Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
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Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby Meesh » Wed Nov 21, 2012 4:44 pm
Let me start off by admitting I have a cheap, rubbish bike. It's a rusty old Indie Bandit that rides like I'm riding through treacle. But I love it and it gives me a good workout on my way to/from work each day. That's what I'm telling myself until I can afford a new bike at any rate.
Unfortunately, the gears won't shift into 5th (yep, I've only got 5 gears) when I want them to. Sometimes it will shift into 5th but I have to do a weird back-pedalling manoeuvre that sometimes works/sometimes doesn't and if it doesn't then I'm pedalling like crazy but bouncing around a lot as I can't get enough resistance in 4th to pedal properly going downhill so I can't build up much momentum - I hope that makes sense.
Is there an easy way to fix this problem or is this something I need to get the bike shop chaps to have a look at for me?
Cheers for your help.
Meesh
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby twizzle » Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:02 pm
Then again - probably cheaper for you to buy a cheap cable cutter & an appropriate MTB cable kit and do it yourself. Lots of youtube video's as a guide and it's pretty simple to DIY.
Last time I had shifting problems, I had three strands of the cable left and about 12 broken ones that were jamming the shift. Before that, it was some dirt in the RD behind the limit screw.
...real cyclists don't have squeaky chains...
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby Nobody » Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:05 pm
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... derailleur" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby Meesh » Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:08 pm
Bike DIY is not my strong point and what you describe sounds a little beyond my meagre skills unfortunately... so off to the bike shop my little treacle bike shall go.
Is this something that is dangerous and should be seen to quite quickly?? Or am I okay to keep trundling along in 4th and just not try to shift to 5th until I can get it fixed?
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby Nobody » Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:10 pm
Not dangerous. Keep trundling.Meesh wrote:Is this something that is dangerous and should be seen to quite quickly?? Or am I okay to keep trundling along in 4th and just not try to shift to 5th until I can get it fixed?
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby ironhanglider » Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:26 pm
Cheers,
Cameron
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby twizzle » Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:11 pm
Except those two occasions where my old bike shifted gears by itself when I was off the saddle accelerating across intersections, first time wasn't too bad, the second time I landed across the bars, bruised the crap out of my chest and lost the head unit for the powertap (~$130 to replace). YMMV.Nobody wrote:Not dangerous. Keep trundling.Meesh wrote:Is this something that is dangerous and should be seen to quite quickly?? Or am I okay to keep trundling along in 4th and just not try to shift to 5th until I can get it fixed?
Sent from my iThingy...
...real cyclists don't have squeaky chains...
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby Nobody » Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:55 pm
Sorry, oversight. I'll modify to, "Not dangerous if you keep seated in 4th." Somehow I must have got the impression that he/she would not be standing in 4th gear, but down-shifting.twizzle wrote:Except those two occasions where my old bike shifted gears by itself when I was off the saddle accelerating across intersections, first time wasn't too bad, the second time I landed across the bars, bruised the crap out of my chest and lost the head unit for the powertap (~$130 to replace). YMMV.Nobody wrote:Not dangerous. Keep trundling.Meesh wrote:Is this something that is dangerous and should be seen to quite quickly?? Or am I okay to keep trundling along in 4th and just not try to shift to 5th until I can get it fixed?
Sheldon agrees with you too.
http://sheldonbrown.com/standing.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;You should never stand up to pedal a bicycle that you do not know to be in excellent mechanical condition!
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby Meesh » Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:23 pm
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby master6 » Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:55 pm
Perhaps your boyfriend is manly enough to fix it?Meesh wrote:Yep, I (she) am just seated in 4th and when trying to get into 5th - am generally heading downhill at this point so seated. Treacle bike does throw a bit of a wobbly when I try to shift from 4th to 3rd or 2nd when halfway up a hill. Seems to be okay when I shift prior to actually attacking the hill and I can then stand up to pedal okay. Trip to the bike shop is booked for next week!
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby Meesh » Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:48 pm
He would probably be willing to try but unfortunately not his fortemaster6 wrote:Perhaps your boyfriend is manly enough to fix it?Meesh wrote:Yep, I (she) am just seated in 4th and when trying to get into 5th - am generally heading downhill at this point so seated. Treacle bike does throw a bit of a wobbly when I try to shift from 4th to 3rd or 2nd when halfway up a hill. Seems to be okay when I shift prior to actually attacking the hill and I can then stand up to pedal okay. Trip to the bike shop is booked for next week!
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby twizzle » Thu Nov 22, 2012 2:11 pm
Just tell him "fix it or buy me a new one".Meesh wrote:He would probably be willing to try but unfortunately not his fortemaster6 wrote:Perhaps your boyfriend is manly enough to fix it?Meesh wrote:Yep, I (she) am just seated in 4th and when trying to get into 5th - am generally heading downhill at this point so seated. Treacle bike does throw a bit of a wobbly when I try to shift from 4th to 3rd or 2nd when halfway up a hill. Seems to be okay when I shift prior to actually attacking the hill and I can then stand up to pedal okay. Trip to the bike shop is booked for next week!
...real cyclists don't have squeaky chains...
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby Meesh » Thu Nov 22, 2012 5:04 pm
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Re: Easily fixed or to the bike shop I go?
Postby Mulger bill » Thu Nov 22, 2012 11:05 pm
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