rsbob 

I think Tim has earned and deserves his own personal thread. Oh this pretty much is his personal thread? Never mind.

Bob Ross

Saturday I did a 40 mile ride in a torrential downpour.
During Sunday's sunny 65 mile ride every time I turned the pedals I heard & felt a loud intermittant "CLUNK!" coming from the drivetrain. Almost like chunks of loose metal were grinding/rattling around in my rear hub or bottom bracket. Because I could feel these clunks so palpably in my feet, I was convinced it had to be the bottom bracket.
But just to be certain, I swapped rear wheels with a more-or-less identical model and went for a short ride.

Dead silent. So I conclude it must be the rear hub...and sure enough, by the time I got back from this short test ride, the hub on my original rear wheel had completely siezed up! Couldn't spin the freehub body by hand without employing a lot of torque, and even then it only turned reluctantly as if I was trying to break a glue seal.

So that's my latest cycling-related repair: Getting that rear hub serviced. Took it to the LBS yesterday, they texted me last night to say it's fixed but didn't say what they had to do to it. Genuinely curious.

timtak

Bob

I had the same thing happen to me recently as detailed in post #144. It was the retaining spring that also causes the pawls to spread outwards. The C ring spring pushes inwards on the axles of the pawls which are shaped in such a way as to make their ends spread out and click into the teeth on the hub. Due to a lack of grease there was wear on the spring which broke resulting in one pawl getting in the works. Even free hubs with multiple springs (one for each pawl) are however not difficult to fix if you have the parts so you may wish to try it yourself next time. Replacing the C spring only took about 15 minutes.

It may be a good idea to take ones free hubs apart from time to time, or once a year, to clean and re-grease them.

The Chinese shop/manufacturer sort of intimated that they would be sending me a new free hub but it still has not arrived. I fear it may be simply a stalling tactic so that I don't post negative feedback within the feedback time limit!

Tim

timtak

I changed my bottom bracket bearings. Shimano cartridge bottom brackets are only about 14 USD and they make such a nice change to the ride quality, why be stingy? I guess I don't like the words "don't disassemble." Shimano BBs use non standard bearings, and can't be disassembled apparently but Chinese BBs for about 10USD use 6805-RS (37-25-7mm) bearings which can be purchased for less than 1USD each or less than 2USD for a BB refit.

I don't even have the tool to hand so I used a standard adjustable wrench to remove (and replace) the BB from the bike. The drive side is reverse threaded. Many BBs will have a "Tighten" arrow.

Changed BB Bearings by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr
It was not as easy as I hoped. Getting the old bearings out was easy enough, bashing, with a metal rod or hole punch, from the inner side. But pushing bearings into BB casing was not so easy at first until I realized I could use the old bearings as a plunger in my vice. Today I used bearings from a new ZTTO BB, which is a bit perverse but I wanted to try it out. I have four bearings @2.8USD on order from this shop on sale
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000...21ef18027pcEaG
I will change BB bearings as soon as I feel any grittiness in future.

And to be honest, I only changed the drive side bearing. The other side seems to be okay with new grease. I swapped it to the drive side. Revitalising my bottom bracket cost 70 cents.

timtak

I have been doing a lot of repairs, on my Look and my new Trek Madone 5.2 but I will stick to the more innovative (?!) repairs.

I got sick of losing handlebar end caps. I lose them a lot because I use standard tubular covers on my drops and I pull on my drops in my new recumbent on a road bike (is my latest description) style of pedaling. So I have bolted end caps on. This works, and the bolt, which I was going to grind to size, gives me something extra to hold on to. Recommended. Bar tape and non bolted end caps are ********.

Bolted Bar Caps by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

I also had a lot of difficulty getting some cheap jockey wheels for me rear derailleur. Shimano ones are really overpriced, or don't contain bearings. The ones from China come in all sorts of thicknesses

Jockey wheels by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr
but they have to be 7.5mm for my RD-5800. Too narrow and the cage grips the chain. Too wide and the chain drops off into the gap and the thread in the derailleur gets damaged. I damaged the thread so much it would not longer allow me to change to the jockey wheels of the right, 7.5mm, size which I got here
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003493369582.html
so I used an ordinary nut and bolt. It works.

This shows the bolt

Patched Chain Stay by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

and this shows the nut on the other side. I think it is M5.

Nut on the other side. by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

I also wore down my chain stay with the heel of my shoe

Worn Chain Stay by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

And the second photo in this post shows the patched chain stay. I used a piece of carbon fibre sheet and just epoxy because carbon fibre resin in poisonous and I don't have a lot.

I have been waxing my chain these past couple of months. It is nice to have a non dirty chain. But how to clean it? I put it in detergent and shake it with a whole body shaker exercise machine.

Chain Cleaning by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr
I don't use the machine as an exercise machine but it is good for shaking the dirt out of my chain before rewaxing.

timtak

I have done a whole load of stuff to my new bikes (changed compact crank for standard, swapped chains, used quick link instead of Shimano pin, but a narrower handlebar on my Trek, etc) but the thing that is or was causing me grief was the damage to my Trek derailleur hanger -- which can not be changed other than at the Trek factory.

It had clearly been bent in after a crash. It does not seem to be something that is going to happen all that often so I used the spare rear wheel method to get the derailleur hanger back to being parallel to the wheel.

A spare rear wheel will screw into the derailleur hanger hole. The task is then to make the spare wheel and the wheel on the bike parallel. As shown in the photo below


Rear Wheel and Squared Vernier Callipers by Timothy Takemoto, on Flick

instead of using a ruler (which can result in non horizontal measuring since the two wheels are not concentrically aligned) I adapted some cheap vernier calipers to ad a square as in the photo below.
Squared Vernier Calliper by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

It seemed to be that I was getting within 2 to 3mm of parallel and that if anything the rear derailleur was pointing very slightly outwards.

Even so I could only just get to the smallest cog with a totally slack wire and no delimiter screw. There was no way I could get the derailleur to go out too far and then delimit using the screw. This meant that part of the change up to the next larger, 13 tooth cog was to take up the slack of the wire. This meant that the derailleur was not quite changing into the bigger cogs.

It seems to me I need a little bit of tension on the wire in the lowest cog, and a little bit of delimiter screw (i.e. that in the lowest cog position the derailleur is resting on the delimiter screw rather than resting on the wire tension) for smooth, and stable (irrespective of wire stretch or ferrule compaction) shift up the cassette.

I think that the crash had caused not only a down and inwards bend in the hanger but also simply pushed the whole hanger a little bit too far inwards. Having been readjusted, it now appears to be parallel to the wheel but just not out far enough. Pushing the hanger outwards outwards without at the same time bending it any direction seems to be very difficult. Is there a way of doing this? I thought of using a the top of the handle of a G clamp somehow to push outwards.

Not wanting to put undue stress on the hanger, I put a washer of about 1.5mm thickness in between the derailleur and the hanger. This means that I can set the wire to have just a little bit of tension, and for the derailleur to rest on the derailleur limiting screw in the top (smallest gear cog). Now I think my gears are really well synchronized all the way up. Here is a picture, with the bike upside down, showing the washer (made of brass?).


Derailleur Hanger Washer to Cure Crash Damage by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

There is a danger of course that I may strip the derailleur hanger thread using the above technique but it feels strong, for the time being, till the next crash.

The washer worked. It is shifting to all gears. A derailleur washer (or spacer in effect) could be used when the cables are getting old, or the spring in the derailleur is getting weak too. If the hanger is replaceable it would not matter if the hole were stripped.

timtak

II replaced my helmet padding with heel pads designed for shoes.
Heel Helmet Pads by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr
They are not attached with velcro so they can't be taken out and washed, but they can be wiped. They are $2 a set.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002857176293.html
I will try helmet liners at $4 next time.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001223429129.html

cyclezen

good idea! I always have to add additional pads because I have a low forehead, and most helmets come down too far over my forehead to the eyes.
I would try putting the pads more over to the side and angle them to provide a channel and allow air flow, front to back.
I'll remember to check for shoe pads like this. assuming the thickness is workable...
Thx
Ride On
Yuri

jaxgtr

My luck in staying dry on rides has sucked recently as we have been in a fairly heavy rain pattern. I was in a deluge the other day and ended up riding in the rain for about 90 mins as I made my way home, it sucked. I did a quick wipe down and clean when I got home. I took a deeper look the next day, and I could feel the grit in the headset. Pulled the fork, cleaned everything up, re-greased, put it all back together. Also found the chainring bolts were a little loose as I kept hearing this clicking noise, torqued them to spec.

timtak

The shoe pads are also sold in 100 yen shops / dollar tree shops.
I have a click. I am going to check my chainring bolts.
Thank you.
Tim

cyclebycle13

seems as if I'm turning into the LBS of the high school where I teach. Just before school ended the auto shop teacher was telling me his shifting was off. It's a 1x cruiser from bikesdirect and it turns out he had a rear tire blowout that broke the derailleur hanger and he said 2 shops couldn't get the shifting right. I straightened the hanger out and then had to spend some time undoing all of their work on the cables, limit screws, etc.

Shifting is now perfect and I finally got to return the favor after all the tire rotation/balances, brake jobs and oil changes he's done on my cars!

timtak

As mentioned above, I am wearing out the chainstays of my carbon look (and soon Trek Madone) with the heel of my cycling shoe. I tried a carbon patch but I wore through that, so I have made a steel one to protect, initially, my right chain stay. It will or would, if I am alive that long, take a long time to wear through the steel pipe with the heel of my cycling shoe.

Here is how to make one

Chainstay Guard by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

Here is the finished guard

Steel Chainstay Guard by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

I find that my age results in wobbly flailing heels so steel chainstay guards may be useful to others. Are they on sale already I wonder. I know that there are guards to protect chain stays from chains but from old heels, I have no idea.

terrymorse 

Wobbly flailing heels is almost always caused by a poorly fitted bicycle.

Judging from posted photos of @timtak on their bike, it's a good bet that bike fit is the culprit.

Mojo31

Just put some helicopter tape on there. You won't wear through that, and if somehow you do you can just peel it off and add a new piece.

Or, get some of these stainless pads - Home - Wear And Tear Pads. They are very thin and pliable, will never wear through, and weigh a whole lot less than a steel pipe. Plus, you won't have the cut edges of a steel pipe cutting into your chain stay.

SMH on this one.

seypat

It's a bike, not a horse. No need to wear spurs and use them in an attempt to get more speed. A whip might be more useful.

Troul 

stop wearing triple E workboots when riding the bicycle.

WhyFi

Not necessarily even wobbly, flailing heels - he's probably splaying his knees, to avoid his abdomen in his "lowest is bestest" position, and driving his heels inward.

mawn

i fixed tires and saddle

timtak

The wits are out in force today.

I haven't heard of helicopter tape but

Thank you that is an even quicker solution. I may use something similar from China
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33063570320.html
but the pipe does not cut into my chain stay and weighs very little and seems less likely to fall off.

The scuffing occurs on the right chain stay, on the side where I had a spinal hernia 17 or so years ago, on the same side as my knees and hip issues, largely, thought not completely, corrected by the exercise I recommend.

If no one else has chain stay scuffing, they will not need a chain stay protector, pipe, nor pad.

timtak

My Sidi insoles were wearing through so I got some cupped EVA insoles from a 100 yen shop, and they are very good. I painted the toes of my shoes with black acrylic paint too.

EVA Insoles by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

I see that there are some cycling insoles from 43 to 160 times the price, on Amazon, but these 100 yen shop ones are unlikely to be much worse imho. The 100 yen shop ones are better than the Sidi ones even when they did not have a hole in them. Sidi insoles are about 80 times the price! Please check out the 100 yen shop "EVA insoles" before purchasing the really expensive ones from Amazon or local BS.

1sp33d

Broke the rear derailleur somehow the other day on my old Jamis steel 105. The 105 set is an upgrade I had installed about 5 years ago. It just snapped in half on the part closest to the wheel. Then on got tangled up in a spoke and ripped the spoke off one end and bent it.

Dropped it off at the LBS later that day. Still waiting for a call from them and the estimate to repair.

znomit

Usually getting tangled in the spoke is what does the snapping in half.

1sp33d

That makes sense. Any idea how the derailleur would get into the wheel in the first place?

terrymorse 

New chainrings for my old FSA cranks. Existing rings had about 20,000 miles on them, and they show their age.

I contacted FSA to get replacement rings: they no longer make them for my cranks, and they didn't have any compatible rings in stock. They told me to look around at bike shops.

The LBS had compatible SRAM rings, so I bought them, but they're thinner than the FSA rings, so the FSA chainring bolts are too long. Grr.

I cobbled the old rings back together and have shorter chainring bolts on order.

It never gets easy.

biker128pedal

2021 Trek Domane SL6. Couple of weeks ago I noticed one side of the brow cover was sticking out like on the picture. The Trek manual was confusing so I put off trying to take the brow cover off thinking I would break it. Finally found on Redit it is caused by the isospeed fastener loosening. Dive in and removed the cover. Tightened the loose screw with a 4mm Allen less than one turn. Not much but enough for the cover to sit flat properly. What I did not know was the brow cover is attached to just the Isospeed screws. Also could replace the gloss black with another color.