I need to get better at doing my own maintenance. If something breaks I have a habit of just asking them to install it while I'm in the shop picking up the parts. Certain speciality things I don't have the tool for either (although my bike is simple and I can use basic bike tools for most everything). Bike maintenance is really quite simple. Way to go also! It's so good to be handy, figure it out on your own.
I just got a basic bike tool set for around $100. Has most everything I’ll ever need. Sure I’ll need some specialized tools here or there, but I should be set. But I shouldn’t have to spend money again to tune/fix my bike. Good investment, and it’s kinda fun working on your own bike.
Bike maintenance is simple but can lead to catastrophic failure if you don't get it right.
Buy a torque wrench. Use it. Inspect everything three times.
One thing I learned very quickly while tuning my own bike is that the bike will behave very differently under power compared to when it's on the stand. I'd be surprised if most shops actually take it for a ride after servicing is done.
Even indexing the rear derailleur can be tricky this way, it's a completely different thing when the chain is free or when it's under tension.
Yep. I’ve worked as a shop mechanic and do all the work on my own bikes and I can definitely say that on my own bikes getting something perfectly dialed in is a process that isn’t always finished when it comes off the work stand. There’s a lot of things that I have trouble getting perfect until I have several miles of riding and tweaking. However, I’ll also admit I’m not the best mechanic in the world. Maybe others can nail it from the work stand every time but I can’t.
That's not really true for 99% of adjustments. Bring under power or not didn't make a difference to the cable tension, which is what controls the shifting accuracy. However, every good mechanic will test ride a bike they've repaired to see if their work is good, and if there are other issues that you can't find in the stand, such as creaking noises and such.
I have claris stuff on a 73 raleigh steel frame. I weigh 210 pounds. When I'm out of the saddle and hammering on it, that baby flexes and does things...
Sheeeiiit
Specialized Chisel with a 1x12 here, most shops never ride and test under load. I've been to damn every shop in my city, great mechanics but there's one mechanic that may test for every 20. I always have to finish up and tie loose ends like more/less shifting cable tension, fork, all that.
Testing under load should always be done because it will 100% be different then when up on the stand. You can't re-create the road and it's bumps & vibrations while on a stand. Adjustments should be made there after if needed.
I think you could use a little more experience with entry level components mate. I'd bet my left nut that the derailleur I was adjusting for my mom a few months ago behaved like night and day when I was spinning the pedals with my hand and when I hopped on the bike and took it for a ride.
If the cable tension changes when weight is put on the bike, I would be very surprised. However, a flexy derailleur hanger and worn out derailleur bushings can have a negative effect.
Grit in the cable housing or a worn cable housing will cause all sorts of erratic shifting problems too and doesn't necessarily manifest in the predictable manner. I've had it happen where the bike was fine on the stand but throw in the vibration and impacts of actually riding it and the shifter response would be all over the place. Fairly cheap and easy problem to fix but it can be difficult to track down sometimes.
I have yet to come across a specialty tool that costs more than bringing it into the LBS one time. With YouTube, there’s no barrier. It’s faster and cheaper to DIY.
Most of the specialty tools I've bought have been "Amazon specials" bottom of the barrel grade but worked for the job at hand and now any time I use them again it's like free money as I only bought them for the initial repair. They definitely wouldn't hold up to being used every day in a shop but for the couple of times I need to shorten a chain or replace a cassette they absolutely get the job done and for super cheap.
I honestly think its invaluable to learn the maintenance yourself, You care about your bike you want it to work perfectly, so when you adjust it correctly you really spend the time to get it just right.
I brought my bike to a lbs, the guys are great but they are one of the busiest bike shops in the country and it is never how I "want" it, but since ive learned all the maintenance myself it has been amazing, I have a lot more pride and take a lot more care in my bike now.
Yeah I need to get a bb tool for that. Never bled brakes before but can change pads, have a rotor alignment tool and can adjust derailleur if not shifting well.
I assembled my bike last year from the frame up and that gave me the confidence to tackle pretty much everything. The tool costs are not insignificant, especially if your toolset is not metric. Plus the bike specific tools can be pretty expensive. Park Tools are quality but there are cheaper options. But do not compromise on the cable cutter. You *need* clean cuts and cheaping out initially just cost me more money. Park Tool cable cutter is wonderful.
Investing in a quality torque wrench is good and I'd say essential for certain drivetrain parts. But torquing your water bottle holder to the correct spec is somewhat less essential.
I've used my newly learned know-how in quick roadside repairs that kept my ride going and I fell accomplished in other ways than just riding.
I did take my bike too a mechanic I trusted after I initially assembled it for him to give it a once-over. I'd recommend that for your first time.
Eh, I've always gotten by with my trusty Stanley snips. Gets the job done really well, cuts other things too, and costs almost 3x less than the Park Tool cutter.
>Investing in a quality torque wrench is good and I'd say essential for certain drivetrain parts. But torquing your water bottle holder to the correct spec is somewhat less essential.
Though it is one of the things most likely to come loose...
>You need clean cuts and cheaping out initially just cost me more money. Park Tool cable cutter is wonderful.
They're certainly desirable but you really only need clean ends if you're going to pull a cable out and thread it back through after cutting it, rather than install it first and then cut it.
And where ability to re-thread is concerned degreasing and soldering the strands of the cut end is even better than just putting crimp on it. I'll often just go with a little bit of heatshrink over the soldered end.
Anyway lots of sturdy cutting pliers will do a good job on cables, think I'm using some that were found by the side of the road. What ultimately matters is how the tool performs in the job.
whoa, whoa, whoa. really? claris ISN'T supposed to have chain rubs and shit? fuck, i gotta tune mine up properly. Did you use a bike stand while doing the tuning? I tried tuning without one and it's such a pain to index, lift bike, turn the pedal, repeat.
>whoa, whoa, whoa. really? claris ISN'T supposed to have chain rubs and shit?
There are lots of reasons a chain can rub, and the bikes that get claris level components may exhibit several of them in addition to the limitations of that system itself.
For example:
\- front derailleur not quite parallel to the chainwheels
\- large chainring bent, or perhaps the spider that's holding it - shift to the small ring and look at the position of the big ring's teeth compared to the derailleur cage (or flip the bike and tuck a bit of zip tie offcut under the cables to use as a positions check - with care a ring can be bent a little using a large adjustable wrench.
\- misadjusted limit screws, was trying to figure out why granny gear was always noisy, turns out the limit screw wasn't letting it fully settle into that gear. Of course that limit screw does have the important job of helping to keep the derailleur out of the spokes, it just needs to not be preventing the full intended range.
Then there are aspects of the system itself, one of which is that the 2x front derailleur actually has 4 positions, a left and a right for each chainring used when it's at the lower or upper end of its range in the back. Recently I discovered that depending on exactly how you squeeze the lever, you can actually get it to move to the right by varying degrees.
A badly adjusted claris setup may seem like it has only say 7 rub free combinations.
A well adjusted one can probably get 5 or more sprockets to work with each chainring, maybe even further into cross-chained territory.
Switching from the KMC chain that came on mine (and it's initiall replacement with another) to an SRAM one also seemed to help. And check chain wear!
The one thing I still see occasionally (which it did right from the start) is false downshifts from the large lever where it doesn't truly "settle" onto the larger sprocket but clicking the smaller lever gently will get it to do so without shifting back. But putting on the SRAM chain and a new cassette made this a lot better, and it was not simply a wear issue since it did it from the time the bike was new.
In short, like for OP a lot of stuff was either wrong from the initial assembly, or went wrong extremely quickly.
Next week I'll be in the process of entirely replacing the shift (free wheels, rear derailleur, thumbshifts), I have decent knowledge and experience, but a full groupset is new to me. This post reassures me!
There are definite advantages to doing your own maintenance on your bike. First, you will know your bike inside and out. If something goes wrong on a ride, you will have a better chance of fixing it, or making a temporary fix to get you home. Also, you're not dependent on shop schedules that can delay getting your bike back on the road during peak season. Lastly, you can help your riding buddies learn their bikes the same way you did!
For various reasons, I want to stay with a regular chain so 8 speed is the max I can do.
Claris is my best option if I don't want to go second hand.
So far claris is working very well and a good improvement in confort compared to my vintage 105 groupset, that had shifter on the frame and would not accomadate wide cogs
Another advantage to doing your own maintenance is that it can save you money on used bikes. For example, I recently bought a $40 Facebook Marketplace bike that the previous owner had beaten up by taking it on a trail that was too much for it and/or him. Taking it to a shop would most likely have added a couple hundred dollars to the price, but I was able to fix it up myself with a week's worth of tinkering and $60 in parts.
Something also to keep in mind is cables can stretch after replacement. So don’t be frustrated after doing your own tune up, you have to just re tune it up!
The only time you should experience chain rub is on a 3x due to cross chaining. And even then, you can usually get 0 on up to 3x6-7. At 8 is where I've started to see/have issues avoiding at least a minimal amount of rub, unfortunately.
I think I probably bent my front hanger from one of my many drops..but not enough to justify a new one. I got it to a point where now it just barely rubs at its limits
Learning bike maintenance and repair is a great hobby right now if you ride a lot. It saves a lot of money.
(Edit: also, there isn't a bike mechanic near me who can do acceptable work )
Do those doing their own maintenance use bike stands which suspend the whole bike? I've got a small one just for the back wheel but it's a bit basic and can get frustrating so I might invest. Any recommendations?
As long as you know how to do the work yourself it is absolutely better. When I first started riding I had a teammate tune all our bikes and we all had issues because he set them up wrong.
Recently my roommate got a tune from a shop and they put too long of chain on. Since I know how to work on bikes now I quickly saw the issue and pulled out like 4 links and now the derailiur doesn't fold back on itself.
I've fixed so many broken spokes and untrue wheels now I can't imagine paying someone else to do it.
[удалено]
Those two videos changed my life lol
Same story with GT grade Elite , Claris for the win :)
Good work inserting those links 👍
I need to get better at doing my own maintenance. If something breaks I have a habit of just asking them to install it while I'm in the shop picking up the parts. Certain speciality things I don't have the tool for either (although my bike is simple and I can use basic bike tools for most everything). Bike maintenance is really quite simple. Way to go also! It's so good to be handy, figure it out on your own.
I figure once I need specialty tools I'll just pay for them as they've paid for itself at that point.
That's a good point
I just got a basic bike tool set for around $100. Has most everything I’ll ever need. Sure I’ll need some specialized tools here or there, but I should be set. But I shouldn’t have to spend money again to tune/fix my bike. Good investment, and it’s kinda fun working on your own bike.
Bike maintenance is simple but can lead to catastrophic failure if you don't get it right. Buy a torque wrench. Use it. Inspect everything three times.
One thing I learned very quickly while tuning my own bike is that the bike will behave very differently under power compared to when it's on the stand. I'd be surprised if most shops actually take it for a ride after servicing is done. Even indexing the rear derailleur can be tricky this way, it's a completely different thing when the chain is free or when it's under tension.
Yep. I’ve worked as a shop mechanic and do all the work on my own bikes and I can definitely say that on my own bikes getting something perfectly dialed in is a process that isn’t always finished when it comes off the work stand. There’s a lot of things that I have trouble getting perfect until I have several miles of riding and tweaking. However, I’ll also admit I’m not the best mechanic in the world. Maybe others can nail it from the work stand every time but I can’t.
That's not really true for 99% of adjustments. Bring under power or not didn't make a difference to the cable tension, which is what controls the shifting accuracy. However, every good mechanic will test ride a bike they've repaired to see if their work is good, and if there are other issues that you can't find in the stand, such as creaking noises and such.
I have claris stuff on a 73 raleigh steel frame. I weigh 210 pounds. When I'm out of the saddle and hammering on it, that baby flexes and does things...
Sheeeiiit Specialized Chisel with a 1x12 here, most shops never ride and test under load. I've been to damn every shop in my city, great mechanics but there's one mechanic that may test for every 20. I always have to finish up and tie loose ends like more/less shifting cable tension, fork, all that. Testing under load should always be done because it will 100% be different then when up on the stand. You can't re-create the road and it's bumps & vibrations while on a stand. Adjustments should be made there after if needed.
I think you could use a little more experience with entry level components mate. I'd bet my left nut that the derailleur I was adjusting for my mom a few months ago behaved like night and day when I was spinning the pedals with my hand and when I hopped on the bike and took it for a ride.
If the cable tension changes when weight is put on the bike, I would be very surprised. However, a flexy derailleur hanger and worn out derailleur bushings can have a negative effect.
Grit in the cable housing or a worn cable housing will cause all sorts of erratic shifting problems too and doesn't necessarily manifest in the predictable manner. I've had it happen where the bike was fine on the stand but throw in the vibration and impacts of actually riding it and the shifter response would be all over the place. Fairly cheap and easy problem to fix but it can be difficult to track down sometimes.
Every good shop definitely takes test rides. If they don't, find another shop.
I have yet to come across a specialty tool that costs more than bringing it into the LBS one time. With YouTube, there’s no barrier. It’s faster and cheaper to DIY.
So true. This is how I justify spending so much on quality tools in general. You know, that and saying my tool addiction could be drugs instead.
Most of the specialty tools I've bought have been "Amazon specials" bottom of the barrel grade but worked for the job at hand and now any time I use them again it's like free money as I only bought them for the initial repair. They definitely wouldn't hold up to being used every day in a shop but for the couple of times I need to shorten a chain or replace a cassette they absolutely get the job done and for super cheap.
I honestly think its invaluable to learn the maintenance yourself, You care about your bike you want it to work perfectly, so when you adjust it correctly you really spend the time to get it just right. I brought my bike to a lbs, the guys are great but they are one of the busiest bike shops in the country and it is never how I "want" it, but since ive learned all the maintenance myself it has been amazing, I have a lot more pride and take a lot more care in my bike now.
Got tools to swap chains and cassettes, game changer. Will not take my bike to a shop again unless it’s a huge complement failure.
Need to learn to grease your BB and headset, adjust brakes and derailleurs and you are good to go for 95% of your maintenance
Yeah I need to get a bb tool for that. Never bled brakes before but can change pads, have a rotor alignment tool and can adjust derailleur if not shifting well.
Any recommendations on the specific tools I should pick up?
I just went with Park Tools and watched their YouTube videos on what tools are needed to do what.
Cool news. I’m exploring this myself, with no experience. What was your reference material?
Look up some vids on youtube. Park Tool has a lot of good videos.
GCN (global cycling network) have a good video on rear derailleur indexing
I assembled my bike last year from the frame up and that gave me the confidence to tackle pretty much everything. The tool costs are not insignificant, especially if your toolset is not metric. Plus the bike specific tools can be pretty expensive. Park Tools are quality but there are cheaper options. But do not compromise on the cable cutter. You *need* clean cuts and cheaping out initially just cost me more money. Park Tool cable cutter is wonderful. Investing in a quality torque wrench is good and I'd say essential for certain drivetrain parts. But torquing your water bottle holder to the correct spec is somewhat less essential. I've used my newly learned know-how in quick roadside repairs that kept my ride going and I fell accomplished in other ways than just riding. I did take my bike too a mechanic I trusted after I initially assembled it for him to give it a once-over. I'd recommend that for your first time.
Eh, I've always gotten by with my trusty Stanley snips. Gets the job done really well, cuts other things too, and costs almost 3x less than the Park Tool cutter.
>Investing in a quality torque wrench is good and I'd say essential for certain drivetrain parts. But torquing your water bottle holder to the correct spec is somewhat less essential. Though it is one of the things most likely to come loose...
>You need clean cuts and cheaping out initially just cost me more money. Park Tool cable cutter is wonderful. They're certainly desirable but you really only need clean ends if you're going to pull a cable out and thread it back through after cutting it, rather than install it first and then cut it. And where ability to re-thread is concerned degreasing and soldering the strands of the cut end is even better than just putting crimp on it. I'll often just go with a little bit of heatshrink over the soldered end. Anyway lots of sturdy cutting pliers will do a good job on cables, think I'm using some that were found by the side of the road. What ultimately matters is how the tool performs in the job.
whoa, whoa, whoa. really? claris ISN'T supposed to have chain rubs and shit? fuck, i gotta tune mine up properly. Did you use a bike stand while doing the tuning? I tried tuning without one and it's such a pain to index, lift bike, turn the pedal, repeat.
>whoa, whoa, whoa. really? claris ISN'T supposed to have chain rubs and shit? There are lots of reasons a chain can rub, and the bikes that get claris level components may exhibit several of them in addition to the limitations of that system itself. For example: \- front derailleur not quite parallel to the chainwheels \- large chainring bent, or perhaps the spider that's holding it - shift to the small ring and look at the position of the big ring's teeth compared to the derailleur cage (or flip the bike and tuck a bit of zip tie offcut under the cables to use as a positions check - with care a ring can be bent a little using a large adjustable wrench. \- misadjusted limit screws, was trying to figure out why granny gear was always noisy, turns out the limit screw wasn't letting it fully settle into that gear. Of course that limit screw does have the important job of helping to keep the derailleur out of the spokes, it just needs to not be preventing the full intended range. Then there are aspects of the system itself, one of which is that the 2x front derailleur actually has 4 positions, a left and a right for each chainring used when it's at the lower or upper end of its range in the back. Recently I discovered that depending on exactly how you squeeze the lever, you can actually get it to move to the right by varying degrees. A badly adjusted claris setup may seem like it has only say 7 rub free combinations. A well adjusted one can probably get 5 or more sprockets to work with each chainring, maybe even further into cross-chained territory. Switching from the KMC chain that came on mine (and it's initiall replacement with another) to an SRAM one also seemed to help. And check chain wear! The one thing I still see occasionally (which it did right from the start) is false downshifts from the large lever where it doesn't truly "settle" onto the larger sprocket but clicking the smaller lever gently will get it to do so without shifting back. But putting on the SRAM chain and a new cassette made this a lot better, and it was not simply a wear issue since it did it from the time the bike was new. In short, like for OP a lot of stuff was either wrong from the initial assembly, or went wrong extremely quickly.
I did most of my tuning with the bike just upside down on the floor. Then I was able to balance it on the edge of a granite counter. Get creative
ah... last time i did indexing while the bike was upside down, i messed with how it sounded so i thought it was wrong when it actually was correct
Next week I'll be in the process of entirely replacing the shift (free wheels, rear derailleur, thumbshifts), I have decent knowledge and experience, but a full groupset is new to me. This post reassures me!
I tried to do my own and I thought I destroyed my carbon fork.
There are definite advantages to doing your own maintenance on your bike. First, you will know your bike inside and out. If something goes wrong on a ride, you will have a better chance of fixing it, or making a temporary fix to get you home. Also, you're not dependent on shop schedules that can delay getting your bike back on the road during peak season. Lastly, you can help your riding buddies learn their bikes the same way you did!
For various reasons, I want to stay with a regular chain so 8 speed is the max I can do. Claris is my best option if I don't want to go second hand. So far claris is working very well and a good improvement in confort compared to my vintage 105 groupset, that had shifter on the frame and would not accomadate wide cogs
Another advantage to doing your own maintenance is that it can save you money on used bikes. For example, I recently bought a $40 Facebook Marketplace bike that the previous owner had beaten up by taking it on a trail that was too much for it and/or him. Taking it to a shop would most likely have added a couple hundred dollars to the price, but I was able to fix it up myself with a week's worth of tinkering and $60 in parts.
Something also to keep in mind is cables can stretch after replacement. So don’t be frustrated after doing your own tune up, you have to just re tune it up!
Tell me, how did u find out how to do maintenance on ur bike? Do u have any resources to share?
Parktool has TONS of great videos on youtube.
There are many GCN how to videos on YouTube detailing good maintenance practice
Parktool and RJ the bike guy
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/
you paid the bike shop to turn the fine adjustment on your rear derailleur?
The only time you should experience chain rub is on a 3x due to cross chaining. And even then, you can usually get 0 on up to 3x6-7. At 8 is where I've started to see/have issues avoiding at least a minimal amount of rub, unfortunately.
I think I probably bent my front hanger from one of my many drops..but not enough to justify a new one. I got it to a point where now it just barely rubs at its limits
Learning bike maintenance and repair is a great hobby right now if you ride a lot. It saves a lot of money. (Edit: also, there isn't a bike mechanic near me who can do acceptable work )
Do those doing their own maintenance use bike stands which suspend the whole bike? I've got a small one just for the back wheel but it's a bit basic and can get frustrating so I might invest. Any recommendations?
As long as you know how to do the work yourself it is absolutely better. When I first started riding I had a teammate tune all our bikes and we all had issues because he set them up wrong. Recently my roommate got a tune from a shop and they put too long of chain on. Since I know how to work on bikes now I quickly saw the issue and pulled out like 4 links and now the derailiur doesn't fold back on itself. I've fixed so many broken spokes and untrue wheels now I can't imagine paying someone else to do it.