Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby Tebbybabes » Sun Nov 18, 2012 8:54 pm
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby ColinOldnCranky » Sun Nov 18, 2012 11:26 pm
The bag is cheap and effective. And you don't have to pay for some inflated branding.
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby il padrone » Sun Nov 18, 2012 11:49 pm
"An unjustified and unethical imposition on a healthy activity."
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby JustJames » Mon Nov 19, 2012 11:18 am
http://pedallingcharm.wordpress.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby jasonc » Mon Nov 19, 2012 11:33 am
get a shower cap instead - they're elastic.ColinOldnCranky wrote:For my leather saddle I kept a plastic coles shopping bag under the saddle (attached with a lack band). Put it on the saddle with the lacky band when parking. Keeps it from drying out too fast in summer and keeps it dry in winter. Less need to oil it and less dust accumulation.
The bag is cheap and effective. And you don't have to pay for some inflated branding.
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby barefoot » Mon Nov 19, 2012 2:38 pm
My special headset crown race installing tool was originally sold as an plumbing fitting. It must have come into my possession for a long-forgotten project that never eventuated. It's made of that heavy black plastic that threaded ag pipe fittings are made of (polyethylene?). I think it's intended to reduce the outlet size of a water tank. It has a 1 1/4" ("32mm") female thread through the middle, and a 3" male thread on the outside.
When installing a crown race, I generally use the fitting as a slide hammer to push the race evenly down into position, then tap around the edge of the fitting with a hammer to seat it. The 1 1/4" thread fits neatly over a 1 1/8" steerer tube and crown race, and the plastic is softer than any metal so can't do any damage to the crown race. But it's tough, so whacking the thick edge of the 3" thread with a hammer doesn't bother it... and it's far enough away from the steerer that I'm not worried about damaging valuable bike bits by accidentally whacking them.
Would have cost a couple of dollars at Bunnings. That has to be cheaper than a genuine Park Tools crown race seating tool
tim
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby il padrone » Mon Nov 19, 2012 2:56 pm
Crown race goes on with judicious use of a hammer and cold chisel - tap, tap, tap on alternate points of the compass.
"An unjustified and unethical imposition on a healthy activity."
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby barefoot » Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:59 pm
I use the hybrid method - a long bolt, a couple of washers and two planksil padrone wrote:Good idea for headset race installation - probably better than the hammer and two planks that I've used for many frames
The planks (actually ~300mm long offcuts of 3x1 pine) were initially used because I didn't have big enough washers to fit the headset cups, but they've proven useful as levers. If the cup is going slightly off-course and skewing a bit, I can twist my lever/plank around to the right direction and push/pull appropriately to straighten the cup.
That works quite well with modern cartridge headsets, where the crown race is really just for locating the bearing cartridge, but on old free-ball (or cage ball) headsets the crown race is a proper bearing surface, and I wouldn't reckon on putting a cold chisel anywhere near it.Crown race goes on with judicious use of a hammer and cold chisel - tap, tap, tap on alternate points of the compass.
On that subject... crown races for cartridge bearings... many are provided as split crown races, for easy installation and removal. The locating taper works just as well with a ~0.5mm gap in it - just like it does on the split ring at the upper race.
Others are provided as non-split. A non-split crown race can easily be converted to a split crown race by careful application of a hacksaw. Has zero effect on functionality, other than making it easier to install and remove.
The only caveat - some headsets (Cane Creek specifically) have a rubber seal built in to the crown race. That's a nice thing to have. I've heard of people carefully cutting the metal race and leaving the seal intact, but I'm not keen on that idea. I'll be whacking the crown race of my new Cane Creek headset onto the crown of my new fork with my plumbing fitting, without a split. And since it will have an intact seal, I expect the headset to last pretty much forever, and I should never need to remove the crown race from the fork.
tim
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby il padrone » Mon Nov 19, 2012 4:06 pm
Judicious I said. The cold chisel is angled in on the top ledge of the race - where the balls don't go. It works - done it many times with no damage resulting.barefoot wrote:That works quite well with modern cartridge headsets, where the crown race is really just for locating the bearing cartridge, but on old free-ball (or cage ball) headsets the crown race is a proper bearing surface, and I wouldn't reckon on putting a cold chisel anywhere near itil padrone wrote:Crown race goes on with judicious use of a hammer and cold chisel - tap, tap, tap on alternate points of the compass.
"An unjustified and unethical imposition on a healthy activity."
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby Dan » Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:52 pm
This is my weapon of choice, too. Agree with the tap tap tap methodology - however I only seat it slightly, then insert fork, set bearings in place and use the tension of tightening the headset into place to seat the crown race fully.il padrone wrote:Good idea for headset race installation - probably better than the hammer and two planks that I've used for many frames
Crown race goes on with judicious use of a hammer and cold chisel - tap, tap, tap on alternate points of the compass.
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby ldrcycles » Mon Nov 19, 2012 10:14 pm
Yep, i usually do the same, i've used a decent sized flat head screwdriver when i've been caught out.il padrone wrote:Judicious I said. The cold chisel is angled in on the top ledge of the race - where the balls don't go. It works - done it many times with no damage resulting.barefoot wrote:That works quite well with modern cartridge headsets, where the crown race is really just for locating the bearing cartridge, but on old free-ball (or cage ball) headsets the crown race is a proper bearing surface, and I wouldn't reckon on putting a cold chisel anywhere near itil padrone wrote:Crown race goes on with judicious use of a hammer and cold chisel - tap, tap, tap on alternate points of the compass.
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby warthog1 » Wed May 01, 2013 6:47 pm
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby ldrcycles » Wed May 01, 2013 6:58 pm
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby Saturnstarzz » Wed May 01, 2013 8:58 pm
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby jbanh » Mon May 06, 2013 10:58 am
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby find_bruce » Mon May 06, 2013 11:43 am
Works just as well with a steel steerer tube - not much aluminium used for plumbing. You just need to take it slowly when winding the cutter in.warthog1 wrote:Aluminium steerer tubes can be cut, without pulling the forks out, with a plumbers pipe cutter. Just need to deburr the cut end with a file. Works a beaut.
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby barefoot » Mon May 06, 2013 12:01 pm
There's probably contribution from a good dose of user error, and a very good dose of cheap crappy tool, but I've stopped using a pipe cutter and started using a hacksaw.
tim
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby Nobody » Mon May 06, 2013 12:21 pm
Wheel chock for front wheel. For those who don't want/need to use a stand but still don't want the bike moving around much when doing basic maintenance while leaning the bike against something. The idea here is to keep the tyre off the ground so the front wheel weight is on the chock. The inner dimensions of mine is 31 X 6cm which will do most road and MTB tyres. You can see the wear marks on the wood beside the measuring tape. I've been using this one for years.
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby ldrcycles » Tue May 14, 2013 9:44 pm
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby thomashouseman » Wed May 15, 2013 6:37 am
Yes, they also work excellent on the white plasticy/rubber bits on converse shoes.ldrcycles wrote:Just discovered a new one today, finished rebuilding a bike and needed to take pics to sell it but the whitewall tyres were really grubby. I was going to try soapy water and some Chux until I saw some Pine o Cleen disinfectant wipes in the kitchen. They did the job REALLY well, clean as a whistle.
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby Dan » Wed May 15, 2013 7:39 am
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby Nobody » Fri May 24, 2013 4:22 pm
I forgot to mention and important measurement which is the block height at each end. In this case it is 45mm. Obviously block height will affect ideal inner length so you'll have to estimate from whatever wood you have to keep the tyre just off the ground.
Anyway, when I do need to do wheel work I use the trainer, with a car stand under the BB for the front wheel. I also find a peg and an old spoke are handy for truing and a tape measure for dishing. Of course none of this is new, but it might help someone to DIY in the future.
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby munga » Fri May 24, 2013 6:36 pm
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby Dan » Fri May 24, 2013 6:51 pm
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Re: Handy maintenance tips - Old school (and not so old)
Postby warthog1 » Fri May 24, 2013 7:47 pm
I haven't done it myself, but a bloke in my old club used a hacksaw on his carbon steerer. 2 stainless hose clamps, a hacksaw blade width apart, as a guide.barefoot wrote:I have used a pipe cutter on a few steerer tubes and MTB bars, but I find my pipe cutter flares the end of the tube slightly, which makes it difficult to fit stuff (headset bits, stems, shifter/brake levers, bar ends etc.) over the end.
There's probably contribution from a good dose of user error, and a very good dose of cheap crappy tool, but I've stopped using a pipe cutter and started using a hacksaw.
tim
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