Be aware most sellers of new hardware will try to make sure you have him/her renew both rims.
02-27-20, 12:14 PM
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It happens to everyone. Not necessarily in that order, but tracking down a little squeak, and finding split nipple holes.
Obviously starting small jobs like repacking bearings and finding PITS
Discovering a minor miscalculation from previous maintenance makes a nightmare today.
Don't forget the option.... $350 - $150 = $150 New Parts PLUS $200 NEW TOOLS!!!!
There may be other vendors, but I've had good luck with E-Bay searches.
E-Bay: Black J-Bend or Straight CX-Ray ($2.25 Each x 28) + 10 = $73.
E-Bay: Silver Straight Pull, CX-Ray ($1.50 Each x 28) + $10 = $52.
This vendor cuts them to length including mm increments, but is closer to your quote
Obviously starting small jobs like repacking bearings and finding PITS
Discovering a minor miscalculation from previous maintenance makes a nightmare today.
Don't forget the option.... $350 - $150 = $150 New Parts PLUS $200 NEW TOOLS!!!!
There may be other vendors, but I've had good luck with E-Bay searches.
E-Bay: Black J-Bend or Straight CX-Ray ($2.25 Each x 28) + 10 = $73.
E-Bay: Silver Straight Pull, CX-Ray ($1.50 Each x 28) + $10 = $52.
This vendor cuts them to length including mm increments, but is closer to your quote
Yeah, new tools FTW!
02-27-20, 01:10 PM
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I wouldn't bother recycling spokes, esp CX-Rays, but that's just me. I'm risk averse when it comes to wheels.
02-28-20, 02:35 AM
#13
Junior Member
Unless the old rims are also Belgiums, the old spokes might be the wrong length. The “correct” way to do this is get the rims and hubs, measure them and calculate the appropriate spoke length, and then get the spokes.
The old spokes might work, but they also may be the wrong length.
That said, if the spokes are the correct length and in good shape, reusing them is fine.
The old spokes might work, but they also may be the wrong length.
That said, if the spokes are the correct length and in good shape, reusing them is fine.
03-05-20, 11:26 AM
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At the Bike Exchange we work on bikes people donate and usually don't have any info on what problems they were experiencing before donation. Some bikes are garage queens that have never been ridden hard then stored in the rafters for 20 years. others like the 2002 BIanchi Veloche I am currently working on were ridden hard for years , modified, and finally parked after some particular failure.
many times I have taken a bike needing brake work and fixed the obvious like frayed cables or worn shoes only to find something else ( one side of cantilever brake stuck?) and in the end having to completely disassemble everything and start from scratch, cleaning and greasing , possibly replacing a spring, or sometimes replacing everything. This can make a service/repair that should have taken an hour take all day.
Nowadays when I bring a bike home I completely disassemble the bike, clean everything, then start re assembly . This actually makes all the work easier and faster since I don't waste time in something only to find an underlying problem that needs to be addressed.
Since most of the bikes we work on are donated back into the community to disadvantaged folks , we realize that perfection is the enemy of the good and focus on safety issues , using , for example, used tires and tubes with some life left in them instead of new rubber.
On our sale bikes we generally work to a higher standard and I am always scouring the parts bins for better derailleurs or brake levers and try to put the best tires I can find on the bikes. The end result is often a bike that is better than new and something we can easily sell for a decent price.
many times I have taken a bike needing brake work and fixed the obvious like frayed cables or worn shoes only to find something else ( one side of cantilever brake stuck?) and in the end having to completely disassemble everything and start from scratch, cleaning and greasing , possibly replacing a spring, or sometimes replacing everything. This can make a service/repair that should have taken an hour take all day.
Nowadays when I bring a bike home I completely disassemble the bike, clean everything, then start re assembly . This actually makes all the work easier and faster since I don't waste time in something only to find an underlying problem that needs to be addressed.
Since most of the bikes we work on are donated back into the community to disadvantaged folks , we realize that perfection is the enemy of the good and focus on safety issues , using , for example, used tires and tubes with some life left in them instead of new rubber.
On our sale bikes we generally work to a higher standard and I am always scouring the parts bins for better derailleurs or brake levers and try to put the best tires I can find on the bikes. The end result is often a bike that is better than new and something we can easily sell for a decent price.
