I'm a champion bike mechanic...

[bychosis]

Yesterday found my cheap MTB rebuild wasn't brilliant. Shocking shifting. Later on discovered it was a stiff link in the chain.

Couldn't turn back as it was a mission to the park with kids. Couldn't keep up with them as the chain was skipping so bad I couldn't put any power down or use a high gear.

Inspection showed I hadn't seated the chain pin properly.

[jasonc]

[stevenaaus]

Humbled by V brakes again. spent half an hour cleaning and changing pads, and still front brakes squealed. Set a little toe-in. Bingo. ... Been maybe 15 years since i last messed with V brakes. Funny how road brakes just don't care.

[bychosis]

Musical bike parts again today - or started to be. Had planned a 9spd-10spd swap and a fork swap between two MTBs. Upgrading the keeper, and keeping the parts bike rideable for resale. Derailleur - nothing special. Forks, removed easy. Crown race 1, easy. Crown race 2 - aaaarrrgghhh. Even with a cdown race removal tool. Time out.

Gave the 10spd cassette a good clean though. Had a bunch of crud gummed up in it. Wasnt too hard to clean though as only 2 cogs were mounted together. The rest were separate.

[jasonc]

I did musical bike parts yesterday. Put the new wheel set on the s works. Had to move over the tyres, tubes, cassette and rotors. Of course even though they were the same hubs, the rotor spacing is slightly different which meant I had to adjust the caliper. Nailed the front. The rear didn't need to move.
Old wheels onto the aethos with lighter rotors. Swapped the cassette, tyres and tubes. Had to adjust both brake calipers. Was expected.

Then I have my checkpoint. Last weekend cleaning the drive train, not the frame, I noticed the non drive side bottom bracket bearing has seized. Ordered a bottom bracket (already had the tool). So today I went to remove it. Of course the tool is 3/8" square drive and my breaker bar/torque wrench is 1/2". Another adapter required. The bearing is JUST moving.
Also adjusted the angle on the checkpoint saddle after swapping saddles last weekend. Had a couple of degrees too much angle on it. See how it goes tomorrow

[bychosis]

Got the crown race off today. It was stubborn and so the crown is a bit scuffed from hammering stuff in to lever it off. It's going onto the flipper parts bike.

Got the flipper bike back together with the downgrades then found a bit of movement in the front axle when reinstalling. Popped it off the bike again and found the cone and locknut not tight. Wound them up a bit and couldn't seem to make them adjust. Weird. Then pulled on the cone and it pulled the axle out. Weirder. It looked a bit short, the found the other side came out and found a broken axle. The QR had held it together while the axle had snapped just inside one cone. Fortunately was able to find an old hub I could raid the axle from. Switched the cones to the spare axle, added some grease for good measure. Then ran out of time to tune the gears.

[g-boaf]

Not strictly mechanical, but I managed to find myself without any spare blue cleats.

I have another pair of cycling shoes that is rarely used and they had cleats in good condition so off with those and onto my normal S-Works shoes. I'll have to get another set sometime soon.

[open roader]

I'm a champion bike mechanic who can shear off chain ring bolts at just under 6Nm

I have one of those BBB mini torque wrenches - always released the spring tension after using it - never have come close to using it in the upper register of torquing as I have another couple of larger torque wrenches for 12Nm or more so I assume the little BBB tool is more accurate than not............. until I was fitting a new set of rings to a Campag. spider and managed to fair twist off the head of the bolt even before I got the wrench to click over at 6Nm.

Campag. recommend 8Nm for their chain ring bolts, I've always greased the threads and tightened to just 6Nm which has done the job on 6 or 7 different cranksets over the past 16 years without as much as a squeak.

After I found the snapped off section on the shed floor I was easily able to unwind the remaining bolt out of the nut so it wasn't cross threaded.

Purchased another set of chain ring bolts and awaiting them to arrive in the mail to see if I can be a two time champion bike mechanic................

[ironhanglider]

I'm a champion bike mechanic who can shear off chain ring bolts at just under 6Nm

I have one of those BBB mini torque wrenches - always released the spring tension after using it - never have come close to using it in the upper register of torquing as I have another couple of larger torque wrenches for 12Nm or more so I assume the little BBB tool is more accurate than not............. until I was fitting a new set of rings to a Campag. spider and managed to fair twist off the head of the bolt even before I got the wrench to click over at 6Nm.

Campag. recommend 8Nm for their chain ring bolts, I've always greased the threads and tightened to just 6Nm which has done the job on 6 or 7 different cranksets over the past 16 years without as much as a squeak.

After I found the snapped off section on the shed floor I was easily able to unwind the remaining bolt out of the nut so it wasn't cross threaded.

Purchased another set of chain ring bolts and awaiting them to arrive in the mail to see if I can be a two time champion bike mechanic................

Anodised 'aluminum' chainring bolts are frequently made of cheese. They are prettier than rusty steel ones though.

Cheers,

Cameron

[open roader]

Anodised 'aluminum' chainring bolts are frequently made of cheese. They are prettier than rusty steel ones though.

I'm a prisoner of Campagnolo (crap) chainring bolts?

I can't remember what the other cranks are/were bolted together with - it's been 10 years since I replaced chainrings on a crank.........

[WyvernRH]

Anodised 'aluminum' chainring bolts are frequently made of cheese. They are prettier than rusty steel ones though.
Cheers,
Cameron

Very much +1 to this, not a good use of decent aluminium, let alone the grades that tend to get used by aftermarket suppliers.
Use decent steel items, stainless if you must, the weight difference is pitiful.

Richard

[open roader]

Anodised 'aluminum' chainring bolts are frequently made of cheese. They are prettier than rusty steel ones though.
Cheers,
Cameron

Very much +1 to this, not a good use of decent aluminium, let alone the grades that tend to get used by aftermarket suppliers.
Use decent steel items, stainless if you must, the weight difference is pitiful.

Richard

I would if I could, esp. as this bike is a 'smell the roses' not going anywhere fast bike but I'm using a 2009 chainset - only have BBB or Campag alloy chainring bolts for these........? or am I missing something?

[jasonc]

Had to adjust to do the micro adjustment of the rear derailleur on 12 speed di2. While in the app it displayed firmware updates are available. Updated the rear derailleur and the battery. There's a firmware update for the shifters but you can't do that over Bluetooth. So I need to look up how to do that

[warthog1]

This looks to be a reasonable explanation of how to do it.

https://bettershifting.com/installation ... ft-levers/

Mine isn't done either. It looks to be a moderate pita to do.

[CmdrBiggles]

Had to adjust to do the micro adjustment of the rear derailleur on 12 speed di2. While in the app it displayed firmware updates are available. Updated the rear derailleur and the battery. There's a firmware update for the shifters but you can't do that over Bluetooth. So I need to look up how to do that

Firmware updates are, I think, the bane of electronic shifting systems — unexpected, annoying and a bit of a hassle, but necessary and reassuring that the manufacturer actually does give a damn for their equipment now and into the future. I get at least 1 update each fortnight, the last being Tuesday last week (SRAM Force rear). Front/rear SRAM shifters (at the lever, using Ant+) have a button to be pressed to enable connection and updates; not sure what Di2 uses; they might not use Bluetooth, but Ant+.

EDIT: Warthog's post probably more straightforward...at first glance (!)

[jasonc]

Thanks warthog. I've bookmarked it

[stevenaaus]

Been sporadically riding around my new (old) 2013 BMC quite happily, for two years now?? But geez it makes noisy shifts occasionally despite having a DA chain and ultegra RD. Thought to check the B screw today... Gah! Almost a cm gap when it should be a millimeter. Omgoodness.

[blizzard]

My rear brake has been weak for a while, feels fine but no power. When I was replacing the tyre today, I cleaned the disc with Isopropyl alcohol and gave the pads a sand. Surprisingly, it actually seemed to have fixed the issue for now.

[jasonc]

This looks to be a reasonable explanation of how to do it.

https://bettershifting.com/installation ... ft-levers/

Mine isn't done either. It looks to be a moderate pita to do.

I've had a look. what a PITA. I think I'm going to look at wiring up the shifters instead

[OnTrackZeD]

Pumping my tyres this morning and being lazy I gave the release a flick to get it off the valve and bang, it blew off so hard it broke the valve chuck on my pump.

[WyvernRH]

Finally got around to doing a 'clean-up' strip and service on my Lefty Ocho Oliver gravel forks. I've had the specialist tools on the shelf for a while now. Quickly found out that all the 'how to' videos on the Web cover earlier non-gravel versions of the Ocho fork. The lockout gear removal etc is nothing like mine so I had to make it up as I went, scouring the Web for any exploded diagrams (one) and any service hints (not a lot...) Also had to make up a special tool so I could get the lockout backplate out and back!
Then, as mine is a GRAVEL fork the seal hammer would not fit due to the smaller fork movement - more tool modification!

However, all went back together smoothly thankfully.

I wish Cannondale would have some sort of official service document for these things instead of 'Take it to our (non-existent) Service Centre' (sorry 'Center'). I had to wander the Web searching for scraps amongst all the MTB stuff, a lot of which was pretty dodgy anyway.

I think I've earned the glass of wine tonight...

[am50em]

Isn't Lefty Ocho the XC fork and Lefty Oliver the gravel fork?
https://www.cannondale.com/en-us/techno ... suspension

https://www.cannondale.com/-/media/file ... _eu_en.pdf

[WyvernRH]

Isn't Lefty Ocho the XC fork and Lefty Oliver the gravel fork?
https://www.cannondale.com/en-us/techno ... suspension

https://www.cannondale.com/-/media/file ... _eu_en.pdf

Quite right - but it sort of depends where in Cannondale's history/marketing you came in .

AFAIK the Oliver is the Gravel version of the Ocho fork design and has variously been referred to as the 'Ocho Oliver' (mainly when it first came out to distinguish from the two crown design maybe?) or more often nowadays just the 'Oliver'. Gets very confusing on the web search...

Richard

[warthog1]

Pumping my tyres this morning and being lazy I gave the release a flick to get it off the valve and bang, it blew off so hard it broke the valve chuck on my pump.

Shizen!
What pressure?

[OnTrackZeD]

Pumping my tyres this morning and being lazy I gave the release a flick to get it off the valve and bang, it blew off so hard it broke the valve chuck on my pump.

Shizen!
What pressure?

85psi