Need your help again

[littlered]

Sorry It's me again
Last night I cleaned my bike, sprayed her with GT85 and took her for a wee spin.
Now today coming home from work I could hear a noise, down at the gears. (i'm sorry if I not making sense).

So I turned her up side down and turned the pedal, sure enough there was the noise.
It's coming from the mec ???it's moving??? and the noise sounds like they are crunching/tapping (cant see them crunching together just a noise), now I have in the past buggered about with the screws and got a right telling off from the guy that sorts my bike.
Should I try turning the screws and sort it or leave it alone?

Do I make sense? cos I dont know the technical terms for the parts of my bike.

 

[palinurus]

Sounds like the gears just need a bit of adjusting. You'll want to sort it, because it's really annoying. The cables stretch over time is why.

Have a lookit this..

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=64

The limit screws are probably OK, scroll down to the indexing adjustment.

Or pop the bike into your local shop- if they're nice they might show you how to do it.

 

[littlered]

Thanks for getting back to me, will go have a look at the link now, why do these problems happen after you have cleaned your bike

 

[Tynan]

never clean the bike, simple as that

 

[littlered]

Think she needs to go to the shop How you all know how to sort your bikes and I dont? *stamps feet, sticks bottom lip out* I'm fed up having to take it to the shop or ask my friend to fix it

I hate it when she's not right and makes a noise

 

[littlered]

Sounds like the gears just need a bit of adjusting. You'll want to sort it, because it's really annoying. The cables stretch over time is why.

Have a lookit this..

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=64

The limit screws are probably OK, scroll down to the indexing adjustment.

Or pop the bike into your local shop- if they're nice they might show you how to do it.

I'm too scared to twiddle with her in case I break her

 

[Arch]

Think she needs to go to the shop How you all know how to sort your bikes and I dont? *stamps feet, sticks bottom lip out* I'm fed up having to take it to the shop or ask my friend to fix it

I hate it when she's not right and makes a noise

Simple. We learnt, often the hard way...

Don't despair. I learnt what I know from living with someone knowledgable for 7 years, and there are still plenty of little jobs I have to really think about, or look up, now he's not here to help me. You will learn, but it might take time. It's not instinctive, and we all know that quite often a "five minute job" ends up taking 5 days and 4 trips to the shops and a new type of spanner you didn't have before.

There are books out there you might find helpful, with 'how to' photos and stuff, but there is no substitute for experience. One thing that helps me is to really look at the bike, and the bit that's playing up, and get to understand what it should do, and how. It'll make more sense if you know WHY you have to turn a screw, than if you just learn to turn it whenever the bike makes this or that noise.

And if you do have to ask a friend, or the shop, see if they will let you watch (more likely with a friend I guess) and explain what they are doing, rather than just do it and hand it back.

There's no shame in getting help. I was away on a cycling weekend recently, met up with the group at a cafe and while I had a cuppa two of the group got to looking at my bike and fiddling with it. Knowing them, and trusting them, I just left them to it. And lo and behold, when I finished my tea, they'd sorted out the misaligned mudguard stay that I'd fiddled and fiddled with to no avail. No more coming loose, no more wonky mudguard. Result: me - happy and grateful, they - done a good deed and solved a niggly problem to their own satisfaction.

 

[Dayvo]

I'm too scared to twiddle with her in case I break her

Depending on your location, surf the net to see if any lbs or larger shops chains near you that offer bike mechanic courses.
There are usually several different courses to choose from, depending on your requirements/needs.

 

[frog]

I'd tend to use GT85 as a cleaner rather than a lubricant. Chances are you've washed the muck off the cassette (bunch of cogs) and the gunge out of the gaps in the chain and they're a nice crunchy paste which might be responsible for some of the noise.

Unless it's not changing gear when you click the levers then I'd tend to leave the adjusting screws alone, for the time being.

Run the chain through a cloth (j-cloth or the like) for about five minutes, changing the dirty bit under the chain as often as you can and see what that does. There are also the two little wheels under the cassette which change the gears. Clean them up with a small screwdriver and wipe the stuff onto a cloth.

When I had a derailleur bike every time I cleaned the drive stuff it sounded like a different bike for a day or so.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Explore the deep, nutricious depths of www.sheldonbrown.com and www.parktool.com - if Sir Sheldon can't help you to do some fettling on your bike, your pretty much stuffed and should take her in to the lbs.

Bikes are pretty darn resiliant buggers and can take a lot more fiddling without breaking than you may think.

 

[littlered]

Sounds ok last night, I took lots of muck out of the cogs and out of the little wheels and it sounds better. The chain was rubbing on the front dereailer so I twiddled the screw and it's not rubbing now
I'm going to get a chain cleaner on my day off and give it a right good clean.

Thanx everyone for youe geli

 

[Paulus]

Quite often when you clean an old ish chain, because all the gunge and crud has gone there is now a space between the rollers of the chain and it sounds as if there is something wrong. Once the lube you have used has penetrated this small space the chain quietens down and all is well. Cleaning the chain rarely leads to having to adjust anything to do with the gears.

 

[littlered]

No sounds this evening cycling home from work *runs off to touch wood*

 

[littlered]

Explore the deep, nutricious depths of www.sheldonbrown.com and www.parktool.com - if Sir Sheldon can't help you to do some fettling on your bike, your pretty much stuffed and should take her in to the lbs.

Bikes are pretty darn resiliant buggers and can take a lot more fiddling without breaking than you may think.

I knowJust too scared to do things in case I get a bollocking

 

[fossyant]

Just get on with it - you can always ask here............ see fixed !!!! Nothing like a properly well maintained drive system - like riding on silk.......not that I've done that...maybe Manchester Velodrome then !