Bike Noob

Because I'm Always Learning Something New

Bike Checks

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Earlier this week, Pat and I were about to take a short ride in the neighborhood. While I waited with the bikes in the driveway as she finished putting on her shoes, I glanced down at the rear wheel of the bike — and I was stunned by what I saw.

The left-side brake pad was sitting at a right angle to the wheel rim. I put my fingers on it, and it was very loose. If I had ridden the bike that way, I would have had no stopping power in the rear brakes — and could have been in for a serious on-road problem.

I grabbed my Allen wrench set from the garage and quickly put the brake pad in place and made sure it was tightened down. Then I did a careful inspection — as careful as I could given the few minutes available — to make sure no other bolts were loose, and that everything was working as it should.

What bothers me about this incident is that I’m pretty good at doing the ABC Quick Check. I hadn’t done it yet this day, but would have before Pat came out. But on the previous ride I did, I didn’t catch the loose brake pad. Maybe it didn’t come loose until the end of the ride. Maybe something caused it to come loose while it was sitting in the garage for two days without being ridden (yeah, right). Maybe I had done last Sunday’s club ride with a loose brake pad. I get shivers just thinking about it.

But although I do the ABC Quick Check, I am negligent at doing a more careful inspection of the bike at a regular interval. Things like my tires, for instance. I know I should check them after every ride to make sure nothing got caught in the tread that could lead to a puncture, or if I have any new cuts or gashes in the tire. But I don’t. I check them when I think about it. I just don’t think about it near enough.

Since that experience with the brake, I’ve been over-diligent about checking out the bike. I suppose that’s a natural overreaction, but over time, I’ll ease up on doing it. Instead, I found a nifty little bike checklist, courtesy the folks at Active.com, that I’ve printed out and tacked to the garage wall near the bike. Now, I’ll have an ever-present reminder of the kinds of checks I need to do on the bike to prevent any other easily-detected problems from cropping up.

How about you? Do you have a bike inspection routine you normally use? Share it with our readers.

The New Old Crank Set

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As we neared the end of the year, some issues with my bike started cropping up. Because I am me, I immediately diagnosed them as problems with the front derailleur. Because I am me, my diagnosis was 100 percent wrong.

The problem was a noise — a sort of a creak — that started whenever I pedaled in the small chain ring. When I shifted to the big ring, it was quiet. On a club ride two weekends ago, I spent as much time as possible in the big ring, just to keep from hearing the noise. But some hills were involved in that ride, and riders near me were treated to a “creak — creak — creak” noise whenever I applied power or started climbing.

I dropped it off with our club’s bike mechanic, who was surprised to be seeing me again so soon. He’d just done some work on my rear derailleur. The next day, he sent me his verdict: bad crank arm and bottom bracket. My mind  brought up memories of  an incident that happened on a New Year’s Day ride. My left crank arm fell off. Having to tighten it before each ride after that got old fast, so I got some blue Loc-Tite and smeared it into place. Once it cured, no more crank arm problems.

Don's crank set.

I was pleased about that, because I liked this setup. Guest blogger Don Blount had sent me the crank set after I’d posted about needing 172.5 mm cranks instead of the 175s that came with the bike. The shorter crank arms let me deliver more power to the pedals. But it turns out my fix was only temporary, and in the long run it did damage. The bike mech summed it up:

“The noise issue appears to have been started by a degrading crank.  The non-drive crank arm appears to have worked loose over time.  This damaged both the crank arm by wallowing out the splines and, because it allowed for play on the crank, ended up damaging the non-drive bearing on the bottom bracket.”

The only way to fix the problem, he said, was to replace both the crank and bottom bracket. Yech. But I had a solution, sitting right in the garage — the original crank set and bottom bracket that came with the bike.

The original.

He put them on, and I was rolling again the next day.

Because Christmas intervened, and we were out of town for five days, I haven’t ridden it much yet. I have gone out on some short rides with my wife, and really pushed hard today when we did Veloway laps. I will have to lower the seat a bit — maybe not the full 2.5 mm the new cranks have added to my pedal stroke, but enough to keep that twinge away from my knee — and futz with the saddle, because lowering it means I have to put it back a bit, too. Heck, I haven’t had the bike fitted for almost two years. Maybe it’s time to do it right and make an appointment to get it done right.

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Click to embiggen.

Christmas was a modest affair around our house. Pat set a low gift expense limit, so neither of us went overboard, but we both got what we wanted. I got some new wool socks, because I like the ones I have so much. But these are truly high-tech socks. They’re even sized for each foot. And they tell you which one, right on the toe. Makes me feel like being in kindergarten again, when we had red ribbons tied to our right shoe so we would be able to learn left from right.

Ever Had an LBS Damage Your Bike?

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I don’t mean to knock the local bike shop. I rely on them for many things, from routine replenishments of energy food like Shot Blocks to purchases of gloves, computers, other accessories, and even complete bikes.

I’m lucky enough to know a guy who is a skilled bike mechanic, and I can bring my bike over to his house for a quick turnaround at very reasonable prices. So I’m less likely now to run into trouble than I was one evening a few years ago when I took my old bike into a shop for repairs.

My old Raleigh’s alloy wheels weren’t clinchers. I could mount clincher tires on them, but I had to inflate the tires to only about 70 pounds, rather than the 100 pounds they would have been able to handle on clincher wheels. Higher pressures meant the tube would bulge out from between the wheel and tire and burst. One afternoon, I had a flat during a ride. I fixed it, but was concerned about the fix. So that evening, I took it to a bike shop to get a new tire and some tubes. While I was there, I figured to save time, I’d have them mount the tire.

As a browsed through the store, I heard a sharp BANG! like a gun shot. I trotted back to the service area, where the scruffy-looking mechanic stared embarrassedly at the blown tire.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” I said, “those tires shouldn’t be inflated more than 70 pounds.”

He looked at the wheel and nodded agreement. He took out a new tube, put it in the tire, and started to pump it up.

BANG!

By now, the other store employees were gathered around to watch the show. He took out another tube and repeated the process. This time, it looked okay, so he put the wheel on the bike.

BANG!

“Hey man, this just isn’t gonna work,” he said to me.

“It’s worked in the past,” I said. “I’ve done a metric century on these wheels.”

“Yeah, well you won’t any more,” he retorted. “Not only won’t this wheel take this tire, now it’s out of true.”

“So true it,” I said.

“I’ll have to charge you,” he answered.

“No. You knocked it out of true, you make it good.”

“No can do,” he said.

He gave me another tube. I paid for the new tire, and left the shop with my bike. A few days later, I bought my current bike (at a different shop), and I haven’t messed with the Raleigh ever since. I suspect the tire I bought, which was a different brand than the one it replaced, might have been the culprit. It probably didn’t seat on the wheel the same way as the other one did. But the failure of the mechanic to pinpoint the problem and recommend a workable solution bugged me. I vowed never to go to that store for service again. (I continue to buy routine items there, like socks and recently, a new pump.)

Most bike store service departments I’ve dealt with are wonderful, with competent mechanics who do good work in little time. But have you ever dealt with one like this guy? Or worse?

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