Thought I'd give my gravel bike a bit of TLC at the weekend, nothing too taxing, will only take an hour...
TL:DR - Quick job turned into a shit show. End result 2 days later, shiny bike all working 🙂
Job 1 - Replace the chain. Couldn't get the quick link to open and Google says I need a tool to open it on 11 speed, so I gave up and split it the old fashioned way. Decided to give the cassette a degrease and a scrub while I was there. I knew I'd forget the order of the various spacers so I thought I'd be clever and wrap a cable tie around it. Spent about half an hour looking for the 2 bags of cable ties I know I've got somewhere. Gave up and wrapped some string around it. Just found the cable ties 3 days later in the place they should be (which was the first place I had looked but couldn't see them right in front of me FFS).
Started on job 2 whilst the cassette dried and had a few beers. Put the cassette back on and somehow managed to tighten it so it was wonky on the wheel. I must have been so ham-fisted I'd tightened it so much I couldn't get it back off. In the end I had to get my son to hold the chain whip whilst I used both hands to get enough leverage to get it off!
Job 2 - Replace the front tyre. The old one had a few knicks in it and wouldn't hold air for long when running tubeless. I'd retaped it a few times (WTB tape) and put 4 layers on last time, so concluded it must be the tyre. Anyway, the new tyre was so loose on the rim it wouldn't seat at all so I gave up after about an hour of trying and bought some Tesa tape on Ebay. Long story short, a couple of wraps of Tesa tape and it went straight up with just a track pump 🙂
Job 3 - Replace the brake pads. I thought this was going to be a pain in the arse, with bedding in the new pads etc, but a few short sharp stops and they feel perfect! Yay!
Anyway, everything is running fine now despite it taking way longer than it should have! Does anyone else start something and wish they'd never bothered, but still get that satisfied feeling when it's all done?
You obviously didn't spot my Spesh Camber bearings thread. 😂
Emotional journey something like 🤔😒😤😠😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😫😩😫😖😭😭🤬🤬😡😠😭😭😒😤😠😕😕🫣😬😁😁😁😁😁😆
Ha ha that’s nothing. I couldn’t change on to the biggest cog, lowest gear on my hardtail. I thought quick job I’ll just tighten the cable. Mmmm cableend looks a bit frayed. Gave it a go anyway disconnecting it only to find it’s mangled and needs replaced.
So ordered new inner and outer. Cable is internally routed and goes through the top headset bearing. Had a look headset all rusty bearings. Ordered new headset. Also ordered new olive and Barb for back brake cable as that had to be disconnected due to routing through top headset bearing. Meanwhile stripped and cleaned headset. Tried to route in new gear outer. Struggling at bottom bracket area to get it through. Took off crankset, bb rusted. Ordered new bb.
3 weeks later I now have all the parts I think. Wish me luck.
Internal routing through a headset just seems like such a bad idea
Started redoing the internal cables on my roadie - after much fail and swearing I decided I never wanted to do it again so ended up fitting di2 instead.
Had a look headset all rusty bearings.
Ahh, headset routing. Designed by people who live in dry places for people who don't work on their own bikes. The joy.
I'm not the only one with a big bag of cable ties which goes invisible half the time then.
😀
Glad its not just me 🙂
I only consider it a true low if I have to get drill out. If I then also destroy a drill bit it's been a shitshow. (The rounded pivot bolt head on my s/h am9 was a real point of upset, had to use the drill and the big hammer on that one)
I spend as much time and effort cursing the frame designers these days - either cable routing or bearing removal not being thought about - as I do actually maintaining the things.
11 posts, 0 highs
Glad its not just me 🙂
Mine was also exactly where it should have been, but I'd not seen it.
😀
I finally found some time to properly investigate why my chain was skipping, dropping and not moving well when changing gear. Took the rear wheel out and the freehub fell on the floor with part of the Hope Pro2 axle stuck in it.
Bought a replacment axle, bearings, tools and set to work trying to remove the old stuck piece and stuck bearings and fit the new parts. 3.5 hours early on Sunday morning, multiple scraped knuckles, swearing and a bit of blood and its finally back together. The online how to video made it look a lot less frustrating than it was 😀
Ooooh a bike maintenance thread....
Hands up who knows what's coming next....
thepurist
Full Member
Started redoing the internal cables on my roadie – after much fail and swearing I decided I never wanted to do it again so ended up fitting di2 instead.
Genius! 😀
Bike maintenance can be quite contemplative, checking bolts, tightening things up, changing out brake pads etc, patching tyres etc. For me the most depressing one is trying to find and kill a squeak somewhere on the bike. You spend 2 hours hunting it down, tightening everything, greasing everything else and... 3 minutes into a ride it's back again.