Full Version: Mountain Bike Maintance or bikes in general.

From: Dr Nick (FOZZA) [#1]
9 Mar 11:37
To: ALL

Now that the crappy weather has abated a bit I decided to get my trusty Mountain bike out of the garage and start cycling again.

Nothing major just a few miles a day with the dog on lead to give him and me a bit of exercise.

I was gutted to find that the pedals had quite a bit of give in them side to side away from the bike frame, and the gears were jumping stupidly!

I looked up on the internet on how to fix my gears (the pedals will probably need a new colum sproketty thingy).

After seeing a few videos I was confident I knew what i was doing. After 40mins of tightneing and untighting It was apparent I didn't!

Not being mechanically minded I gave up and yesterday took the bike to Halfords where for £17 and year they will make all the adjustments for me and fit replacement parts labour free.

So my bike is up and running again (pedals only had 2mms of movement they say they will change the sproketty thing at 5mm).

Ideally I would like to try and keep it in good nick going forward sooo....

What advice to you have on keeping a bike in tip top shape?
I saw a Muck off bike cleaning and maintenane kit and was wondering if that might be a good start?

From: Dave!! [#2]
9 Mar 12:11
To: Dr Nick (FOZZA) [#1] 9 Mar 13:57

I'd go for a simple pairing of keeping it clean and lubricating the moving parts. For smaller parts (the gear knobs) the odd bit of WD40 should suffice. For the chain and gears, you'll need more than that. For motorcycles, you tend to use proper chain grease which comes in a spray can. Might be worth seeing if you could get something similar for your bike. Other than that, the odd bit of oil in the gear mechanism and the bike should give you years of trouble-free usage.

From: Mr (M00RL0CK) [#3]
9 Mar 16:45
To: Dr Nick (FOZZA) [#1] 9 Mar 17:18

What Dave said really.

God knows what's gone wrong with your pedals if they've developed movement - they shouldn't do that. Depending on where the movement is you'll probably just need new pedals. Cheap and simples.

The gears shouldn't really need adjusting too much, but it's probably something to do with the cable tension. There's probably a little barrel adjuster somewhere that can take up slack and get things a bit betterer.

But yeah, general bike-looking-after is quite simple - decent chain lubricant on the chain (definitely not anything really thin like WD40) will stop it from rusting and going crap. Shouldn't need a whole lot more than that really. If you do a lot of riding in really bad conditions you might find that you need to regrease and repack hub bearings and the like, but it's unlikely to be a problem. For the sake of a few quid, I reckon it's probably worth taking your bike to your local bike shop for an annual service or something. Normally pretty cheap.

From: Dr Nick (FOZZA) [#4]
9 Mar 17:20
To: Mr (M00RL0CK) [#3] 9 Mar 20:09

Yeah signed up to Halfords for a year.

The pedals are something to do with the inner core that connects the two sides in the centre of the bike.

Cost about £9 to replace. So nothing to bad really

From: Woggy [#5]
10 Mar 13:33
To: Dave!! [#2] 10 Mar 13:41

I thought WD40 was a big no no for lubrication as it removes grease and oil etc?

From: Dave!! [#6]
10 Mar 13:45
To: Woggy [#5] 15 Mar 9:43

It'd be strange if it removes oil, given that it actually contains oil (hence how it can lubricate). It's useful on smaller bits like that due to its deep penetration and the fact that it can drive out moisture as well. It's no good on items which require a lot of regular lubrication, but on small pivots, knobs etc. it's fine.

From: Hugh et al le J (KOSWIX) [#7]
10 Mar 13:52
To: Manthorp [#6] 10 Mar 21:36

Take note.

From: Mr (M00RL0CK) [#8]
10 Mar 14:21
To: Dave!! [#6] 10 Mar 14:44

You and Woggy are both right really. It's too thin to be used on anything requiring proper lubrication such as a chain, but it's handy for freeing up things that are stuck (derailleur cables for instance). It does remove oil and grease though - it's great for cleaning things, but keep it away from hub bearings and the like.

From: MrStevens (BOFF) [#9]
10 Mar 14:50
To: Dave!! [#6] 10 Mar 15:44

It's not got very much oil in it (it's mostly solvent), plus not all oils are the same, plus lubricant != oil. Apparently was designed as an anti-corrosive anyway.

From: dyl [#10]
10 Mar 18:00
To: Dr Nick (FOZZA) [#4] 11 Mar 0:51

Bottom Bracket is the name you're looking for I reckon.

I had Ruth's one of them out a couple of days ago - her gears were knackered so I decided to swap them for some I found on half a bike in a skip a few years ago. Turned out to be a much bigger job than I expected, involving taking out the bottom bracket and then putting it back in with a spacer between it and the frame to stop things from catching on other things.

That was the last bike part I've never changed myself before. Apart from the headset, never needed to do that.

Bike maintenance advice: keep it clean. That's the best single thing you can do to keep it working and prolong its life. The only carefulness required is to never submerge or blast with water or WD40 the sealed bits like bottom bracket and hubs, cos if you do you'll displace the grease that keeps them working nicely.

From: Hornycaster (53NORTH) [#11]
12 Mar 4:38
To: ALL

I've only been bicycling 40 years. I used the 3in1 little oil can on everything.
I'm currently trialing Tesco's household polish. Completely rust proofs, muck proofs, antistatic and lubricates...30p / can.

From: Dr Nick (FOZZA) [#12]
12 Mar 9:26
To: Hornycaster (53NORTH) [#11] 15 Mar 15:10

Sounds promising!

I have these tasty items arriving today..

Chain Cleaner

Chain Degreaser

LUBE!!

Work Stand

From: PNCOOL [#13]
12 Mar 17:40
To: ALL

I used to fix all of my friends gears on their bikes back when i was young. I was the only person that seemed to understand how derailers worked and why they would click if they weren't aligned properly.

As for the WD40 thing, it's a water dispersant. It doesn't contain much oil in it at all but it's fantastic for getting things moving again. Always remember to re-oil the thing you've used WD40 on afterwards though, if it needed oiling, as WD40 will remove anything that was there, water, oil, dirt, the lot.

From: dyl [#14]
15 Mar 19:26
To: PNCOOL [#13] 16 Mar 12:12

I find paraffin useful for some of the same stuff, especially chain cleaning. I agree WD40's most useful for getting stuck bits to move again, and I usually start off with a squirt of it (followed by soapy water) for cleaning around the derailleurs and where the cable goes under the bottom bracket (but always careful not to let any go where it can get inside anything).

From: Daniel Herman (HERMAND) [#15]
15 Mar 20:51
To: dyl [#14] 16 Mar 1:15

can't beat parrafin or petrol for cleaning.

From: 99% of gargoyles look like (MR_BASTARD) [#16]
15 Mar 21:36
To: Daniel Herman (HERMAND) [#15] 15 Mar 22:52

Especially ethnic cleansing.

From: Hugh et al le J (KOSWIX) [#17]
15 Mar 23:25
To: 99% of gargoyles look like (MR_BASTARD) [#16] 16 Mar 8:48

Totally. Ideal for getting rid of those pesky 'wrong' skin colours. Everyone's black when they're burned to a crisp.

From: Wayne (SCOREZ2000) [#18]
18 Mar 16:56
To: Dr Nick (FOZZA) [#1] 12 Jul 22:14

I've also been told WD40 is a big no-no on bikes. Get a bottle of White Lightening (bicycle lube, not the cider). It'll do the job nicely.

From: Voltane [#19]
18 Mar 19:53
To: Wayne (SCOREZ2000) [#18] 18 Mar 21:18

quote: Wayne (SCOREZ2000)

Get a bottle of ...bicycle lube... It'll do the job nicely.

And yet another one that couldn't managed a (yes/no John).

Disappointing.

From: 99% of gargoyles look like (MR_BASTARD) [#20]
19 Mar 16:56
To: Voltane [#19] 19 Mar 17:48

Agreed. Standards are slipping. It's all very sad.

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Full Version: Mountain Bike Maintance or bikes in general.

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