The biking thread

[Yrkshrpudding]

Had my second and third trail rides this weekend. Second ride went pretty well but the third ride involved a big off.

In a nice downhill rocky section I was on the brakes just before a 10 - 12 inch drop. Unfortunately I hit a larger rock before I had gotten my weight shifted back. The bike stopped, I went over the bars and landed pretty well (i.e. stayed on the trail and avoided the poison ivy) just before my bike landed on me. My waterbottle had fallen out of it's case and that delivered the coup de grace.
Happily I escaped with big bump on my shin and a dislocated brake cable.

 

[Slash]

I've got to fix the bolt that holds my left brake handle on. Somehow it fell out during a heavy off raoding session (on a road bike lol). Just have a screw in it holding now and about half the amount of pressure can be applied as to what it use to be with a full squeeze. Needs new pads too.

 

[daft biker]

. Second ride went pretty well but the third ride involved a big off.

3rd time lucky then.....just means you're trying:tup:

Glad it wasn't too sair. With experience you should get better at crashing as well as staying on....I know I've had a fair bit of practice at both

 

[mp10]

I think I've been a little clumsy I was spraying some lubricant on the bike chain, and it might have gone on the brake disc. It was squealing to begin with but now its gotten much worse. What shall i do to get rid of the sound and lubricant from the brake disc?

 

[daft biker]

I think I've been a little clumsy I was spraying some lubricant on the bike chain, and it might have gone on the brake disc. It was squealing to begin with but now its gotten much worse. What shall i do to get rid of the sound and lubricant from the brake disc?

I think there may be some cleaning products available for that purpose these days but the old fashioned way is clean the disk with meths, file the pads down a bit and hope the contaminant hasn't soaked right through the pad and ruined it all. Worst case clean the disk and replace the pads.

FWIW I far prefer lube that drips out a bottle than sprays out a can for this very reason. And once you've lubed the chain be sure to lay it chain down so oil doesn't drip onto the disk.

 

[Pako]

They tell me that after a couple months of riding to bring the bike into the shop to get everything adjusted. I think the cables are already stretched out nicely. Downshifting, it's getting hung up and skipping gears. Saturday's ride I had a top of a hill as my "Have to make it up before stopping" goal when 3/4 of the way up my chain popped off. It's cold and rainy today, might be a good time to get things tightened up.

How often do you typically have to adjust your shifters once the cables are stretched out good? Do you do it yourself or have a shop take care of it?

 

[Emptyone]

They tell me that after a couple months of riding to bring the bike into the shop to get everything adjusted. I think the cables are already stretched out nicely. Downshifting, it's getting hung up and skipping gears. Saturday's ride I had a top of a hill as my "Have to make it up before stopping" goal when 3/4 of the way up my chain popped off. It's cold and rainy today, might be a good time to get things tightened up.

How often do you typically have to adjust your shifters once the cables are stretched out good? Do you do it yourself or have a shop take care of it?

From personal experience, the cables initially stretch for the first couple of weeks of riding, in which case you take it to the shop for adjusting. After that, they just get looser rather slowly till either they break, or you replace them. Tightened the cables 3 times in almost a year on my bike, and it changes fine, and brakes good too.

 

[daft biker]

They tell me that after a couple months of riding to bring the bike into the shop to get everything adjusted. I think the cables are already stretched out nicely. Downshifting, it's getting hung up and skipping gears. Saturday's ride I had a top of a hill as my "Have to make it up before stopping" goal when 3/4 of the way up my chain popped off. It's cold and rainy today, might be a good time to get things tightened up.

How often do you typically have to adjust your shifters once the cables are stretched out good? Do you do it yourself or have a shop take care of it?

The chain popping off sounds like the limiter screws are not set correctly.....there are two little screws on the mech that limit how far the shifter can move the mech.

Did the chain come off at the front or the back?

Similarly, is the skipping on downshifts front or back?

The fix is the same either way....half turns on a barrel adjuster until shifts are sweet and half turns on a limiter screw so the chain is less likely to pop off.

Have a read of this to see if it helps.....clicky.

Once you get your head around the adjustments you can make it's fairly straightforward and you don't need many tools. If you're lucky all you'll need is a small-ish screw driver for the limiter screws and if you're unlucky you might need a 5mm allen key and pliers if you run out of adjustment on the barrel adjusters.

 

[Pako]

The chain popping off sounds like the limiter screws are not set correctly.....there are two little screws on the mech that limit how far the shifter can move the mech.

Did the chain come off at the front or the back?

Similarly, is the skipping on downshifts front or back?

The fix is the same either way....half turns on a barrel adjuster until shifts are sweet and half turns on a limiter screw so the chain is less likely to pop off.

Have a read of this to see if it helps.....clicky.

Once you get your head around the adjustments you can make it's fairly straightforward and you don't need many tools. If you're lucky all you'll need is a small-ish screw driver for the limiter screws and if you're unlucky you might need a 5mm allen key and pliers if you run out of adjustment on the barrel adjusters.

The chain came off the front, on the inside, off of the smallest sprocket. The rough downshift is on the back regardless of what front sprocket I'm on.

I have one free bike tune up, but in the future, it would be nice to be able to tweak on it myself.

I'll give that link a read!

 

[mp10]

I think there may be some cleaning products available for that purpose these days but the old fashioned way is clean the disk with meths, file the pads down a bit and hope the contaminant hasn't soaked right through the pad and ruined it all. Worst case clean the disk and replace the pads.

FWIW I far prefer lube that drips out a bottle than sprays out a can for this very reason. And once you've lubed the chain be sure to lay it chain down so oil doesn't drip onto the disk.

Just went out for a quick ride, and its weird because the sound has gone. Maybe it was some loose dirt?

anyway thanks for the advice :tup:

 

[daft biker]

Just went out for a quick ride, and its weird because the sound has gone. Maybe it was some loose dirt?

anyway thanks for the advice :tup:

Sweet. Might just have been a wee drop contaminant that got burned off in use....sometimes you get away with it Doesn't take much to ruin braking performance though.....I used to use washing up liquid on my bikes in the rim brake days but with disks I only use water to clean it.

The chain came off the front, on the inside, off of the smallest sprocket. The rough downshift is on the back regardless of what front sprocket I'm on.

Aye, that sounds quite normal for a new bike. The front gear cable stretching would allow the front mech to get closer to the frame if the limiter screw on the mech wasn't set right.

The rough downshift at the rear is probably just that cable stretching too.....assuming your mech is sprung the normal way when you drop a cop at the rear the chain could be starting to skip between the cog you wanted and the next cog down. On upshifts it's usually easier to compensate for some cable stretch by pushing the shifter just past the click until it changes gear - it's quite easy not to notice the indexing is a little out until you start to get some skipping of gears.

A couple of reasons it's good to be able to fix this stuff yourself.....it's not going to have a positive effect on drivertrain wear and if the gears skip under load you might crack your knee (or worse!) on the bike. On smooth terrain you should be able to adjust the indexing on the move using the barrel adjusters on the shifters - I would usually fine tune the indexing pedalling the bike round out in the street.

 

[mp10]

Bike Race down swiss mountain

 

[daft biker]

Bike Race down swiss mountain

Looks a bit bigger and faster than the Glencoe Macavalanche......



One of my mates went up and did that this year....does look like quite an interesting event though

 

[Yrkshrpudding]

3rd time lucky then.....just means you're trying:tup:

Glad it wasn't too sair. With experience you should get better at crashing as well as staying on....I know I've had a fair bit of practice at both

I'm thinking fatigue had a lot to do with it. Twice in two days was exhausting. Still fun though.

You guys neglected to mention that the learning curve has some sharp edges!

 

[Pako]

I'm thinking fatigue had a lot to do with it. Twice in two days was exhausting. Still fun though.

You guys neglected to mention that the learning curve has some sharp edges!

First time up, I dumped it 4 times. One time it was right into a nasty tree fall pile down the hill. I was lucky I didn't puncture a lung.

@MP10,
I saw that video last week to. Looks pretty intense for sure!

Good times!

 

[W3H5]

I went out for one of those pleasure rides today at a pedestrian pace. 19km at 20-25kph and the last 500m was an uphill race against a bus. That was tiring. Didn't help me get over my issue for going in the first place.

 

[Pako]

We finally got some decent weather. It's been raining for a week straight it seems. Did the same ride last night as before. Although my legs were trashed from squats/legpress a couple days prior, I was able to negotiate more of the technical vertical sections going up that I didn't make the last time. Last time I fell 4 times (haha, got stuck in a log jam once) but managed to stay upright the whole ride this time. I leaned forward much more this time which helped keep my front tire from popping up. I'm still learning and it's a work in progress but dang the challenge is fun.

The best part about it was for the majority of the ride, the only thing that was in my head, the only thing that existed was me, the bike, and the trail. My mind was clear of everything else.

 

[Schwartz]

Hey, I was thinking about possibly buying a bike for myself to ride around (Only on roads/sidewalks). I am looking for a bike that is not too expensice but good quality (no Walmart brands ). I need to get in shape, so anybody have any ideas?

 

[Mike Rotch]

Hey, I was thinking about possibly buying a bike for myself to ride around (Only on roads/sidewalks). I am looking for a bike that is not too expensice but good quality (no Walmart brands ). I need to get in shape, so anybody have any ideas?

I got my bike for pretty much the same reason, a Trek 7.1. I have to say, I a pretty pleased with it after 450miles or so of GP riding 👍

 

[Schwartz]

Looks like a nice bike! 👍 But it would be nice if it weren't almost $500. I'm still interested in it, but I would need to find it cheaper...

 

[Greycap]

You won't find proper quality below $500 unless you buy a $500+ bike with a discount. I used to have an around $400 hopeless piece of s...teel (it really had a steel frame) from which I upgraded to a $700 one and damn what a difference.

 

[W3H5]

Hey, I was thinking about possibly buying a bike for myself to ride around (Only on roads/sidewalks). I am looking for a bike that is not too expensice but good quality (no Walmart brands ). I need to get in shape, so anybody have any ideas?

Seriously, man, riding on the pedestrian paths is what give some of us a bad name!

My advice would be to check if any friends of yours have a bike they want rid of. I've found plenty of good bikes this way: They get a bike as an Xmas or birthday gift, cost a fortune, they ride it a few times before it gets housed in the garage/ shed as a home for spiders, you make them an offer for something they don't need and profit.

If not, perhaps scout around your local bike shops for an outdated but new bike which may come heavily discounted. I paid 3000 for an 8-9000 bike because it was two years old, though still never ridden.

*************************​

This morning I had a tinker and paid a visit to my local shop to see what new gear they had in. I bought a little valve adapter thing for the French valves I have on my tubes so that I can use a fuel station air line and not have to keep going back to the bike shop and pestering them. I have a hand pump but there is no way I can inflate to 100psi using my arms!

I met another guy riding with GPS so I tailed him into town from the river when I was almost home and the computer showed that the town is ~230m above the river but only 570m away from the river (I recorded the river-town distance on my computer). Based on my useless maths I came to the conclusion of why people don't really take to riding in this city and why I have no trouble going up hills faster than the buses. That must be around 45 degree incline, mustn't it? I'll use the web to find out.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

A great Saturday dirt jump session isn't a great Saturday dirt jump session without going over the bars and having your head smashed into the dirt by the bike. Nothing serious, a headache and a nosebleed, wear a helmet kids!

 

[Pako]

Looks like a nice bike! 👍 But it would be nice if it weren't almost $500. I'm still interested in it, but I would need to find it cheaper...

I don't think you will find anything new that's decent for your price range. Have you looked at used bikes?

Sorry, didn't see W3HS' most excellent post.

 

[Submerged]

Looks like a nice bike! 👍 But it would be nice if it weren't almost $500. I'm still interested in it, but I would need to find it cheaper...

I have a road bike that was 400 quid new, but managed to find a friend who was selling it because of space requirements. Brought it for 160 quid. Its good value bike, but if you want a new bike dirt cheap, its just false economy. Best get a used bike that was worth a lot of cash new.

Additionally, if you want quality gear, you have to pay for it as they do last longer and lead to a better quality ride for your enjoyment.

Got some wheelsets that I brought for the road bike after the original wheelset decided to have kinks in it. Well, hello! Those wheelsets were 150 quid (tenner off the price of the whole bike!) but they are solid as anything and have withstood all the stress and strains I've put it through!

 

[boiltheocean]

Quarter of the way to my new years resolution, spent the day riding jumps. First attempt didn't go well for my friend, the other runs were better. Before anyone mentions it, we did fix it up after.

 

[Schwartz]

Well considering Delta Airlines Just gave me $500 I might buy the Trek 7.1. Can anyone compare/contrast the 7.1 with other bikes similar to it? Is it the best for its price?

 

[ExigeEvan]

Hey, I was thinking about possibly buying a bike for myself to ride around (Only on roads/sidewalks). I am looking for a bike that is not too expensice but good quality (no Walmart brands ). I need to get in shape, so anybody have any ideas?

I second the Trek 7.1. They're good for at least 3000 km of abuse. Fact.

 

[carracerptp]

Hello,
I just got into riding from jogging (it's nicer on my ankles), after a few days I'm loving it.

Now I'm looking for a good bike for road use (I have a park near by that has bike paths). I have gone thought so many "Walmart" bikes it now makes more sense just to buy a real one (used).

Any tips on buying a used bike (signs of a lemon, good brands)? My budget is sub 500$ USD.
Thank.

 

[hellnback]

Winter. Crap cold weather. Finally a wind free Sunday. First ride for 2 months... only 16.2km over a sedate 47 mins... was a little puffed.

Legs ok the next day, but that goddamn saddle... why is it the better the bike the more 'less generous' the saddle...