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[Raldoh]

Been a year round bike commuter for over 10 years, yet I know basically nothing about maintenance. It's about time that I start learning how to properly maintain my bicycle myself. I'm using a simple transport bike (single speed, back pedal brake) which has been used pretty much daily for 3 years without much care. Need to get a grip on how to properly swap tires, tubes and chain maintenance.

Current status:
- Back tire rotates unevenly
- Inner tube on the back tire is unevenly inflated, there is a bump in proximity of the valve.
- Chain is a bit loose, probably needs to be swapped out for a new one
- While using the back brake, my bike starts to make a loud noise.
- Lots of dirt on the frame


What tools should I get to fix these issues? I'm starting from scratch. What should I routinely do to prevent any major damage of the bike, I plan on using it daily for many years to come. Any other online resources recommended for learning more about basic bicycle maintenance?

 

[Marky Mark]

I don't know much about maintenance either but maybe try this for this:

- Back tire rotates unevenly
- Inner tube on the back tire is unevenly inflated, there is a bump in proximity of the valve.

Lower the pressure and manhandle the tyre in to shape. Otherwise does it rotate unevenly side-to-side? I had a tyre with a failed sidewall so the "bead" would get sucked in to the rim instead of around it. This made the tyre rotate with a sideways deviation at that point but I replaced the tyre and now no issues.

For the bump around the valve, with the pressure lowered push the valve right in to the rim and then increase pressure while still pushing the valve in. There's probably part of the thicker valve-area inner tube bulging the tyre out.

- Lots of dirt on the frame

Wash it. I'd say a damp cloth followed by a dry one but maybe you have caked on mud which might need more.

Please note: Like I said, I know nothing about maintenance as well.

 

[Psychotext]

It's probably not the tyre, it's probably the wheel needing truing (this fits with the back brake making a lot of noise too).

I suggest you take it to a shop for that one. It's a pain in the arse to do.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

Got one of these from Kickstarter and liked it so much I bought a black one for my wife's bike;

http://www.spurcycle.com/products/better-bicycle-bell

 

[Psychotext]

They're great, but they're ridiculous money.

 

[Laekon]

It's probably not the tyre, it's probably the wheel needing truing (this fits with the back brake making a lot of noise too).

I suggest you take it to a shop for that one. It's a pain in the arse to do.

It's a coaster brake so nothing to do with the rim. Truing wheels is an art though so bringing it to a shop is the best thing. The rear hub noise when braking is coming from a lack of grease. There should be room to pull the rear wheel back farther to fix the loose chain. You need to reset the position of the brake arm and clamp on the other side. Or have a shop do everything.

True wheel $10-$15
Chain $10 & $5 labor
Rear pack brake $10
New tube $6 & $5-$10 labor

 

[Psychotext]

Ahh, I missed that in his post.

 

[HTupolev]

-Comes with instructions
-Much faster color than standard tubes.
-Can apparently save several watts when installed in supple race tires, which I probably don't have but whatever.
-It says "Victory" right on the box. I'm not sure what I'm winning, but I guess having pink inner tubes is pretty victorious by itself!

 

[Laekon]

Hope you like your pump cause it's going to get some use. Unless things have changed latex tubes lose pressure a lot faster then normal ones.

 

[HTupolev]

Hope you like your pump cause it's going to get some use. Unless things have changed latex tubes lose pressure a lot faster then normal ones.

I usually set tire pressure before every ride anyway.

 

[jakonovski]

Latex tubes are the new butyl. I got a couple of the pink ones myself as well as a set of 35c Vittoria Voyager Hypers. Road fattie!

 

[Psychotext]

Tubes... how quaint.

 

[jakonovski]

Road tubeless is still a bit clunky outside of cyclocross. I do have tubeless ready rims though so maybe once the tyre selection improves...

On the MTB side I've totally seen the light though, I'm converting everything to tubeless for the summer.

 

[Laekon]

I've used both Hutchinson (23 & 28) and Maxxis Padrone 23(really skinny 23) tubeless road tires without any issues. Remembering to refresh the sealant every 3 to 6 months was the main issue as it dries out in So Cal.

Crashed today on a completely smooth section of trail cause I was playing with the shock lever. Silliest crash I've had in a long time.

 

[HTupolev]

Best weather in a while. Everyone seemed to be out for long rides; a number of people I saw heading north while I was heading south, I saw 30 or 40 miles later as we passed the opposite way.

At one point a bunch of people along the trail were stopped looking at the sky. Apparently there was a pair of bald eagles circling very low.

 

[teepo]

beautiful

 

[HTupolev]

So, sometimes when I'm on my hardtail on the MUP, I can't help but troll roadies a little. Maybe I've got some CAT6 racer within me, maybe I'm just looking for any kind of motivation to ride harder, I dunno. Many people in decent kit on aggressive racing bikes are of the opinion that an object whose wheel-pavement contact is noisier than a thousand 6800 Ultegra drivetrains should be passed and dropped pretty much instantly. So, if they're going in the same direction as me but aren't going astronomically faster, I might kick it up a notch, enough that they'll pass slower and, should they look behind frequently, they may find that I'm falling back slowly enough to be in view for a while.

I'm not sure how frequently this tends to actually affect people, but thanks to Strava's ability to show who you rode near, I know that the guy I pulled this on today got a string of Strava PRs over the seven miles I was behind him, on a half century where he otherwise was well behind his best.

Yay I'm a terrible person. D:

 

[Psychotext]

I can generally stay with roadies for a while. Though last week with the weight vest on I must admit that I was like... "no."

 

[Niks]

Quick question.

What would be better to build endurance/stamina?

Short distance at a high pace, or longer distances at a slower pace?

 

[StaSeb]

Quick question.

What would be better to build endurance/stamina?

Short distance at a high pace, or longer distances at a slower pace?

Imho the latter. But this is just my gut feeling. Something that helps me a lot, especially now with the winter-loss of muscle and stamina, is to use the highest possible gear all the time. Even if it slows me down and makes acceleration hard, I stick to it and I only shift down at red lights or when an incline becomes so steep that I have no other option.

Like one famous biker allegedly once said: "Only single speed makes big legs!".

 

[Laekon]

Quick question.

What would be better to build endurance/stamina?

Short distance at a high pace, or longer distances at a slower pace?

That's kind of a controversy. Depending on your goals people mix both together in different ratios. Intervals and tempo workouts to increase speed and power and long slow distance to get your body better able to use fat as energy. The big thing with short and fast is that the fast parts needs to be really hard followed by really easy. Most people end up not going hard and easy enough when they need to.

Also there is no substitute for doing long rides to get your ass and body comfortable with long distances.

 

[Psychotext]

Depends what sort of endurance you're looking for really.

Short answer is usually a ton of long distance stuff done slow, but if you need to be able to handle hills / breaks / sprints then you need to be doing a mix.

Edit - When training for my ultra endurance stuff I pretty much did only 2hrs+ for rides. However, as much as I can handle extreme distances / time now, I'm also shit at explosive power, so I need to work that back into my training.

 

[jakonovski]

Also one should not forget that sitting in the saddle for hours on end is not easy in itself. You can have the best condition in the world but it doesn't help if your ass is on fire and somebody is hammering nails into your lower back.

 

[Psychotext]

I still get the lower back thing. After about two to three hours it generally gives up trying to annoy me (I'll never work that out).

You could light matches on my taint, so I don't get saddle sore.

 

[thomaser]

Nice weather, pretty view! Found two "new" climbs, one of them grueling. Don't know why I still use spikes, though - makes everything harder than it should be.

 

[teepo]

Imho the latter. But this is just my gut feeling. Something that helps me a lot, especially now with the winter-loss of muscle and stamina, is to use the highest possible gear all the time. Even if it slows me down and makes acceleration hard, I stick to it and I only shift down at red lights or when an incline becomes so steep that I have no other option.

Like one famous biker allegedly once said: "Only single speed makes big legs!".

the highest gear on my road bike is nearly twice the ratio of my single speed, which is the standard 42x17. i'm not sure how your bike is setup but i imagine mashing on such a high gear will be doing more harm than good not to mention developing the wrong kind of muscles needed for cycling.

though for all i know, you could literally be this guy.

 

[Psychotext]

Strength is all well and good if you're a sprinter, but if you're not, you want to be developing a higher cadence. Anywhere from 80-100 is fairly normal, and 85-95 considered a sweet spot.

I can crank out somewhere around 130rpm when I need to, but it's not an enjoyable way to cycle.

 

[Chip N Chance]

I usually stick around the 95rpm mark almost at all times. Anything els just feels off to me. Im sure there are many things that i do wrong, but i've always done what feels best for me.

Also, Ive been doing some stationary ridding lately and am wondering what your guy's spinning workouts are? Anything i should be doing other than just ridding like i always do?

 

[Psychotext]

I stick to whatever the TrainerRoad plan tells me to do.

 

[teepo]

i can comfortably cycle at a cadence of 100 but once i notice it, i'll try to dial it back to somewhere between 85-90 -- thanks to trainer-road -- and aim for a cadence of 70-85 on climbs that don't reduce my speed to the single digits

on the topic of single speeds, i rode one for nearly five years before investing in a proper bike and my legs were fucking gigantic and even though i'm climbing and pushing myself way more than i ever did, my legs have considerably slimmed.

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

Have a 80-100m (160km) scheduled in a month. Already have done 30 and 40 mile rides so I'm feeling pretty good about it. I have 3 more weeks before it so I should be able to squeeze in 2 more 40+ rides. I know you're supposed to do more, but this is all casual so I know it wont be a constant hammer.

I stick to whatever the TrainerRoad plan tells me to do.

Same. Can't do trainer without some kind of structure or else I go nuts.

 

[Psychotext]

The jump isn't that bad once you're used to a decent amount of time in the saddle.

I went from a max of 57 miles to doing 136 miles in one shot... and on a mountain bike.

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

Im not too worried because I've realized once you hit the 3-4 hour mark things just flow no matter how long you ride. Plus in a group it's always a hell of a lot easier. It also helped that both days had strong winds (15-20 gusts) so with that it was like riding an extra 10-15 miles.

 

[Psychotext]

I only ride solo. I'd rather pull an anchor than slipstream.

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

On another note I emailed a bike shop about getting a fit. I've tried to do as much as I can on my own but am reaching a point where I know something is off. It's most definitely in the seat (fore/aft + height) and cleat position.

 

[Psychotext]

This is all very exciting, but seriously, WTF is going on?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/35740863

 

[HTupolev]

Turning a bike into a slightly different bike: Part Three: This should be a trilogy, but isn't

I decided that I maybe didn't want this to be by far my most aggressive bike, so I put a less aggressive stem on. Actually, I acquired this stem from an old Bridgestone RB-T; the owner had decided to strip some parts, and was selling the remains for quite cheap. The stem alone was hardly worth the price, but it had other scattered usable things including a nice saddle and some classic shifters, and the frameset itself could be excellent if I decided to give it a refinish one day.

If I were a more ambitious person, I'd perhaps try to see if I could get the indexing on the shifters working, but (1) there's something weirdly satisfying about this shifter working perfectly and smoothly from the moment I attached the cable to the rear mech, and (2) I really don't give a shit about indexing a 7-speed freewheel.

Hey look, a functioning brake! The bike is borderline rideable! The cable is a bit on the long side; this is by far the most extensive work I've done on a bike before, so I'm waiting for a couple more tools to come in.

The mounting boss for one of the front brake calipers is at a slightly off angle. At some point in this bike's 30-year lifespan, I suspect that someone dropped it on a rock or something. Oh well, there's not otherwise any obvious fork damage, and brake pad angles are adjustable.

Speaking of that fender...

...what good did an appropriately-sized bolt ever do anyone? lololol

I'll need to find some way to drill a hole in the rear fender, because for some reason people in 1984 thought that vertical threading in the seatstay axle was totally awesome or something.

Pictured: Front derailleur cage sitting WAAAAAAAAY too high relative to the big ring. Actually, it wouldn't be possible to cleanly shift onto the big ring otherwise. The inner side of the cage sticks down really low, and was previously bumping into the middle ring (!) when I tried to shift to the big ring.

Shifting seems great, but I suppose in theory the height could create chain retention issues. I guess I have two options if this blows up in my face:
1-Use a smaller middle chainring, and/or
2-Rip the front derailleur off the RB-T and see if that works better. I know it can shift triples because that's exactly what it was put on the RB-T to do back in 1990 (the RB-T officially started with the 1991 model year, but this one's serial number has it built in the last few weeks of 1990), and it has a classical cage more similar to those on doubles, none of this super low inner wall bullshlapskie.

 

[StaSeb]

the highest gear on my road bike is nearly twice the ratio of my single speed, which is the standard 42x17. i'm not sure how your bike is setup but i imagine mashing on such a high gear will be doing more harm than good not to mention developing the wrong kind of muscles needed for cycling.

though for all i know, you could literally be this guy.

Ugh... well my bike is a humble trashy mountainbike with short gears and city-tires. Its highest gear is still quite usable. But holy shit those legs! :-o

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

Imho the latter. But this is just my gut feeling. Something that helps me a lot, especially now with the winter-loss of muscle and stamina, is to use the highest possible gear all the time. Even if it slows me down and makes acceleration hard, I stick to it and I only shift down at red lights or when an incline becomes so steep that I have no other option.

Like one famous biker allegedly once said: "Only single speed makes big legs!".

This is a good way to overwork your muscles and introduce fatigue early on.

 

[Niks]

Thanks for the answers guys.

I guess the answer lies somewhere in the middle? Try to keep it varied, and do a mix of both whenever possible.

 

[teepo]

This is a good way to overwork your muscles and introduce fatigue early on.

well he is on a mountainbike... so i think he's safe

 

[Laekon]

Thanks for the answers guys.

I guess the answer lies somewhere in the middle? Try to keep it varied, and do a mix of both whenever possible.

The normal bike racing programs work back from the date of your most important ride and are broken into periods of specific types of training. So the first phase is normally working on general strength and fitness by lifting and cross training. Then you have a few base building blocks which are mostly slow long rides with a little tempo and interval work. Each block is about 3 weeks of increasing work followed by a week of rest. So say 4, 5, 6, 3 hrs each week in block 1. The next block normal starts higher like 5, 6, 7, and 4 hrs. Look up Joe Friel for more specifics.

Those programs are really specific though and takes the fun out of riding to me. If you are not already a super fit rider you might be better off looking at beginner marathon training programs that break stuff up by days of the week. 1 long slow workout, 1 interval/speed workout, and 1 or 2 just getting your ass out the door work outs, and increase the time/ distance each week with some rest weeks thrown in.

 

[Psychotext]

well he is on a mountainbike... so i think he's safe

Ehhh... I'm on a 2x10 and if you were to try and go up any sort of incline in my biggest gear you'd basically be deadlifting to get the pedals to turn.

 

[HTupolev]

If I take the two bigger rings off the Stumpjumper, I'll have no trouble staying in my biggest ring on the hills.

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

well he is on a mountainbike... so i think he's safe

He's on a MTN bike with slicks which means he's riding on roads. Even on a lower gearing just straight mashing is never a good idea.

 

[teepo]

shows how much i kno about mtbs

 

[Gray Matter]

Rookie question.

How do I adjust my breaks? The left pad on the front is grazing the rim, enough that I can hear it even when I'm riding.

Also, did a quick test run with my new shoes and cleats and I didn't notice much of a difference, maybe it will take a while until I notice it.

 

[Psychotext]

Depends entirely on the braking system. Take a picture.

 

[Gray Matter]

Not sure if you can see it, but these are the breaks. Tektros.

 

[sir_kevith]

Not sure if you can see it, but these are the breaks. Tektros.

Here, read this:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/canti-direct.html