Troubleshooting
My favorite of all is Troubleshooting bike repairs. It is one of the most rewarding part of a repair when someone has a description of a problem and I can figure it out in the least amount of time. I will list problems that pop up now and then and what came of the repair. If you have a problem feel free to email me with the description and let me have a go at it.
Bottom Brackets. coming loose after repeated attempts to adjust it. One of the possibilities that I will look at is the fixed cup being loose. It can be hard to see and even harder to get to. If it has Italian or French threads it is very common for this to be the problem. The problem is that there is no really good tool for doing this with the cranks on. So you must pull the cranks. Loosen up the adjustable cup to get to the fix cup or completely remove the bottom bracket cups and spindle. Check the threads and clean them it might be a good time to use a mild thread-locking compound now. Then reinstall the bottom bracket and your adjustment should stay good now.
Brakes that do not move. I start by just looking at it all over from a lot of different angles. Even if you are not sure of what you are looking at just look it over. Are the cables rusted? Is the brake lever bent? Is the rim bent? These are all things that are hard to see until you look at it from different angles. All brakes can be broken down into three parts. The levers, the cables, and the calipers. First thing I do is squeeze the brake lever while looking at the caliper. Does the lever move, is there room for the calipers to move or are they right up against the rim. If the lever does not move and the calipers are right up against the rim follow the cable housing from the lever to the brake caliper. Does it rap around the stem a few times, very common on children’s bikes. Has the cable housing pulled out of the stop and is sitting on the edge of the stop, very common problem for the rear brake. Each is a simple fix just turn around the child’s bars until it runs straight to the rear brake. As for the housing that is stuck on the stop just pop the cable housing back in to the stop. If the lever does not move and the caliper can when you squeeze it with your hand then it is probably that the cable is rusted. Time to replace the cable and housing. If the caliper has room between the pads and the rim but you can not get it to move the caliper is at fault. Now may be the time to go pick up some cables and housing.
Creaking bottom bracket most of the modern frames now seem to be made of aluminum. Aluminum is a soft metal. A soft metal will flow under presser. A tight bottom bracket cup is exerting presser on the aluminum threads in the bottom bracket. So, given enough time the cups in the frame will loosen up and at that point that they just begin to get loose they creak. Time to pull the crank arms off and pull out the bottom bracket cups and clean out the frame. I sometimes install Teflon pipe tape on the threads of the cup and grease it to help get it in tight and fill the gaps in the threads to keep it tight. If the creak does not completely go away pull the pedals out too and grease the threads and reinstall them. Remember the left hand side of the bike has left hand pedal threads.
Campagnolo Ergo shifters sometimes starts doing this vague shifting. Were it just does not seem to hold on to the indent. The most common fix I found was one of the springs inside the lever has broken. If they both break you do not get anything. But, if one goes it just is not right. After you check on the cables and the like look inside the body and pull it apart. But be careful to take notes on how you took it apart.
Shimano Rapid Fire that just does not reach all the gears or will not come back down. Like the other Shimano problems you need to have a little understanding of the inside of those levers. There is a few spring loaded paws in side there that push and release a gear that holds the cable end. When these paws that rotate on a steel pin dries out they stop working. This also holds for the road STI shifters. You need to get inside the pod and lube the pins. I pull the outer cover off the shifter and DO NOT LOSE THE SCREWS spray Tri-Flow in to the pivots while I move the paw with a pin or small nail. After a short time I see it moves faster it is back to working. Do all the paws most have three in them. A few last things on a few shifters you will need to remove the cable and adjuster before you take the cover off but not all. The cables are very hard to reuse so have extra before you start.
Shimano STI dumping the chain with the front derailleur when you down shift is a very common problem with the STI shifting systems. The Shimano STI front shifter just dumps the chain down so fast that it will shoot right over the smaller chain ring on to the bottom bracket. This is not a fun thing to happen. The first thing to do is go over the bike and make sure that the chain line is good and the adjustment is correct. If that is all good then my fix is one of these two things. First add a chain watcher on to your seat tube. It is a little plastic part that will keep the chain from coming off the smaller chain ring. Very easy to put on and it is very light but it does not fit every bike. Number two is to set the front derailleur to just rub the chain in the lowest gear. It is not a great fix but does work. Now after you do this try changing how you pedal and you can get to the point where the chain stops coming off but not until you have trashed the paint down on the bb shell.
Shimano STI not shifting or down shifting long after you tried to do it. You need to understand how the Shimano STI's work. The downshift on the STI shifters is done by the spring in the derailleur. It pulls the cable all the way from the derailleur to the lever. When you release the paw by pushing the smaller blade on the shifter this releases a paw that lets a gear ring inside the lever pod rotate. There is a lot of chance for the pod or the cables to dry up and not come back down. Sometimes it will drop down more then one gear and that is the paw does not reengage the gear ring. It also happens a lot when it gets colder out side. I have had a lot of repairs come in but by the time the shifters reach room temperature they shift great. Most problems can be fixed by changing the cable and housing. But some times you need to flood the shifter pod with a light oil to bring it back to life. I have had great luck with a lube called TRI_FLOW.
Wheel building I got a letter asking about a problem with a wheel someone built where every set of two spokes were tight then two loose. First of all we need terminology to do this. There are four spokes in a wheel. Heads inside the hub flange and heads out side of the flange. Called heads in and heads out. Then you have pulling spokes and static spokes pulling spokes used really for the rear wheel but help in description terms for the front. Pulling spokes, as the name implies, are spokes that go from the hub flange back toward the rear of the bike and pull the rim. Remember spokes are only pulling never pushing. Now last you have sister spokes they are spokes that if you look through the wheel inline with the hub axle from flange to flange you see two spokes they rotate off the flange in the same direction to the rim. . I would say the problem is one side is laced wrong. Hold the wheel up in front of you and if you look through the wheel the spoke that is just to the right of it's sister spoke should also be to the right at the rim. Some times trying to build a wheel it will go to the wrong side at the rim so two spoke are long two are short.
Frame alignment is more then just a bent chain stay. You will most often just feel a problem. Like the bike pulls to the left. Maybe the chain keeps coming off and you have been over the derailleurs again and again. If the wheels sit to one side more then the other these are all candidates for a bent or out of align frame and fork. If you want to save your self a few dollars pull off as much of the parts as you can especially the bottom bracket so the shop can put it up on an alignment table. You may have to get on the phone and find a shop with the table but I know I am not the only one that has one. Then give it up and hand over your baby to the shop, and please do not ask to watch it is not a pretty sight.
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