Forums

Article: prep for Winter riding

2008-11-24T11:16:47-05:00

I came across this article which might be of interest to all cold weather riders.

Randy

Freewheel removal

2008-08-28T13:36:07-05:00

I haven’t been on in a while, because life’s been busy but thats not to say that I haven’t been riding and learning as I go on maintenance. Since I don’t have a high end bike, the components consisting of the hub and freewheel on the bikes I have around are hard to identify and I have been trying to learn about how to do maintenance on hubs (dissassembly/cleaning/regreasing), and have a lot of wheels lying around from various makes that I have been playing with for fun. The problem is, I want to buy the proper tool from Park Tool. They make several sockets for removing freewheels and some for cassettes. I know that I do not have a cassette at all, but older freewheels, so I am trying to determine which one I need. Some are obviously not the correct ones but since these are probably very cheap components I don’t know who manufactured them or where to even begin.

Any suggestions?

Replacing Tires

2008-08-12T16:36:07-05:00

My wife and I are new to biking having purchased two recumbents about eight weeks ago. We now have just over 600 miles on the bike and expect to exceed 1000 mile before the fall ends. My question is how often should we plan on replacing the tires. The current tires are Kenda Kwest 100psi tires on Sun Sport CX.

Thanks for any responses.

Do you patch or not?

2008-06-20T12:31:49-05:00

Hello All:

Happy first day of Summer.
I have a question, do you patch your tubes, either on the trail or
at home after a tube change?
I was at Xenia Station, yesterday, two dudes, from Indy, was here
riding our trails. They was both there, and both had a flat tire, from
glass. I ask if they wanted to use my patch kit, to patch there tubes.
They said they never patch, tube, but just throw them away, and use
new tubes. In the next minute, they was saying they hope they make it
back to there cars, becuase they don’t have any spare tubes. The tubes
had very small,glass cuts. They changed there tubes,and was on there
way. I fished the tubes out of the trash can, took them home patche
them, and they held air allnight. My point is wouldn’t it, make good sence
to learn to patch, tubes than throw, away, a prefectly good tube, than have
to worry, about being able to get back to your car? I know the tubes I buy
are about 3.00. Maybe some people have money to buy, new tubes all the
time, but not me on a fixed income.
Well, that’s my question of the day, time to get out and on the trails, I’ll
be on creekside, if you see a old dude on a black Schwinn, wave and say
Hi.

Cleaning the chain

2008-06-28T13:46:43-05:00

Tip: Clean more than once every 2 or 3 years.

Wow, was the chain dirty. I use the hand held chain cleaner from Park Tools and I had to fill up the cleaning reservoir 3 times before it came clean.

I’ll probably repeat the process in a couple weeks and also do a better job cleaning the sprockets than I did today. They also could use a thorough cleaning.

But, in my short test ride, no clickity-clicks.

Oops! Looking at the Park Tools website I realized that I ran the chain through the chain cleaner the wrong direction! Guess this is another reason I should do another cleaning… Oh well….

~ Randy

SRAM Derailleur Cable Problems

2008-07-01T07:30:22-05:00

My commuter bike is an Sun EZ Sport. So it is my work horse. I go through components after a few hundred miles in a feaster time frame than most non commuters.
This time I noticed that about a week ago my shifting of the back derailleur was getting harder and harder until it locked a this week. All looked okay but inside the housing the cable was trashed. It was a mess and would not come out with out pliers. The bad new was all the LBS did not have the 70-inches I needed. (make that most, one of the newer ones had it but no service after waiting for 15 min.)
My point is when you notice the resistance on your shifters then it is time to take it apart.

Cyclometer not accurate

2008-06-17T13:05:13-05:00

Anyone know why my cyclometer is not reporting MPH readings accurately? What it does is, as I’m riding along, it will jump from the MPH I currently am riding at to, say, 4 or 5 MPH less, or even reporting 0 MPH.

I did a quick check on the connections and all appear OK.

TIA

~ Randy

What do you think???

2008-06-24T10:20:38-05:00

Hello All:
Met a man at Xenia Station, yesterday, and we started talking about
bicycle tires. Now I have never heard of this in my 30 + years of
bike riding.
But what do you think of his idea. He said he takes the tires off, every
1000 miles and turns them side to side. His theory is that when you ride
the road is crowned,for water run off and the tires will wear on one side,
more than the other. So by taking the tires, and changing sides, they,
will not wear more on one side, that the other.
Let me see if I can explain it, by side to side,took me a bit to figure it
out, but I’m old.
Say you have the makers label on the drive side, you take the tire off
and put the label on the other side of the rim.
I’m still thinking about the idea, and was wondering, what, others thought.
Have a good day, and get out and ride if you can.

Learned something new

2008-06-20T08:26:17-05:00

I learned something new yesterday. It turns out I need a pedal wrench to change the pedals on my road bike. I had no idea. I wanted to take the clipless pedals off and replace them with the clip pedals that came with the bike and had to take the bike to the LBS to have it done. They charged me $5 to switch them out; a pedal wrench would have been $28. It was worth it to have them do it. Who would ‘ve guessed!

Maintenance class from Kettering Bike Shop

2008-06-20T08:16:11-05:00

The web site for the Kettering Bike Shop (ketteringbikeshop.com) is asking for feedback on a possible maintenance class in the fall. I am one of those riders the rest of you stop to help because I know very little about maintaining or fixing my bike. I would love to see a roadside repair class. If anyone else is interested in that or, some other class topics, give the bike shop some feedback so they know what you would like to see.