New answers tagged maintenance
1
It's early days but my tests with beeswax are looking very promising. I melted the stub of an old candle and dribbled it in. Beeswax seems stickier than paraffin candle wax, and is biodegradable.
A key requirement for me was that I'd be able to remove it on a campsite with only my touring tools (I sometimes hike in my SPD shoes, and that can be nicer ...
1
I've experienced this problem when the small chainring has one lose bolt, so check for that, and also that the chainring is perfectly flat. Note that prolonged use of a chainring with lose or missing bolts may result in bending it.
A wobbly chainring wont have a uniform distance from frame's centerline, thus, it won't have a regular position relative to the ...
0
Large chainring shift to small chain ring while chain is in largest rear cog = chain drop
1
When installing replacement grips I have used tape on the metal before adding the plastic. Just normal sticky tape or electric repairs sticky tape, with the sticky side to the metal.
This does increase the size of the handle bars and gives a bit of grip for the plastic of the grip.
(This was a cheap bike and cheap replacement parts, so not looking for the '...
8
Two possible remedies:
The easiest is to wipe off all of the grease and degrease with some solvent. Then instead of mounting the post with grease use carbon mounting paste. The gritty particles in said paste will make slippage more unlikely.
or
Use a double clamp with two clamping screws, although they may be hard to come by these days The top one grips the ...
5
Visually inspect the seatpost clamp, specifically the bolt and threads. If it is stretched or thinner at any point, discard and replace.
I've seen clamps that have been overtightened, where the bolt is distorted and will stretch under riding conditions. This reduces clamping pressure and allows the seatpost to drop slowly.
1
You can pull the grip off, and lightly roughen the part of bars on the inside using a file or sandpaper. This gives some "tooth" for adhesive, because the straight chrome is smooth.
New grips are probably your best option. I use dishwash liquid as a lubricant when installing them, and it dries to a tacky surface that will hold the grip in place.
...
9
If you remove the handle and spray a bit of hairspray into the handle and then put it back on, then it should help it to stick. Hairspray works well because it will stick a little while still allowing it to be removed when you need to replace it later.
Alternatively, if this doesn't work, you may consider replacing the grips. They do degrade over time, ...
3
I'd suspect "yes" as the answer, but the actual difference is likely to be small, while the labour cost is duplicated.
Imagine a bearing, with bearing balls and two races. The orientation of the balls changes all the time, so that's spreading the wear.
One of the races will rotate (the outer if its a wheel bearing, or the inner if its a BB bearing)...
4
Yes, this effect is real and could be used to marginally extend the life of the fixed part of a bearing.
In addition to spreading wear out from the spot loaded by the rider, in some cases it also allows a different spot on the race surface to bear the brunt of alignment issues in the bearing system, i.e. from misaligned dropouts.
I don't have data but I feel ...
1
The worst is the sudden lost of traction when moving under acceleration. The chain suddenly skips multiple times, forcing you to roll slowly at best. Really not a fun in a roundabout in front of the car. This happens for fastest gears first. At later stages when you slow down too much at fast gear you cannot accelerate again, same as in the car (but, unlike ...
1
I'd say the life cycle of a bicycle is as long as the life cycle of its frame.
Nearly everything else can be fixed easily and cheaply. About the only time-consuming process is when your hub or rim breaks or wears out and you need to rebuild a wheel. Some take the easy route and replace the entire wheel with a new factory-built one. Yet, I'd say even if you ...
2
One aspect of this question hasn't been addressed by other answers: service intervals.
If you drive a car, you know to lube it every 3000 miles, rotate tires every 7500 miles, flush the fluids every 30000 miles. ... Most components would have reasonably well-defined span they will serve, and would probably start falling apart after this many miles, even ...
0
ask a no-nonsense car mechanic drenched in car oils all day, if you have a expensive bike, then yea go nuts and pamper it as your heart wishes, but if you have a simple bike, that you just need it to work than use whatever oil, and a comon sense, ..
my case?
i have a bike that once evry two years i take it apart, i take a open recipient i put the chain in it,...
7
Is it safe to use a non-bike-specific degreaser?
The word "safe" has can be complicated.
Safe in that it won't damage the chain only?
Safe in that it won't damage the paint or other parts on the bike?
Safe in that it won't damage people?
The producer of the product will tell you that the product is safe if used as directed. The instructions that ...
12
This depends on which part of the bike you are degreasing.
For degreasing the chain, whatever works for you should be fine. In the worst case, you will learn that the particular type of degreaser does not work to break the muck of your chain. Every non-corroding substance may be tried: from plain water through dish soap detergent up to aceton, kerosene and ...
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