Bike Maintenance for Beginners

I was meant to go out on Sunday for my first long ride in ages, so after a long day visiting Little Wheezy at uni on Saturday, I finally got around to trying to fit my new chainrings. Unfortunately the shimano ones I bought ended up being 11 speed and I couldn’t get 10 speed at all, but I eventually sourced some FSA pattern ones. So an easy 30 minutes swapping them over; not!
Got them on and they just wouldn’t work, with the chain fouling up all the time. I spent an hour dissasembling and then reassembling. Still wouldn’t work. As I packed the bike away I thought I’d look at the ones I had taken off, and they were identical; and then the penny dropped. I had put the large chainring on the wrong way round! :person_facepalming:t2:. Bearing in mind I have an engineering degree and I have a very practical, hands on job, my stupidity was quite staggering in that I didn’t realise before. Anyway, all on correctly now, although black chainrings on a silver crank will have the purists spitting feathers.

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Silver crank on black chainrings is what all the cool kids are rocking :grin: is it shifting ok with the old chain?

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bet you’re glad you didn’t take it to the LBS, would have been told “better leave it to the experts”

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What an absolute dog of a job. Theres always enough time between doing it that I forget which way to wrap and how to get round the shifters.

Gel pads make it lovely and plush, hoping it helps with the numbness I get in my little fingers when riding.



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Yes, the chain was very new and only had a few weeks’ wear on it. Have to say, that looks very smart!

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Absolute beaut of a morning here, 27C, also my first Saturday off work in this country for over 2 years.

Took the opportunity to go full @FatPom on the bikes with a deep clean including all the oily gunk from the chainsets.

we’re going to ride out to get some lunch now (to bring home and eat- still can’t eat in public for 2 more weeks)

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Decided to unpack the Propel yesterday as it’s mostly been in the bike box since the 70.3 in Greece in October, although I gave it a bit of a wipe over after the race :roll_eyes: and wanted it ride it today to check before putting it back in again, I did remember to charge the PM & Di2 as well.

Went for a spin round the block and there was some rattling, which I realised was the rear calliper, so tightened it up. Then noticed some play in the bars which felt a bit strange and slack, tightened them and then I remembered that I’d slackened them and the stem bolts off to avoid them seizing over the winter! Glad I noticed before any descent :grimacing:

Anyway, survived the ride today and blead the front brake tonight as it was nearly touching the bar and gave the disc & pads a clean, will do the rear ones during the week as they were squealing badly.

Erm, might have a bit of a mess with some brake fluid as well :roll_eyes:

Then I’ll be taking half of it apart again to pack it away!

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Before a recent club TT, I forgot to re-engage both the front wheel and rear wheel rim brakes after swapping out the wheels :neutral_face:

Got a bit of a shock during a quick warm up when I went to brake and nothing much happened. Luckily there was plenty of empty road to roll to a stop.

Needless to say I got off, tightened them up and gave myself a talking to.

Probably should be in confessions thread thinking about it.

Edit: corrected for accuracy, it was in the warm up and not the actual TT itself thankfully

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Is that just for the turbo?
Or your actual outdoors bike, too?

Nice. But bartape is a horrible job!

I actually had a crack at doing my turbo bike this weekend. What I thought would be the horrible bits I found fine - once I understood I needed to be a bit more manly with the tape.

HOWEVER - I’d used fairly thick tape and I’d tried to double up on the current tape (as for some reason inside I want chunky bars) - I could not for the life of my sort out the bar plugs.
The first one want badly… the second one was a total disaster and I ended up having to re-do the tape as I’d messed it up so badly.
I dont fully understand how a standard plug holds… ended up getting some screw in ones to try and force the issue. Appreciate inside I probably didnt need any - but I wanted to make it neat. FAIL!

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Start wrapping the tape with one turn where half the tape width overlaps the end of the bar. Then you fold/push all this inside the end of the bar and it anchors the bar plug in place.

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I thought the plugs were slightly wider than the gap but have some play in them and also hold against the bit of tape you fold into the bars.

Absolute PITA job though and I generally get a shop to do it.

I used the Condor site and found the rest of it all fine. I had overlap but then I couldnt push it in. Always seemed to have too much, trim it down, had too little. With it being very corky it was almost springing back out. The screw in plugs worked better.

In hindsight - I don’t even need tape on half the bar as its covered in a towel. And I had some other BMX type foam grips on the drops that I preferred when sprinting. So I may revisit - take off ALL the tape (I’ll also be able to move the play controllers better which currently dont fit very well) and just stick the pads on the drops again.

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The Condor instructions demonstrate the “figure of 8” method which is a bit bulky.

If you can wrap - geddit :yawning_face: - your head around it the Park Tools video shows neater methods.

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Same bike for turbo and road rides. Yes its a.pig of a job to get right, its not perfect but good enough for me.

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Well … Zipp 303 freehub bearings are shot. LooseAF and the body is also toothed (like it’s made from cheese), which made getting my cassette off great fun when the freehub body also popped off and pawls sprang everywhere.

Headset has gone. Again.

Bottom bracket has gone. Again.

I like gravel riding, but it’s bloody expensive!!!

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Disc brake rubbing.

Can see air gap only on one side of the disc.

Loosened brake mount, squeezed brake lever, tightened brake mount.

Now the air gap is on the other side of the disc, but not both.

:neutral_face:

Squeaking when off the bike has gone, but rear isn’t spinning nearly as free as the front. Did three hours riding on it yesterday.

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It’s a complete PITA, one hack I’ve seen is to put a business card or shim on the disc when you tighten it, I’ve had mixed success including slicing my finger with a sharp edge :face_with_symbols_on_mouth:

Mostly trial and error!

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Get one of these, slide it over the disc and rotate into the caliper, then do what you did

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Yeah, that’s what nearly amputated my finger :grimacing: