Shop servicing or DIY?

[Jmetz]

i want to be a DIYer. but im lost, floppy brake lever

 

[Matthames]

DIY is certainly the best route. Knowing how to fix a problem at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere can mean the difference between a long walk home or continuing on your ride.

Good example of this happened to me recently. I had taught myself with the aid of the internet on how to build and true wheels without using a jig (using the bike frame instead). This knowledge came in handy when I was touring, I had popped a couple of spokes on the same side of the wheel, which had pushed it out of true. I managed to find a bike shop, however they were really busy and wouldn't of been able to fix my wheel for a while. So I asked them for a couple of spokes and set about repairing the wheel myself at the side of the road in order for me to be able to press on and get to the campsite.

 

[DavieB]

Im a truck mechanic to trade, but dont have a clue where to start with bikes. Without a doubt I could strip it to bits and rebuild it. but I dont have a clue how to adjust Gears. This is the only bit im unsure of everything else I could figure out (I think)

 

[swee'pea99]

i want to be a DIYer. but im lost, floppy brake lever

Another good example...

Floppy brake lever. Ok, how does the brake work? It's basically two mechs, one at each end, connected by a cable. You pull the cable one way (using the lever); a spring in the brake pulls it back the other way.

So, floppy lever? Clearly the spring is not doing its job properly. Why not? Most likely because the cable isn't running easily thru' its 'tunnel'...probably corrosion somewhere along the route, possibly some grit.

So, first thing to try is probably to run some oil thru' the tunnel (aka cable housing) from one end to t'other...see if that frees things up a bit.

And so on.

And it's pretty much all like that (apart from the odd complex bit like the Sturmey Archer hub - good luck with that!) If you take a look, and have a think, and a fiddle, it's almost always pretty clear what's going on...how it all fits together, how it *works*. It really is one of The Great Things About Bikes.

 

[Howard]

This weekend I have to disassemble (and preferably also reassemble) a sturmey-archer hub which is relucatant to go into first, which will be a new experience

Fancy doing my Alfine whilst you are at it? How much harder than an SA can it be?

 

[Fattman]

i want to be a DIYer. but im lost, floppy brake lever

Is that a euphemism? Maybe you need a doctor rather than a bike mechanic?

 

[zumzum]

Great advice guys, i have inested in a book from good old amazon and am going to look at doing it all myself.

I have both mine and my g/friends bike to sort so economy dictates that as we plan on using them a fair old bit (like we have been doing) it makes sense to learn the tricks of the trade.

Cheers for the input guys.

 

[arallsopp]

I built my confidence considerably in having someone else alongside to help me (and spot glaring omissions from the plan). Likewise, when I was asked to assist a friend. I now know that my brain works best when it isn't holding the spanner.

Happy enough stripping the bike down, now. Even better if a friend comes over for a mech session. What you learn on one frequently carries over to the next.

 

[swee'pea99]

I built my confidence considerably in having someone else alongside to help me (and spot glaring omissions from the plan). Likewise, when I was asked to assist a friend. I now know that my brain works best when it isn't holding the spanner.

Happy enough stripping the bike down, now. Even better if a friend comes over for a mech session. What you learn on one frequently carries over to the next.

+1. First time I stripped out and cleaned a hub with a friend we were rescued by his dad after half an hour of screaming frustration...we'd cleaned everything out beautifully, and were trying to reassemble, but we couldn't get all the wee ball bearings to sit on the ledge while we lowered the axle back in....we'd almost get it, time and again, then just the slightest touch and plink plink plinkety plink - AAAAAARGH!

"You wallies," he said, "you need to put grease round that rim, then stick the bearings in the grease." Ah. Two minutes later, done.

 

[battered]

Im a truck mechanic to trade, but dont have a clue where to start with bikes. Without a doubt I could strip it to bits and rebuild it. but I dont have a clue how to adjust Gears. This is the only bit im unsure of everything else I could figure out (I think)

A man of your means will have no bother. Gear adjusting is easy. If you were to take the cable off the derailleur it has an internal spring that moves it the mechanism the way to the end stop. You adjust the end stop so the chain meshes on the smallest gear and doesn't drop off.

If you then reconnect the cable and take up the slack, each click of the shifter pulls in (I think) 1.2mm of cable. The actual figure isn't important, all you need to know is it's the same for each click, which it is, inside the shifter, and this is why you *don't* mess with what's inside the shifter. The rear derailleur mech is set up so that for every 1.2mm of cable it moves *exactly* the distance between 2 gears. The gears are each equally spaced so every click pulls 1.2mm and pulls the mech one gear to the inside of the wheel. You can't change this, it's a function of the shape of the thing and the way it operates. You are pulling the mech onto the bigger gears, against the spring, and going smaller you are releasing cable and letting the spring work the mech back.

If you keep clicking the shifter the shifter pulls in 1.2 mm per click, this moves the mech, one gear per click, until you get to the biggest gear. You then adjust the end stop that controls this gear to stop the mech going too far and dumping the chain into the spokes.

That's it. So to set up your gears click it all the way to the smallest gear at the back. Keep clicking and if it dumps the chain adjust the outer end stop (small screw, Pozi). Then go one click bigger, it should shift one gear. If it doesn't then adjust the *cable* till it shifts up one gear. Remember you are *pulling* the cable inner so shortening it, but the adjuster works on the *outer* so you need to make it longer to "shorten" the inner cable and vice versa. Once you havce got this to work, each extra click will give you one gear more. You may have to add a turn or so to the adjuster but not much once it's about there. Go all the way up to the biggest gear, only adjust the end stop if it goes too far or not far enough. That's you.

The front gears are the same but there are only 3 of them (or2). Again al you need to know is that with the cable unhooked the springf will pull it to the smallest gear, and you re using the shifter to pull *measured amounts* of cable through, each pull moves the mech the amount required to shift one gear.

You're a mechanic, have a play with it and now you know the basic mechanism it will become clear how to set it up. If you can do a handbrake cable on a car a bike's gears are very similar.

 

[rusty bearing]

Of course you could save yourselves the trouble by using a MOBILE mechanic. There is a network of these wonderful people up and down the country. I should know, we run just such a business. You can have your bike collected, fixed and returned, so convenient and no fuss.
Most are cyclists themselves who take pride and care about what they do.

I'll not put our web address in as this is not an advert, just check 'em out next time something simple goes pear shaped

 

[tomb1960]

Amen to rusty bearing, I know a good mobile mechanic based in Birmingham should anyone want to know. Has anyone done a bike maintenance courses, and would they recommend them?

 

[Dan B]

Fancy doing my Alfine whilst you are at it? How much harder than an SA can it be?

What I wish I'd known prior to starting

1) sweep the floor before starting, because at least one bearing and one pawl spring will end up there at some point and the latter are a real bitch to find
2) the instruction to "hammer and punch to unscrew the right-hand ball ring" really is a good one - straight up, this is the only way to get it off. They don't mention giving it half a can of wd40 and an hour to soak in, through, which was also necessary on my specimen

What I wish I'd paid more attention to in Sheldon's instructions

3) don't hold it vertically, something will fall out (see (1))
4) when the ball ring eventually starts moving, control your feelings of success and elation for at least long enough to mark the relative positions of hub and shell. The shell has a dual-start thread and it's apparently important to put it back on the same track it came off (no, I don't know why). I forgot to do this, so tried it both ways when reassembling and went for the thread with less wobble - hope that was the right decision

Other than that, I got it apart successfully, found nothing obviously wrong but plenty of grunge, degrunged, regreased bearing races, reassembled, refilled with oil and put it back on the bike. Seems to run a lot smoother, but still doesn't much like shifting down while the bike is stopped (ok if you backpedal a bit first, but that's not an easy task when you're stopped at a light with one foot on the ground). Which is a shame because if you don't have shifting while stopped you might as well have got a derailleur in the first place.

 

[Bella83]

Seems to run a lot smoother, but still doesn't much like shifting down while the bike is stopped (ok if you backpedal a bit first, but that's not an easy task when you're stopped at a light with one foot on the ground).

It's better than it was

Oh and marry a DIYer is the best way