I'm a champion bike mechanic...

[HappyHumber]

rhubarb recalibrate my SRM for the new Rotor Q-rings. blah blah kettlebells

That's a trap for young players; I found the trick was to tweak the cabbage spigot early on.

What are you on about, Xplora?? I think you could get away with any idiocy throwing terms around like that

[Xplora]

I tried to implement the Zhopp Zhoop but unfortunately my flangespingher went whoot off the Whatzit



I will firmly resist the temptation to go with the "if you have to ask, you'll never know" proverb (best part of that Red Hot Chili Peppers album), simply because the mere fact I own an SRM power meter is ridiculous in the extreme.

In short - when you change chainrings on a crank based power meter, you probably change the readings that the power meter sends to your Garmin. Given how expensive these things are, and the uselessness of the SRM without decent data, you need to check that the info is right. Hence my post.

The fact it is in the Champion Bike Mechanic thread simply confirms that it doesn't deserve any attention or respect from the Peanut Gallery. Alex does this all the time

[HappyHumber]

Sorry.. I'm just one of these people who finds too much tech ruins the simple pleasure of bike. It's diluting the simplicity.
If I wanted numbers and stats to excite me, I would've been an accountant.... Numbers are too much like work.

Plenty of fudges still to be made in the ol' school for me.

[Xplora]

I'm currently studying a Diploma in Accounting, I found working in the audit assistance area at the ATO to be one of the more rewarding tasks I've had professionally, and my crowning achievement working with a large service area of a multinational was creating flowcharts and graphs to ensure management thought my team was doing well. Stats Whore? OH YEAH.

[HappyHumber]

I used to work in IT. Bikes were my respite from every cashed up budget manager wanting the latest & greatest; never mind how much of a headache it was to integrate & support. The industry ruined my interest in the technology.

[Xplora]

Hmm I might have stuffed it up, but recalibrated and got 16.83 as the new slope, compared to a previous 21.1?!

[mark field]

I'm currently studying a Diploma in Accounting, I found working in the audit assistance area at the ATO to be one of the more rewarding tasks I've had professionally, and my crowning achievement working with a large service area of a multinational was creating flowcharts and graphs to ensure management thought my team was doing well. Stats Whore? OH YEAH.

i had to physically restrain an agressive patient on my own while 2 nurses and 6 other patients watched like stuned mullets the other day. that was the highlight of the year for me, but nothing out of the ordinary though.

[Xplora]

Hmm I might have stuffed it up, but recalibrated and got 16.83 as the new slope, compared to a previous 21.1?!

Comp[letely stuffed up the calibration, new slope is 20.4 or so. Put the bike in a trainer so it's VERTICAL?!

Had to share this one. Rust colour drooling from the headset after a gentle run in the rain (seriously, what the hell? This was rebuilt only a month ago), decided to pull it apart and have a sticky. Everything is sealed apparently, put it back together and the fork isn't seized anymore
Of more concern is that it's all carbon steerer and so forth. 5Nm with the torque wrench, softly softly Seems to be fine, despite throwing all the parts everywhere twice

[HappyHumber]

*cartwheeling across the forum in my best impression of a tumbleweed*

[leximack]

i enjoy doing a bit of Home Bike Mechanic. None of my bikes have seen a "proper" bike mechanic for more than 3 yrs.
Unless it needs a specific tool im having a crack myself.
Changing shifter/brake cables, brake pads, regreasing headsets, tuning gears etc is not rocket science.
If i stuff it then it goes to the bike shop (havent needed to go for the last 3 yrs ).
Only thing i cant do is Truing wheels but luckily im fairly lightweight and not a wheel breaker.
Have a crack, its good fun

[Xplora]

I used to be a car mechanic, I just don't like it now. Half the reason I go to Trek is because of the free adjustments

[Calvin27]

Pieced together my bike build over a few cocktails. I managed to mangle the top spacer or washer thingy on the headset ( like the race crown but on the top). Though I was a champion until the headset cap won't seat straight...

[Ross]

Mate of mine who I won't name because he lurks here had trouble changing his brake pads (on road bike) so greased them to help with inserting into the holder. He could see nothing wrong with greasing the brake pads. He used to work in a bike shop too.

[ldrcycles]

My crank extractor partially stripped the threads on a square taper crank the other day. I stopped before it did too much damage and removed the extractor while directing various curses at it's ancestry, until i realised i hadn't removed the nut holding the crank onto the axle....

[Duck!]

Mate of mine who I won't name because he lurks here had trouble changing his brake pads (on road bike) so greased them to help with inserting into the holder. He could see nothing wrong with greasing the brake pads. He used to work in a bike shop too.

That's only a problem if you get grease on the braking face. A small amount on the carrier tracks, well away from the contact surface is completely fine. I do it occasionally with really obnoxious pads.

[lobstermash]

While we're dobbing in mates, one of mine broke three chain tools trying to replace his chain. To top it all off, when he got the chain together, he failed to shorten it to the correct length and to thread it through the RD...

I emailed him this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U01xasUtlvw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and managed to save it for him, in spite of him already snapping off the extra length of link pin...

[ldrcycles]

I just found out that MTB front derailleurs use a different amount of cable pull to road STI levers...

[def]

My best moment as a bike mechanic recently was replacing a mate's rear derailleur without first removing the chain.

Topologically, this is fine, all you have to do is disassemble the cage with the jockey wheels, then reassemble with the chain threaded through.

It went reasonably easy although the springs in the derailleur meant it was always trying to make itself a clenched fist which restricted access to the jockey wheel bolts.

Got it all back together, bolted it to the bike then started to run through the gears to make sure it was working OK. It wasn't. The cage was hitting the sprockets and no amount of fiddling with the g-screw would stop it. After staring at it for several minutes I realised what I'd done. I'd put the inside plate of the derailleur cage on upside down. Idiot.

[MattyK]

Spent about four hours last night tweaking my daughters new bike. Has a SRAM i3 hub, the shift cable arm is supposed to be parallel with the chain stay but was angled down about 30 degrees and bent outward. So I loosened everything off, re bent the arm in line with the cable and then found that the cable links would rub against the sprocket...

Lots of bending and adjusting and recutting the cable and I got it a bit better but here just wasn't enough clearance in a kids bike frame with a 22t sprocket to get it exactly straight.

Then spent more time tidying up all the cable routing.

[Xplora]

Wrapped bartape for the first time - this is the 3rd time this tape has been wrapped too. Poor commuter roadie, the humiliation you suffer at my hands

[ldrcycles]

Wrapped bartape for the first time - this is the 3rd time this tape has been wrapped too. Poor commuter roadie, the humiliation you suffer at my hands

I reckon i did about 20 bikes before i was finally able to do it without playing a youtube how to video first. I could never remember which way to start.

[harmonix1234]

A few years back, I got my first bike with Hydro disc brakes. Didn't know anything about it. It was an insurance claim and I just accepted the bike that was given to me.
Anyway, every spring I change all my cables. Went a bought new gear and brake cables and housing.
Went home, and decided the quickest way to remove the old brake cables and housing was to just cut straight though it. SNIP! All this juice sprayed out everywhere, all over the bike and me, and then it hit me... 'Hydro' brakes means fluid, not cables. I wheeled it up to the bike shop with my tail between my legs and blamed it on the first-born.

[Xplora]

Wrapped bartape for the first time - this is the 3rd time this tape has been wrapped too. Poor commuter roadie, the humiliation you suffer at my hands

I reckon i did about 20 bikes before i was finally able to do it without playing a youtube how to video first. I could never remember which way to start.

Dont' get me wrong, I did copy my weekend bike to get it right

[yugyug]

A few years back, I got my first bike with Hydro disc brakes. Didn't know anything about it. It was an insurance claim and I just accepted the bike that was given to me.
Anyway, every spring I change all my cables. Went a bought new gear and brake cables and housing.
Went home, and decided the quickest way to remove the old brake cables and housing was to just cut straight though it. SNIP! All this juice sprayed out everywhere, all over the bike and me, and then it hit me... 'Hydro' brakes means fluid, not cables. I wheeled it up to the bike shop with my tail between my legs and blamed it on the first-born.

Gold!

[toolonglegs]

My son came home yesterday to swap bikes... he was going on a bike ride with his rugby mates. He was pushing his mtb, don't have a clue how he did it but he had snapped his chain, wrapped it around the cassette a couple of times... then the chain went through the rear wheel and up and had wrapped itself around the v-brakes. How the hell did he do that!.
So it was a 20km ride on his BMX ... serves the little butcher right!.