Last night I thought I'd treat the road bike to some shiny new bar tape ahead of an event at the weekend.
The old endcaps came out easily, and the old stuff came off fine with no faffing to pick off annoying little bits stuck to the bars. The new stuff went on first time, with no undoing/rewrapping to get it to sit right around the bends or the shifters. The new endcaps just slotted in, perfectly neatly tucking the ends behind them. And, and this is the kicker, you know the useless bit of tape that you get for finishing off the top of the bars? It stuck. Perfectly. And looks really neat.
I'm now deeply suspicious that something else on my bike is going to explode...
Yep, a sure sign that your chain is about to snap and send your mech into the spokes.
You must've missed something.
I didn't think it was physically possible for any bike job to go perfectly well first try 😮
You've obviously wrapped them the wrong way and they will unravel on your next ride, causing the death of a baby robin/yourself.
No, it's OK, the balance of the universe is intact:
I also re-wrapped my bars ahead of an event at the weekend, and I made a right pig's ear of it.
On Monday, I installed 2 new tyres tubelessly, went on and up and held air like a dream.
To balance things out, my dropper is dropping when its not meant to, just an inch or so, when seated & pedalling. Despite tinkering with it, I have not managed to solve it!
Ahh, but I have a 28c road tyre that stubbornly refuses to stay up beyond 5-6 hrs, with no obvious leaks. more sealant going in today
We may have inadvertently discovered the secret to cosmic balance.
My fixie's rear wheel has developed several loose spokes, I took it off and re-tensioned and trued it a few weeks ago to see if that solved it. Clearly not so as with Ned, the universe appears to still be in balance.
I now need to trip it, soak the nipples in acetone, and rebuild with proper spoke freeze.
Did you remember the symmetric figure of 8's around the shifters. It's normally about 50-50 as to whether I can do this right first time both times! Giveaway is the angle of the wraps on the top of the bars.
I fitted Zebs to my son's bike a few weeks back. Measured twice, cut once, nice straight cut across the steerer. Bit of filing, looked like a factory job. Hammered in the star nut with the guide (which I actually remembered I had). Went in first time nice n straight. Forks installed, spacers all the right height. Lovely.
It was the only job on that bike that went ok.
Internal cables took hours.
Dropper post had the wrong lever (Sram fitting, brakes were TRP), had to steal one off my bike
Brake hose for the front too short. Bleed nipple different from all my bleed kits..
etc etc. It punished me no end for the ease of those bloody Zebs.
Did you remember the symmetric figure of 8’s around the shifters.
I never bother with that to be honest, just keep wrapping the same way all the way.
This is the bike equivalent of love bombing
It's emotional abuse, basically
Did you remember the symmetric figure of 8’s around the shifters. It’s normally about 50-50 as to whether I can do this right first time both times! Giveaway is the angle of the wraps on the top of the bars.
I find the ease of doing that do be inversely proportional to how comfy and long lasting the tape will be once it's fitted.
If it goes perfectly first time, i'm going to have sore hands and the tape will fall apart within weeks.
FWIW, i bled a couple of sets of brakes at the weekend, first time i've needed to touch anything hydraulic in ~3 years i think.
The shimanos went perfectly, 15 minutes to do both ends, firmed up nicely.
The hopes (original M4s from 2004/5) took about 45 minutes, as they haven't been used in 5 or 6 years, so decided to completely refill and clear out.
Went perfectly.
Firm, smooth, powerful, no leaks or spills.
Went to put the bleeding kit away and wondered why the DoT5.1 bottle was still in the box, and not on the side, because Hopes need DoT don't they.
So, yeah, had to clean and bleed them again... FFS
And when you go back to check you'll realise it was the wrong bike....
I also had a bar tape application miracle a few weeks ago. Very pleased I was too. colour.
Then the head snapped off the cable in the shifter a week later.
On my to do list now is to take the rh Shifter off and figure out how get the end out of it. This will of course destroy the tape on that side.
To rub it in the tape was a bargain fancy roll pulled out of a clearance bucket by the till on account of being a funny colour and I can't find a match without spending rather more than I ever intend to spend on bar tape. So the left hand won't match unless I replace that too 😕
Try and get the head out without removing the shifter, it can be done on most 10/11 speed shimano stuff. With some cursing and luck.
It appears there's a little screw in the bottom of the shifter I may need to undo, but it's a "wee bit" coroded.
I also can't see the head
I'm not convinced it's not new shifter time tbh.
That being said, Google maps tells me the person who backs onto my neighbours' house runs a bike maintenance business from home.
Is this a good way to say hello or a good way to upset my neighbour?
And when you go back to check you’ll realise it was the wrong bike….
No risk there, i have a dry marker board on the wall.
All the jobs are listed.
There's also a shopping list and all the pressures and damper settings for each fork/shock. And some target pressures for tyres on most of the bikes.
Except the new bike, that needs doing.
And a couple of mates have a tab running.
The pen has dried out though.
Speaking of shifters: A mate had a nasty smash on his roadie a last year: him ****ed, bike ****ed. He's back on his bike again now and riding. Delighted about that.
He asked me at the weekend if I'd strip it down for him so he could hang the frame and fork bits on his garage wall, use anything I could and bin the rest. Some parts obviously ****ed or suspect. LH shifter on the ****ed end of things, so I stripped the clicky bits out to remove enough of the tension ratchety bits to see if it would work as a dropper for the grrrravel bike.
Slowly, slowly dremmely funtimes. Results: a) I think I removed only the things I needed to remove , and b) I got the rest of it back together. I'm yet to fit it (or even buy a dropper), but I'm provisionally delighted about that too. Last time I took apart a shifter, it exploded across the garage in a shower of springs and small parts.