Little jobs that blow up
06-02-21, 04:07 AM
#26
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Things that require following a manual not from one of the big manufacturers.
I have spent nearly 20 years editing translations knowing that not everyone will pay for editing - because they believe that the translation by a translator is enough. So we have someone who studied some language at university that almost always focuses on literature and then took a translator's course that almost always mainly focuses on legal texts and, without any further training, sets him or herself as a translator and purchases some translation dictionaries. Now if they do not get a customer complaint after half a dozen texts in a field they can call themselves an expert in that field.
So next time you are struggling to follow some instructions, it might not be the instructor's fault but the 'manager' who decided to save a few dollars on someone who might have some familiarity with the subject or indeed care about you.
I have spent nearly 20 years editing translations knowing that not everyone will pay for editing - because they believe that the translation by a translator is enough. So we have someone who studied some language at university that almost always focuses on literature and then took a translator's course that almost always mainly focuses on legal texts and, without any further training, sets him or herself as a translator and purchases some translation dictionaries. Now if they do not get a customer complaint after half a dozen texts in a field they can call themselves an expert in that field.
So next time you are struggling to follow some instructions, it might not be the instructor's fault but the 'manager' who decided to save a few dollars on someone who might have some familiarity with the subject or indeed care about you.
06-02-21, 04:25 AM
#27
So many roads ...
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All these stories remind me of a time I helped a friend work on a "small" 30 minute project. After several frustrating hours he told me I should leave. I said no, that I'd help him finish our fiasco. He replied, "You really should go because I'm going to start swearing and throwing things."
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06-02-21, 06:53 AM
#28
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Things that require following a manual not from one of the big manufacturers.
I have spent nearly 20 years editing translations knowing that not everyone will pay for editing - because they believe that the translation by a translator is enough. So we have someone who studied some language at university that almost always focuses on literature and then took a translator's course that almost always mainly focuses on legal texts and, without any further training, sets him or herself as a translator and purchases some translation dictionaries. Now if they do not get a customer complaint after half a dozen texts in a field they can call themselves an expert in that field.
So next time you are struggling to follow some instructions, it might not be the instructor's fault but the 'manager' who decided to save a few dollars on someone who might have some familiarity with the subject or indeed care about you.
I have spent nearly 20 years editing translations knowing that not everyone will pay for editing - because they believe that the translation by a translator is enough. So we have someone who studied some language at university that almost always focuses on literature and then took a translator's course that almost always mainly focuses on legal texts and, without any further training, sets him or herself as a translator and purchases some translation dictionaries. Now if they do not get a customer complaint after half a dozen texts in a field they can call themselves an expert in that field.
So next time you are struggling to follow some instructions, it might not be the instructor's fault but the 'manager' who decided to save a few dollars on someone who might have some familiarity with the subject or indeed care about you.
Veering off topic, I read an article a while back expounding on comics and comic books. The first comics artists studied human anatomy, and gave us the old Superman, Spiderman, Dick Tracy comics. Their successors studied comics and produced Ziggy.
Going from the mid-20th century technical illustrators' derailer drawings to some modern installation sheets feels like the same kind of transition. Is that an O-ring or an egg?
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06-02-21, 10:06 AM
#30
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We had a theory on my job. You estimate how long the job will take, then triple it.
06-02-21, 03:27 PM
#31
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06-02-21, 09:25 PM
#32
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My Rotator recumbent has had a rattle in the mid drive area for awhile. Seems like the 6 spd cassette in the area has
some loose cogs. Cog tightness in part determined by RD hanger which spins on the 10mm axle the cassette runs
on. Looked it over: both chains are worn ~1%, look at my maintenance almanac and they along with rear cassette
are 7000 miles old. Mid drive cassette cogs ~12k miles old. So instead of just tightening a cassette, now looks like two
chains, two cassettes and ?chainwheel.
some loose cogs. Cog tightness in part determined by RD hanger which spins on the 10mm axle the cassette runs
on. Looked it over: both chains are worn ~1%, look at my maintenance almanac and they along with rear cassette
are 7000 miles old. Mid drive cassette cogs ~12k miles old. So instead of just tightening a cassette, now looks like two
chains, two cassettes and ?chainwheel.
06-02-21, 09:46 PM
#33
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06-03-21, 10:59 AM
#34
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Actually a Campy 9 speed. Only 14 months since I replaced the cable with the "Campagnolo Ergo brake shift levers" (aka brifters), so I must have been sweating a lot. I've been rebuilding the brifters every 12-18 months for a couple decades, and never saw a rats nest like this before.
Once I learned you could tighten the hub locknuts an extra quarter turn if needed (after tightening the locknut down on the cone), cup and cone adjustment has gone a lot quicker.
Once I learned you could tighten the hub locknuts an extra quarter turn if needed (after tightening the locknut down on the cone), cup and cone adjustment has gone a lot quicker.
I don't want to be the names-police, but I'm sure I'm gonna see people confusing them or lumping them all together, and making it harder than it currently is to know exactly what someone with a problem to be solved is talking about, so I/we can actually give some help.
Maybe this should be moved to the new forum? My current assumption is that it is not intended to discuss Campagnolo.
06-03-21, 11:20 AM
#35
Senior Member
For me, it's always, ALWAYS derailleur adjustments. I don't know why I can't get this skill down, as I am pretty good at most other repairs I've been doing for the past 50 years. A frayed cable is never worth fighting with. I just replace them, but when it comes to readjusting the derailleur afterward, I can beat my brains out for hours before either getting it fairly right or taking my bike to the LBS and begging for help.
06-03-21, 11:52 AM
#36
Senior Member
For me, it's always, ALWAYS derailleur adjustments. I don't know why I can't get this skill down, as I am pretty good at most other repairs I've been doing for the past 50 years. A frayed cable is never worth fighting with. I just replace them, but when it comes to readjusting the derailleur afterward, I can beat my brains out for hours before either getting it fairly right or taking my bike to the LBS and begging for help.
Triples can be tough. You need to be methodical, setting the cage height and angle, then the low limit screw then dialing in cable tension and finishing with the high limit.Note that my experience is limited to Shimano (mostly) and Campagnolo. Well, that Specialized Transition has SRAM but the front is friction. I have heard some horror stories of setting up SRAM FDs, both mechanical and electronic but I've never personally touched one.
06-03-21, 12:22 PM
#37
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Just to try to set some nomenclature straight, the Campagnolo combined shift and brake controllers are named "Ergopower," and until a day or two agoI only rarely saw them canned "brifters." I usually saw the Shimano, SRAM, and Microshift devices of a similar nature called "brifters." It really feels wrong to call the Campy versions brifters since there are really a lot ow ways they are not the same as the other brands. And Ergopowers are almost completely not interchangeable with Shimano and SRAM brifters.
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06-03-21, 12:33 PM
#38
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If you understand what each adjustment does yet still struggle to get clean shifting, you more than likely are dealing with a bent derailleur hanger (at the rear at least). Up front, if you can't set up a double FD, I can't help you Triples can be tough. You need to be methodical, setting the cage height and angle, then the low limit screw then dialing in cable tension and finishing with the high limit.
Note that my experience is limited to Shimano (mostly) and Campagnolo. Well, that Specialized Transition has SRAM but the front is friction. I have heard some horror stories of setting up SRAM FDs, both mechanical and electronic but I've never personally touched one.
Triples can be tough. You need to be methodical, setting the cage height and angle, then the low limit screw then dialing in cable tension and finishing with the high limit.Note that my experience is limited to Shimano (mostly) and Campagnolo. Well, that Specialized Transition has SRAM but the front is friction. I have heard some horror stories of setting up SRAM FDs, both mechanical and electronic but I've never personally touched one.
06-03-21, 12:42 PM
#39
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When a customer calls in and asks if we can take care of a shifter cable before close, 3hrs away. Then they show up with a 10yr old tri bike with unlined internal housing and hasn't seen a cleaning since it was new.....
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06-04-21, 09:18 AM
#40
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I think my problem is that I have always owned and worked on low-line components. The adjuster barrel of every derailleur I've ever worked with is a cheap piece of plastic that never feels like it's actually moving. My problem is that I can never judge when I've actually made an adjustment, so I always overtighten or overloosen.
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06-04-21, 12:24 PM
#41
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I think my problem is that I have always owned and worked on low-line components. The adjuster barrel of every derailleur I've ever worked with is a cheap piece of plastic that never feels like it's actually moving. My problem is that I can never judge when I've actually made an adjustment, so I always overtighten or overloosen.
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06-04-21, 04:26 PM
#42
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These stories should be read by all the people on here thinking about starting up a repair business. So I’ll add one. BITD our bike club decided to do repairs, as a member with shop experience I volunteered. Simple job, stop a rim brake from squealing. I put a wrench on the pad holder to twist it to get toe in. Broke it right off. Seems Universal brakes don’t like that. Too brittle. Now we were on the hook of replacing the whole mechanism. End of repair shop. Went back to being a club.
06-04-21, 06:11 PM
#43
Grouchy Old man
I bought a used "mountain," bike last year. I had to cut the old cranks off with an angle grinder, replace the front derailleur, the cranks and the bottom bracket. Everything turned out, well in the end. Here's some of the wreckage from that project.
Here's what it looks like now.
Difficult repairs are not fun, however you learn more about wrenching and finding solutions to challenges. Good luck on getting that bird caged cable out!
06-04-21, 06:12 PM
#44
Grouchy Old man
06-04-21, 06:16 PM
#45
Grouchy Old man
I managed to strip out the T25 handlebar clamp bolt on one of my Campy Record levers. An hour of various attempts with different tools were unsuccessful. I was finally able remove it by using a Dremel tool to cut a slot in the bolt head that I could turn with a big screwdriver. 3 days later, I got a replacement clamp - a pair of them, actually, so now I have a spare, just in case this thing that never happens happens again. This all started by wanting to move the lever up the bar about 2mm.
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06-05-21, 08:11 AM
#46
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Over the weekend, I noticed my shifting was imprecise and thought, "Maybe the derailer cable is fraying." That thought was reinforced when I grabbed the shifter during a climb and got poked in the finger.
So after supper, I headed out to the garage for a half hour to replace the cable. However, unlike the one or two broken strands I've fixed in the past, this cable was 4-5 strands left (out of 15 or so). Not only were 2/3 of the strands broken, they were frayed and bent out all over the place: there was no way to push what was left of the cable through the fix point on the brifter. So 30 minutes, maybe 45 minutes with new bar tape, rapidly expanded to a two hour plus job. And I just wrapped the old tape back up.
Such a small thing -- 3/8" wires thwarted the process for so long. A similar time warp effect is a little bit of rust that takes weeks to break a bottom bracket out of the frame for replacement.
Are there other bike maintenance jobs that should be easy, but something small and common makes them take a very long time?
So after supper, I headed out to the garage for a half hour to replace the cable. However, unlike the one or two broken strands I've fixed in the past, this cable was 4-5 strands left (out of 15 or so). Not only were 2/3 of the strands broken, they were frayed and bent out all over the place: there was no way to push what was left of the cable through the fix point on the brifter. So 30 minutes, maybe 45 minutes with new bar tape, rapidly expanded to a two hour plus job. And I just wrapped the old tape back up.
Such a small thing -- 3/8" wires thwarted the process for so long. A similar time warp effect is a little bit of rust that takes weeks to break a bottom bracket out of the frame for replacement.
Are there other bike maintenance jobs that should be easy, but something small and common makes them take a very long time?
06-05-21, 11:59 AM
#47
Senior Member
I have JOSEPH'S LAW: If absolutely nothing can go wrong, something will go wrong.
Glass half full or half empty? I don't even have a glass.
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06-05-21, 10:23 PM
#48
Newbie
I just assume every bike I work on is going to have at least one compatibility issue I didn't even know existed.
Like today, I was putting a fancy new saddle on my road bike and didn't realize the tubular carbon rails aren't compatible with the clamp on the integrated seat mast. So now I am waiting on a new clamp. Any other seat post I have would have worked with the saddle.
Like today, I was putting a fancy new saddle on my road bike and didn't realize the tubular carbon rails aren't compatible with the clamp on the integrated seat mast. So now I am waiting on a new clamp. Any other seat post I have would have worked with the saddle.
06-06-21, 10:31 PM
#49
Senior Member
I bent a cotter pin the other day. First one tapped out fine, the driveside had a fixed chainguard in the way so I couldn't get a 90 degree hit on it. Tried to pry it straight, finally hacksawed the exposed threads and tried to tap the remaining down. No go. So frustrating. Decided to clean and decrease only one half of the BB. Damn.
06-08-21, 02:01 AM
#50
Newbie
adjuster barrel
I think my problem is that I have always owned and worked on low-line components. The adjuster barrel of every derailleur I've ever worked with is a cheap piece of plastic that never feels like it's actually moving. My problem is that I can never judge when I've actually made an adjustment, so I always overtighten or overloosen.
my ride has a sachs huret duopar eco derailleur