…….. Pivot bearing change

My Kona has done well, 3 years o riding in all weathers, but I lost the whole of sunday, a fair bit of skin off my knuckles and had to get the touch up paint out too

depends on the bike for me… his Sworks is a doddle… however the old T-130 that was a nightmare getting them in straight.

…the one you don’t have the right tools for.

My Ibis is covered in bearings but with a set of blind pullers and proper presses, it’s quite a satisfying job.

Bearing changes are a total PITA. For me it’s always those jobs that should be a piece of cake, but always end up being a bit of a mess because of something unexpected. I changed my dropper cable last week, it took me 2 attempts at the inner before I realised that it was pulling through at the lever end because the cable stop bolt was threaded.

I still think cleaning my bike is far worse than any maintenance job

+1

There are a good few bike manufacturers who need to learn to design easily accessible / replaceable bearnings.

From memory: Oranges with the ‘clamping wedge’ make life easy, as did a Cannondale I worked on once with expanding collet mounted main hardware.

Come on bike manufacturers – simple things like flat surfaces to get the tools onto…

Incorrect.
There is no worse bike maintenance job than fitting mudguards.
I am a calm and mild mannered person, but I came astonishingly close to throwing a bike across the garage the last time I did it.
I do all my own spannering, but this is the one job I now pay an LBS to do.

Cleaning a bike is worse.

On one bike it’s easy, on another, it’s an absolute nightmare, i could change bearings on a transition patrol in less than an hour, put it back and be done, on my ebike, a giant ereign, they have some really good design bits, like the spacers they use for the shock mounting being small, annoying and requiring 3 hands to move them in to place, they also had the great idea of running the rear mech and rear brake cables through the lower rocker mount, so to change those bearings (6 of them), you need to remove the rear brake hose and rear mech cable to get them.

So on this bike, after a bearing change i then have to rebleed the rear brake, reset the rear mech and fiddle for ages to get that bloody shock lined up and bolted back in.

Next bike i buy will have a more in-depth check on things like this!

I will counter with internal routing of the front derailleur on my Cannondale Synapse Road bike.

**** me sideways and call me Julie i must have been at it for about 2 hours before finally getting it in the right hole (oo er mrs)

Never again, next time its off to the lbs.

how is cleaning a bike the worst?!

Spray with mucoff (other rip-off sprays are available)
Spray with pressure washer

job jobbed.

try and remember to lube chain before setting off next time.

the more you clean, the more issues you find.

There is no worse bike maintenance job than fitting mudguards.

I did a lovely job fitting full-length SKS guards to my commuter last month (if I do say so myself), but it did take an absolute lifetime.

Fit stays, offer up mudguard, remove, hacksaw a tiny bit off, offer up mudguard, hacksaw a tiny bit more off, file etc. Think I repeated that process four times.

like the spacers they use for the shock mounting being small, annoying and requiring 3 hands to move them in to place

So true – when other manufacturers create ‘top hat’ spacers, that stay on as you slide everything together.

It is not that difficult.

Getting rubber grommets back in on any frame with internal routing that uses grommet in place of something better

I’ve not done it but replacing the dropper cable on an alloy gen 2 Levo is pretty awful according to my LBS – you have to take the whole motor out! Internal cabling routing – why?!!

Stem alignment, I’m never satisified it is exact.

Fitting a saddle twists my melon.
One hand for the saddle, another for the clamping plate, another for the non-captive nut or plate thing, another hand for the screw and yet another for the allen key to fo it all up.

how is cleaning a bike the worst?!

Spray with mucoff (other rip-off sprays are available)
Spray with pressure washer

job jobbed.

Use to do that with a standard hose but spent longer sorting out the grinding chain afterwards. Plus my bikes are kept indoors so using a hose makes more mess to clean up. Cleaning it all properly without making more mess takes a long time.

@dcwhite1984
Assume it’s similar to a CAAD12 – internal cables on that first time I did them was an all day job that resulted in a bike that shifted like crap.
2nd time around I had the tool to remove the Si crankset and a magnetic internal cabling kit, think was done in an hour.

finbar
Free Member

I did a lovely job fitting full-length SKS guards to my commuter last month (if I do say so myself), but it did take an absolute lifetime.

Fit stays, offer up mudguard, remove, hacksaw a tiny bit off, offer up mudguard, hacksaw a tiny bit more off, file etc. Think I repeated that process four times.

I’ve only fitted one set of proper mudguard – was prepared for the worst, but it ended up being reasonably satisfying. Kinesis guards on a Kinesis Racelight fwiw

Removing a stuck crank from a bottom bracket.

Don’t ask.

Replacing a broken spoke on a tubeless wheel.

ta11pau1
Full Member

Removing a stuck crank from a bottom bracket.

Don’t ask.

‘oh, you know about bikes, can you just have a look at the gears/brakes/whatever on my BSO….’

Sorry,I enjoy fitting mudguards and always expect that an element of bodge/fettling is all part of the fun. 🙂
However,I never look forward to chain and derailleur cleaning (when I have left it too long) on my winter bikes.

@boombang yes i would assume very similar, i have the tool to remove the crank but not the magnetic kit, which is why i think it took me so long.

Thankfully i dont need to do it very often.

Internal cable routing on an Orange has to be up there (and +1 to the rubber grommets).

But at least the pivot bearing change is pretty easy.

Fitting a saddle twists my melon.
One hand for the saddle, another for the clamping plate, another for the non-captive nut or plate thing, another hand for the screw and yet another for the allen key to fo it all up.

Glad it’s not just me! Every time I do it I think that there must be some trick I’m missing that makes the whole thing much easier. (If I am, someone please enlighten me!)

replacing the dropper cable on an alloy gen 2 Levo is pretty awful according to my LBS – you have to take the whole motor out! Internal cabling routing – why?!!

Its a pain in the ass for sure but there’s no need to remove the motor.
Remove the motor cover on the NDS and feed both ends of the cable in from underneath.
There’s a guide in there to give the cable a nice smooth curve at the bottom.

Changed my wife’s Canyon Neuron bearings last month. Bearings so rusty they fell apart so couldn’t use a puller.

All the best jobs rolled into one big one!

Clean bike first (properly clean for a change)
Remove mudhugger.
Change bearings.
Change rear gear cable (why wouldn’t you?)
Refit mudhugger.

I’m fairly useless at bike maintenance. My mate who can fix almost anything asks me NOT to try and fix stuff, just bring it over to him 😉 However, my bro gave me an old road bike for my new (when it ever arrives) turbo. It’s – let’s be charitable here – had quite a hard life. So things I’m really not enjoying include

14mm Allen key needed to remove cranks…followed by a bearing puller to change the BB bearings

Replacing the front mech cable. I expect it’ll be fine but those integrated shifters scare me

The strange world of road axles and freehubs. Just different enough to be confusing for a bear of little brain.

Carbon posts in carbon frames

On MTBs, I’ve given up bleeding brakes. I know it’s easy if you have the kit/patience. But I have neither. And bearings (Ibis and Revel owner) also have to go ‘to the man who understands these things’

Don’t mind washing bikes tho. Hard to &&&& that up!

troublesome tubeless, when it works well it’s fabulous, when it doesn’t it’s a shit show!

One I can’t take to my lbs for them to sort.

@mashr

This thing gave me soooo much trouble.

Cleaning is easy.

Wait til tomorrow.
Brush (now dry) mud off with a brush.
Spray GT85 on the bike, rub with cloth.

Done and looks brand new

Depends on the bike doens’t it, simple jobs can become a nightmare just through one bad design decision. You can always tell when a designer expects to have to change the bearings or cables on a bike in future.

simple jobs can become a nightmare just through one bad design decision.

This.
Just swapped some hoses on sram rival. They are banjo fitting, so you think it would be nice and quick. But no, the banjos are under the same cover as the reservoir cover…for no good reason. So you open the whole thing up, swap the hoses, spill dot fluid everywhere, put it back together, and bleed. Nothing tidy about that at all. Rubbish.

I’ve not done it but replacing the dropper cable on an alloy gen 2 Levo is pretty awful according to my LBS – you have to take the whole motor out! Internal cabling routing – why?!!

IT is.. well kinda..
I fitted a dropper to my OH’s trek HT e-bike… motor out… cable routing past the battery somewhere… complete faffage!
Should have got AXS!!

DrP

Cleaning out old tyre sealant…….
I will happily get covered in grease doing other stuff – but tyre sealant, no!

1. Anything that involves internal cable routing
2. Indexing gears on a BSO