What Have You Fettled Today?

[si_c]

Yes, the NDS bearing has been seen off by just 2 months of riding on wet, gritted roads without mudguards on the bike!

You should know better

The face of the DS bearing was pretty clean and dry and the bearing still feels smooth. The face of the NDS bearing was glistening with rusty-coloured water containing mucky grit, and the bearing feels awful when turning it with my finger.

Sounds about right, I got about that with mudguards when commuting, so 200km per week through winter.

I will probably get the LBS to replace the bearing. I don't have the tools to do it myself and it probably isn't cost-effective (at my age!) to buy them. (I know that it is possible to knock them in and out, but it's a bit iffy.)

Before you do that, its worth trying to ressurrect it, only takes a half hour or so including taking the cranks off. I used to do it in the kitchen at night when Mrs C had gone to bed!

Remove the seal - lift it out with a sharp blade, so stanley knife or similar - one side of the seal will be slightly thinner usually, go in from that side, should lift out easily enough.

Flush it out with WD40 - use as much as you need and then when it's dry pack in as much lithium grease as you can force in and still get the seal back in. With a bit of luck it should run smoother. The grease you pack in will be more viscous than the original lubricant (probably oil based) so it will feel like there is quite a bit of friction if hand turning it, but when you get going the grease will warm up and loosen up a bit and you won't notice it on the bike.

If it still runs rough after that then get the LBS to replace it - but they may have difficulty getting smaller non-standard bearings so it could be worth sourcing your own first if you can. If it does work then you should get another month or two at least out of the bearing before either repeating the process or replacing.

 

[DCLane]

Does it feel particularly fast compared to your road bikes?!🤔

It depends which one. On a brief test ride it's quicker than all bar the NeilPryde's (road and TT), possibly not quicker than the Thompson Capella, but I'd expect that given the Cannondale is from 2005.

Otherwise I'd say it's quicker than the rest. Aero bars and semi-deep section wheels make the difference.

There's two issues for me; firstly it's a 56cm not the 49cm stated by the seller and secondly I've got a nicely fitting NeilPryde Bayamo TT bike that's about to get upgraded. I can fit but not brilliantly.

 

[ColinJ]

Before you do that, its worth trying to ressurrect it, only takes a half hour or so including taking the cranks off. I used to do it in the kitchen at night when Mrs C had gone to bed!

Remove the seal - lift it out with a sharp blade, so stanley knife or similar - one side of the seal will be slightly thinner usually, go in from that side, should lift out easily enough.

Flush it out with WD40 - use as much as you need and then when it's dry pack in as much lithium grease as you can force in and still get the seal back in. With a bit of luck it should run smoother. The grease you pack in will be more viscous than the original lubricant (probably oil based) so it will feel like there is quite a bit of friction if hand turning it, but when you get going the grease will warm up and loosen up a bit and you won't notice it on the bike.

Hmm... As you point out, no harm in trying but I'll be amazed if I don't discover at least one wrecked ball bearing! The clicks/ticks have been getting ever louder so something pretty bad has been going in in there. Still, it will be interesting to take a look.

If I do take the bike to the LBS I am going to take a replacement bearing with me. I bought the BB and got the mechanic to fit it for me because I don't have the required tool.

I will try not to completely wreck the bearing because I would rather ride the bike 3 km to the shop than walk with it!

 

[si_c]

Hmm... As you point out, no harm in trying but I'll be amazed if I don't discover at least one wrecked ball bearing! The clicks/ticks have been getting ever louder so something pretty bad has been going in in there. Still, it will be interesting to take a look.

You might find a bit of damage, but I'd be very surprised if the balls are toast, unlike with a headset there is full rotation of all the balls so shouldn't be any notching. They may be a bit pitted though, so make sure to get all the debris out.

 

[ColinJ]

You might find a bit of damage, but I'd be very surprised if the balls are toast, unlike with a headset there is full rotation of all the balls so shouldn't be any notching. They may be a bit pitted though, so make sure to get all the debris out.

I took the seal off, and sure enough, the grease inside is a rust-coloured gunge.

I scraped off as much gunge as I could without using solvents - I don't want to fill my house with toxic fumes! (I will tackle it properly in my back yard tomorrow.) I then turned the inner race (?) and watched what was happening. It looked very much like the ball bearings were not actually rolling and the race was just skidding over them. If that is the case then I reckon they will have had flat spots worn onto them and the ticking would be when one of the damaged bearings actually moved a little bit.

Perhaps the bearings are rusted onto the outer race or the cage that contains them?

Anyway, all should become clear tomorrow. I will report back then.

 

[Punkawallah]

Please say your selling!!❤️🤣

What are you looking for? My FLBS deals only in second hand, and has a number of ‘proper’ bikes in.

 

[si_c]

I took the seal off, and sure enough, the grease inside is a rust-coloured gunge.

I scraped off as much gunge as I could without using solvents - I don't want to fill my house with toxic fumes! (I will tackle it properly in my back yard tomorrow.) I then turned the inner race (?) and watched what was happening. It looked very much like the ball bearings were not actually rolling and the race was just skidding over them. If that is the case then I reckon they will have had flat spots worn onto them and the ticking would be when one of the damaged bearings actually moved a little bit.

Perhaps the bearings are rusted onto the outer race or the cage that contains them?

Anyway, all should become clear tomorrow. I will report back then.

Not surprised that there is a lot of gunk in them, the seals only reduce not prevent ingress of shite - it's why I pack them with lithium grease as it seems to resist ingress a bit better.

 

[ColinJ]

Not surprised that there is a lot of gunk in them, the seals only reduce not prevent ingress of shite - it's why I pack them with lithium grease as it seems to resist ingress a bit better.

The sun is shining so I will be going out on my bike to make the most of it before the cold weather returns. If I have enough daylight later I will get degunging in the yard!

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

Lots of fettling this weekend and not much riding.

There are now 4.7 rideable bikes in the the fleet instead of 1.75.

• Adjusted the indexing on the gravel-cum-winter bike and attempted to decontaminate the disk brakes. Sadly they are still squealing, but not quite as loudly. I'll try giving the pads another light sanding and the rotors another clean.
• Took another look at the loose headset on the Carerra Intercity folder. Instead of having two large nuts on the steerer with flats, it has one with flats on top of another that looks like it takes a pin spanner. I resorted to adjusting with a pipe wrench and an adjustable spanner, needless to say that left some tool marks. There was still a bit of movement in something when applying the front brake, so I checked, lubricated and adjusted all the hinges which made no difference. I think the movement is in the V brakes themselves - but they are good enough for now.
• Stripped and re-greased the front hub on the Specialized Hardrock. The grease had conjealed, which explains the ticking. That's as smooth as butter now. I've made a mental note to give the rear hub the same treatment in my next fettling session.
• Swapped tyres, tubes, saddle and fitted pedals, Garmin mount and various other bits on the new bike, the Trek FX Sport 6. The original tyres were a 40 mm gravel tyre. I've gone with 32mm Conti GP5000s and Pirelli P-Zero TPU inner tubes. Bike now weighs 11.3 kg in 'ready to ride' configuration. That's to say, with pedals, mudguards, lights, computer and a saddle pack containing the bare essentials. Honestly thought it would turn out a bit lighter, given that it is made of magic dust (Carbon Fibre) but I set a few PRs on the first ride and even came 4th fastest (this year) on one segment without really trying and that's not too shabby for a hybrid bike.

The other two bikes in the fleet ...

• Avid readers will know the Trek District 4 is in the shop waiting repair after getting rear ended last Monday
• The Specialized Langster is still waiting for me to replace the front brake housing for a longer one and retape the bars - at which point it will be rideable? Still wondering whether the 28mm tyres I have on it are too large - width wise they have plenty of clearance - but the gap between the top of the tyre and the bottom of the calliper makes me nervous. And I still don't really know what I want to do with the bike - the front wheel I replaced with a Mavic Ksyrium and the rear's rim is not long for this world. A new wheelset, possibly a chainset (mainly for asthetic reasons) are probably in its future, but I much rather have a fixed/singlespeed with mudguard clearances.

 

[Andy in Germany]

My bell didn't work because the hammer was bunged up. So I squirted it with WD40.

It now goes "ding".

 

[sevenfourate]

My bell didn't work because the hammer was bunged up. So I squirted it with WD40.

It now goes "ding".

Great work as ever Andy 😁

**This should be a sticky for future reference for others 🤣

 

[Punkawallah]

Another puncture, rear wheel. Compared puncture point with previous tube, same place. Investigated rim, spoke end seemed ‘high’ in the nipple, but not ‘out’. Filed nipple head, spoke end, re trued and puncture fixed. Added a protective patch of old tube over the nipple head, and see how we go.

Seems to be OK; I’ll call that a win.

 

[Fredo76]

Mongrelized a rear brake from a Veloce dual-pivot front caliper, and various old Record parts. It is considerably more powerful than the old Record rear caliper, more so than a similar mongrelized '90s Record dual-pivot front caliper. Fredo's last name might as well be Muttley!

 

[sevenfourate]

Fitted new rear wheel and cassette back in. After blowing a tube out when inflating the night before. I checked the rim, tube and install before fitting and inflating. And was surprised when it exploded - blowing the tyre back off the rim in the process…..😳

New tube duly installed. After double checking everything again. And worryingly finding nothing ! Inflating was done gingerly - with my back to the wheel and tyre 😉 For whatever reason - this time it pumped up with no issues. Impac (Scwalbe) inner tube too - so not a cheapie. Just a one off failure and one of those things perhaps…..

 

[ColinJ]

Anyway, all should become clear tomorrow. I will report back then.

The bearing is not just a bit rough, it is awful. I am not going to try to salvage it!

I have also decided that I will do the job myself without using the proper tools. The bottom bracket was cheap so even if I wreck it I won't have lost much. I watched a video on YouTube of someone doing a tool-less bearing swap and I think that, with care, I can manage that.

I will have a go at taking the old bearing out this afternoon and order a replacement.