Ask the experts

[climberevan]

I use dish soap diluted in warm water in a small bucket and a hose with a light spray. Since I started waxing chains I've not had to clean a cassette or cog, but for the frame, sus, and wheels this cobweb brush has been fantastic. It reaches into crevices but it's gentle. It's been a real pleasure--best thing I've found for bikes in 27 years of washing them.

Lubing sealed bearings from the outside is a waste of lube and make a mess. Zero will make it into the bearing. I don't think lubing stanchions does much either, but I'm less certain of that.

[El Chupacabra]

Embarrassing Q on front derailleur adjusting: I should be able to do this, but something isn't working right and I am stumped.

Bike is a circa 2016 Giant/Liv Lust 27.5, 2x10 Shimano drivetrain. Front derailleur is a direct mount Deore (height adjustment only, no rotational adjustment) with bizarre cable routing - bottom pull, up and over a triangle pulley contraption. I am confident that the cable is routed properly. Front shifter is in 2X setting. Crank is Shimano SLX hollow tech II.

After setting high and low limit screws, here's the problem: with cable tension set for proper shifting from small to large chainring, the outer derailleur cage rubs the chain in the big ring in all but the lowest cassette cogs. When cable tension is increased to correct cage rub in the big chainring, this causes cage rub in the small chainring. What am I doing wrong?

Edit to add: when cable tension is set such that the cage does not rub in the small chainring, and I shift to the large chainring (and the cage rubs), I can hold the shifter lever down enough to provide clearance at the cage and it doesn't rub. Release the lever, and cage rubs.

[Andeh]

I am trying to cut down on the amount that I wash my bike (at least with soap) because I've found that any soap that's great at getting off greasy, clayey mud is also great at dissolving bearing grease. So basically at this point, I only wash with soap right before I'm about to strip the whole thing for bearing service or a major overhaul. I will rinse with water only right after riding in the mud (before it gets crusty and hardened), but here that only means like a half dozen times per year. The rationale is that a frame bearing kit costs $65, wheel bearing kit is $60, set of GX jockey wheels is $37, pedal rebuild kit is $25, SS headset bearings are like $80+, SS BB bearings are like $40. So I realized that over-washing my bike was costing me around $300 per year. Cutting out the soap has dropped the amount of bearings I replace by about 75%.

In terms of tools, I've got a Muc Off branded large soft brush with rubberized edges, which I use for spreading soap around and scrubbing chunks of dirt loose. The rubberized edges help protect your bike from smacking it. I also have a stiff bristle brush for cleaning the cassette & jockey wheels. No sponges. I use Muc Off soap. It does work incredibly well in one pass. Rinse, spray on soap foam, rub it around with the brush, then rinse and the bike is spotless. After washing, dry the chain with a rag or shop towel, then immediately apply chain lube of choice.

All the mechanics I've talked to say that putting oil/lube/grease on the outside of bearings just attracts dust and accelerates wear. So, no Tri-Flow drip for me. About every half a year I break down down the bike and feel all the bearings for wear. If they're really crunchy/gritty/notchy, I replace them. If they feel like they spin super easy or feel a bit loose, I pack them with fresh grease.

Edit: appropriate chain lube for your conditions will practically eliminate nasty buildup on the cassette / jockey wheels / chainring too.

[grskier]

I am trying to cut down on the amount that I wash my bike (at least with soap) because I've found that any soap that's great at getting off greasy, clayey mud is also great at dissolving bearing grease. So basically at this point, I only wash with soap right before I'm about to strip the whole thing for bearing service or a major overhaul. I will rinse with water only right after riding in the mud (before it gets crusty and hardened), but here that only means like a half dozen times per year. The rationale is that a frame bearing kit costs $65, wheel bearing kit is $60, set of GX jockey wheels is $37, pedal rebuild kit is $25, SS headset bearings are like $80+, SS BB bearings are like $40. So I realized that over-washing my bike was costing me around $300 per year. Cutting out the soap has dropped the amount of bearings I replace by about 75%.

In terms of tools, I've got a Muc Off branded large soft brush with rubberized edges, which I use for spreading soap around and scrubbing chunks of dirt loose. The rubberized edges help protect your bike from smacking it. I also have a stiff bristle brush for cleaning the cassette & jockey wheels. No sponges. I use Muc Off soap. It does work incredibly well in one pass. Rinse, spray on soap foam, rub it around with the brush, then rinse and the bike is spotless. After washing, dry the chain with a rag or shop towel, then immediately apply chain lube of choice.

All the mechanics I've talked to say that putting oil/lube/grease on the outside of bearings just attracts dust and accelerates wear. So, no Tri-Flow drip for me. About every half a year I break down down the bike and feel all the bearings for wear. If they're really crunchy/gritty/notchy, I replace them. If they feel like they spin super easy or feel a bit loose, I pack them with fresh grease.

Edit: appropriate chain lube for your conditions will practically eliminate nasty buildup on the cassette / jockey wheels / chainring too.

This.. People make fun of me having some mud caked onto parts of my bike sometimes, but, I get it away from the pivots and gears with a little elbow grease and some brushes and try not to spray it down too much otherwise.

[frorider]

Any feedback on Flo Motorsports Levers for Shimano brakes?

I broke a lever on my SLX four piston brakes today and I'm contemplating just buying a set.

This thread sucks, since it attempts to combine multiple tech questions simultaneously and dissuades any focused discussion. Anyway pretty sure I posted last year about my installation of the flo Motorsports levers on my GF’s SLX brakes. Highly recommended, since the cheesy shimano levers broke at least twice when her bike went down in slow crashes. The Flo’s cure that issue and have a better feel overall.

One of the ongoing threads within this shitshow thread is the perennial ‘what rear hub?’ question. Project 321 remains the benchmark as of 2022. I think I’ve posted before about the advantages over DT, CK, I9, Profile, yadda yadda. 321 is among the lightest but if you’re really focused on weight, order some Tunes from Germany

[Dee Hubbs]

In particular curious what Dee Hub's wash kit toolbox looks like. Envisioning another perfectly foam cut suitcase full of specialty brushes etc.

I was going to answer until I saw this comment. So no photos will be posted of my wash setup.
I'm a big proponent for tools and water for "dirty parts", and a separate bucket and tools for "pretty parts"
-Orange bucket from home depot of with tools for "dirty parts". Brushes with a red handle marking them as dirty. These are a mix of kitchen scrubbers, toilet bowl brushes, and the odd bike specific chainring brush. The bucket has some warm water and some dish soap. This is not necessarily for the washing aspect, but more to clean the contaminates off of the brushes.
-White Ace Hardware bucket for "pretty part" brushes and sponge, again with some water and dish soap to clean off the brushes. I have the MucOff brush set, but only because I was buying the for others, along with some kitchen type sponges.
Dirty parts are anything the collects heavy built up dirt, or grease: under saddle, under BB, chainstay, tires/wheels, cassette, chainring, chain. They all get washed with the dirty tools with Muckoff bike wash, and occasionally MucOff degreaser on the drivetrain. I find bike specific bushes and tools too weak, bristles are not stiff enough, thats why I use a kitchen or bathroom specific brushes.
Top of bike gets a light spray with the hose, and then spayed with MucOff bike wash, and the soft brushes go to work. I like the Mukoff soft brush for all the painted parts, and their split scrubber (looks like a lobster claw) for getting around hubs and chainstays close to the wheels. Most of the dirty parts (except the drivetrain) get washed again with the clean brushes.

I'm in the camp of less is more. Less washing is better in the long run. I'll let my bikes get dirty and dusty and not wash them until really needed. If you're washing your bike every time you ride you're just going to be replacing bearings sooner than necessary.

I dry off my bike with a microfibre towel, bounce it on the rear wheel to get water out of nook and crannies, and then use SC1 to polish it. This makes a wash last way longer, it prevents dirt and dust from sticking to the bike. Pledge furniture polish is the the same product as SC1, just without the bike part markup tax. I prefer lemon pledge, but the cotton candy smell of SC1 is worth the extra price.

Chain waxing is only on my road bikes, MTB get the old fashion lube. I lube after rides, wipe until rags are clean (to the point i can rub my finger on the chain and not leave a streak on my finger), so the drivetrain is fairly clean most of time, and ready to ride at a moments notice. The drivetrain usually dosent need much special attention on wash day. I lube pivots on derailleur with triflow, pivots on dropper levers, pivots on SPDs, file off rock strike sharps on pedals. Most suspension linkages are bearing based, so I stay away from them with the triflow. Nothing special to suspension sanctions.
I pedal the bike and mimic a brake bed in procedure, that way I burn off any contaminates that may have gotten on the rotors or pads, this prevents brake squeal on the ride after a wash.

Again, it's not a show piece, and in my opinion washing it less is better. The SC1 is a invaluable product, it keeps the bike clean for a long time. Last night at the local race series some commented on me washing my bike to look good just for the race series, and it had actually been 8-10 rides since it had been washed, but the SC1 has it looking new, it actually says "New Bike In A Can" on the label.

Edit: I'm in a dry dusty Colorado eviroment, so its never a mud caked bike, just dust. (gawd forbid we ride when its wet here)
When I lived in the PNW we rode in Whistler/Squamish/Pemberton in every condition, poring rain just meant traction and brown pow face shots.
There I was a fan of letting the dirt dry, clean the stanchions and pivots with a clean rag, and then brush the loose dried dirt off with a medium bristled brush. No water, no hose, just brush off the dirt between wash days.

[Dee Hubbs]

Bike is a circa 2016 Giant/Liv Lust 27.5, 2x10 Shimano drivetrain. Front derailleur is a direct mount Deore (height adjustment only, no rotational adjustment) with bizarre cable routing - bottom pull, up and over a triangle pulley contraption. I am confident that the cable is routed properly. Front shifter is in 2X setting. Crank is Shimano SLX hollow tech II.

Thats a horrible design, with the cable coming out the downtime by the bottle mount and no angle adjustment. We have a bunch of these Livs our fleet.
The limit screws mess with the movement of the cage. Even the low screw can impact the movement at the high end. I start by backing them out.
I lower the cage so it almost touches the big chainring (like scraping the ring), I adjust the big ring limit screw so that it over shifts the big ring and back it off just the slightest, almost to the point of when I overstress the shifter it will drop off the outside.
Once I have the big ring set it usually is fine in the smaller ring. It will shift down and be in the correct space. That design does not really allow it to under shift the chain off the inside of the small ring. So I just spend my efforts getting the upper limits set.
That set up is also not friendly to cross chainring. I can't get big ring and first 2 gears to work, or small ring and bottom 2 gears to work without rub. This is because you cant cheat the angle of cage to match the chan line.

I find it hard to articulate some of this set up, but I have a few of these bikes to work on again soon, and will add any more for tips I come up with.
Hope that helps.

[El Chupacabra]

Thanks - I'll give it another try with these tips in mind.

[Dee Hubbs]

Thanks - I'll give it another try with these tips in mind.

Start from scratch. Barrel adjuster one turn from all the way in, limit screws loose, undo the cable pinch bolt, and start from there.

[toast2266]

Thanks - I'll give it another try with these tips in mind.

Aside from what dee said, for f. derailleurs without rotational adjustment, I find that I often end up just bending the derailleur cage a little bit too get it to sit / shift how I want. But that's after doing everything dee said.

[VTskibum]

I was going to answer until I saw this comment. So no photos will be posted of my wash setup.
I'm a big proponent for tools and water for "dirty parts", and a separate bucket and tools for "pretty parts"
Chain waxing is only on my road bikes, MTB get the old fashion lube. I lube after rides, wipe until rags are clean (to the point i can rub my finger on the chain and not leave a streak on my finger), so the drivetrain is fairly clean most of time, and ready to ride at a moments notice. The drivetrain usually dosent need much special attention on wash day. I lube pivots on derailleur with triflow, pivots on dropper levers, pivots on SPDs, file off rock strike sharps on pedals. Most suspension linkages are bearing based, so I stay away from them with the triflow. Nothing special to suspension sanctions.
I pedal the bike and mimic a brake bed in procedure, that way I burn off any contaminates that may have gotten on the rotors or pads, this prevents brake squeal on the ride after a wash.

Again, it's not a show piece, and in my opinion washing it less is better. The SC1 is a invaluable product, it keeps the bike clean for a long time. Last night at the local race series some commented on me washing my bike to look good just for the race series, and it had actually been 8-10 rides since it had been washed, but the SC1 has it looking new, it actually says "New Bike In A Can" on the label.

Hahaha well that didn't disappoint good even if you're withholding pictures. I ride my mountain bike 4-5x week so a month between washes is quite a few rides for me, but totally agree on not overwashing and just knocking off dry stuff. Do deal w/ east coast mud more than you Cali/CO/UT guys do, but tend to pick the good days or trails that don't get muddy as I don't want to wash my bikes. Forgot that I do the triflow or lube on spd springs too, definitely cuts down on some squeaks. Don't lube pivots often, but have found now and then can help quiet things down if you're chasing creaks.

Will have to try the SC1, and climberevan that's a good idea on a tough to reach spot, threw both in my next Bezo's order.

[Dantheman]

I dry off my bike with a microfibre towel, bounce it on the rear wheel to get water out of nook and crannies, and then use SC1 to polish it. This makes a wash last way longer, it prevents dirt and dust from sticking to the bike. Pledge furniture polish is the the same product as SC1, just without the bike part markup tax. I prefer lemon pledge, but the cotton candy smell of SC1 is worth the extra price.

Huh, I'll have to try this. Never would have thought of that in a million years.

[Flounder]

Start from scratch. Barrel adjuster one turn from all the way in, limit screws loose, undo the cable pinch bolt, and start from there.

Sage words of advice. I often try to make tweaks and run into issues. Then it’s down the rabbit hole of trying to make adjustments to get it back operating properly. After a while of fiddling I take a deep breath and start from scratch. It always works.

[El Chupacabra]

Got it. I set the shifter in 3X mode and it works perfectly, despite this bike coming from the factory with a 2X crank. Go figure.

It even works in cross chaining all gears except the most extreme end of the cassette range.

And this has to be one of the ugliest front derailleur designs ever.

[simple]

Front derailleurs have always been ugly

[El Chupacabra]

IMHO it was when the manufacturers switched to making one size fits all front derailleurs that they got huge and bulky - like the dual pull one above. I don't know why those got so bad, with big fat parallelograms. Just look clunky and awkward.

Back when they were simple (and inventory was complicated), they looked fine, like road derailleurs.

[Dee Hubbs]

And SRAM developed their Yaw derailleur and quickly decided they couldn’t build a derailleur that actually works so they decided to push 1x drivetrains. Even on road bikes, even on World Tour Road Bikes.

[Boissal]

This thread sucks, since it attempts to combine multiple tech questions simultaneously and dissuades any focused discussion. Anyway pretty sure I posted last year about my installation of the flo Motorsports levers on my GF’s SLX brakes. Highly recommended, since the cheesy shimano levers broke at least twice when her bike went down in slow crashes. The Flo’s cure that issue and have a better feel overall.

I broke a Shimano blade in a slow crash last year. Replaced it, loosened the clamp bolts on both brakes and now when I dump the bike the whole thing just rotates out of the way instead of braking. Looked at the Flo levers, price made me say no.

[teledad]

My bike wash method - if it's just dirt or a splash of mud I don't bother with water, just wipe down stanchions and chain and re-lube the chain and derailleur pulleys. Pull brake pads and clean pads and rotors with rubbing alcohol. For heavy mud I'll use a hose with a spray nozzle on light pressure, spray the bike down and wipe off anything that's still stuck with a rag. Helps to do this right after riding before the mud has fully dried, if not you may need a few cycles of wipe/rinse/repeat. If there's something really stubborn I might add a bit of dish detergent to the rag to cut through the muck. After washing, bounce the bike a few times to knock off water, let it drip dry for bit, and then wipe/lube the chain and pulleys and clean the brakes as above. Aside from drying time I can usually do 2 bikes in about 10 minutes.

[skinipenem]

Anyone have recs for some pads for my 5yo daughter? The training wheels came off last weekend and I'd like to pick up some elbow and knee pads. Most of the stuff on Amazon is shit, and I'm having a hard time finding something else that's appropriately sized. FWIW, I got the boy some TLD ones a few years ago. I was impressed with the fit and finish, but they're still a bit too big for the girl.

Youth sized g forms are great.
Zippyroozs gloves are great too

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[skinipenem]

ISC Racer's Tape for clear protection
Tidy up the speed sensor cable in the chainstay area with electrical or mastic tape

and then tires are the most fun imo, just get the burly ones, no worrying about the weight.

Thx skip and toast!

Great info on the speed sensor cable.

Is there a good option for downtube/BB 'skidplate' equivalent protector? I've destroyed bikes in the last that way.

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[Spencer123]

After a wet trip to the PNW I removed the lower link on my intense primer to clean and grease. The upper two bearings on the link spin freely, the lower two don't spin at all even after being greased. Is there any other maintenance to be done, or the bearings just need replaced?

If so, if I ride it until near parts come in, am I risking my frame exploding, and could this be a reasonable explanation for a creak coming from that area even if it isn't any better after cleaning, greasing, and reassembling?

Thanks!

[Beaver]

Does spam make a 12sp shifter that has a double action upshift lever like shitmano?

[John_B]

After a wet trip to the PNW I removed the lower link on my intense primer to clean and grease. The upper two bearings on the link spin freely, the lower two don't spin at all even after being greased. Is there any other maintenance to be done, or the bearings just need replaced?

If so, if I ride it until near parts come in, am I risking my frame exploding, and could this be a reasonable explanation for a creak coming from that area even if it isn't any better after cleaning, greasing, and reassembling?

Thanks!

Try greasing the through axle that runs through the seized bearings. That is a creak that I've had before.

[dannynoonan]

After a wet trip to the PNW I removed the lower link on my intense primer to clean and grease. The upper two bearings on the link spin freely, the lower two don't spin at all even after being greased. Is there any other maintenance to be done, or the bearings just need replaced?

If so, if I ride it until near parts come in, am I risking my frame exploding, and could this be a reasonable explanation for a creak coming from that area even if it isn't any better after cleaning, greasing, and reassembling?

Thanks!

Sometimes you can break a frozen bearing free by knocking it with a hammer or something against a drift on the inner race. You want to shock the fuck out of it, real sharp hit but not super hard.

Then pry out the seal with a pick or the corner of a razor blade, and wiggle it back n forth with oil, like tri flow, until it spins freely. Then wipe all that shit out and grease it.

This is just temporary, for bearings that are understood to be trash, mind you .. but it's better than riding on them while frozen that'll stress your pivot axle and hardware and worst case, wallow out your bearing seats.