Headset Maintenance

The rust coloured stain which would come out the bottom of my headset after riding in the rain and the fact that sometimes it would seize up and need a few twists to loosen off properly should have been a warning sign, but after last week's trip to Glentress and a ride back from work in the rain the day before, my headset was sounding even worse. There was a distinct grinding feeling when moving the handlebars and on my commute, the bike sometimes wanted to keep going straight on and required a bit more effort than normal to turn.

So I had a go at removing the forks to see if I could improve the problem. Step one is to undo the cap at the top and remove the stem by undoing the two bolts on the side, then you just have to remove the spacers and you're ready to take the forks off. Most of the websites I read said the forks should just drop out, or a sharp knock with a mallet would loosen things, but this didn't seem to be happening for me, even after hitting the steerer tube as hard as I was willing to. I later discovered that there is a rubber wedge in the top of the headset which keeps everything down, prying it up a bit with a screwdriver meant that the forks could drop out easily.

A little too easily it turned out, I ended up holding the forks in one hand and the frame in the other, a situation which could have been remedied if I had a workstand, or if I had taken the wheel off first. There's not really anywhere you can stand a set of forks with a wheel on the bottom and I couldn't but either part down to sort things out. To make matters worse, the bottom bearings had fallen out and a few were now rolling about on the floor. After a quick call to Rosie I managed to sort myself out and take the wheel off. Then I just needed to find the bearings.

Problem was, there was one missing ... after a good bit of searching I realised that the bearing retainer had been bent and there wasn't one missing at all, there was just one jammed somewhere it shouldn't be, I assume that's what the grinding noise was!

Changing the who headset sounded like a bit of a worrying task and buying individual bearings doesn't seem to be possible (added to the fact that the headset on my bike doesn't seem to be available for sale anywhere) I resorted to trying to bend the retainer back into place. This was quite easily accomplished by getting Rosie to bend the retainer back into place with a pair of small pliers. I then degreased the bearings to remove most of the rust, put it all back together with a liberal amount of grease and took it out for a spin.

Everything seemed to work fine (after I tightened up some loose parts) and it's still working now. Definitely needs replacing sometime soon, but for the moment it's doing the job. I hope everything is ok for tomorrow when I hope to head back down to Glentress.

Things I learned today

Things I learned today:

* If you are 28 miles from home and you get a puncture, having a spare inner tube and a pump is not that helpful if you don't have tyre levers to get the tyre off.
* A key is not strong enough to replace a tyre lever, it will just bend and snap.
* In an pinch, a key-ring bottle opener can be used as a tyre lever, but you risk damaging your rims and with only one it's still a pain in the ass.
* Even if you can change the tube, there's no guarantee that you'll get the new tube inflated.
* Walking 4 miles with a bike with a flat tyre isn't much fun.

At least next time I'll be better prepared.

Broken Chain(s)

OK, so it seems my short lived ability to maintain my own bike has come to an end. Yesterday I got about 10m away from my work when the chain snapped due to my poor maintenance at the weekend. No problem though, after walking half way home and getting Rosie to pick me up, I set about fitting the new chain that had arrived in the post.

Managed to bend one of the links trying to fit that. Then this morning, it broke on the way to work. To make matters worse, the back brakes keep getting jammed as well, so this time, I'm taking it to a bike shop to get properly repaired by someone who knows what they are doing.

Bicycle Maintenence II

Spent the day cleaning/fixing my bike. Due to a complete lack of cleaning over the winter period, the front mech was so jammed that even taking it off and scrubbing it failed to unjam it, so I had to replace the whole thing.

Replacing it was pretty straightforward, thanks to This Guide. The only problem I encountered was when I took the chain off, I pushed the pin too far and it popped out the other side, I had to remove a link to get the thing back together, but I've ordered a new chain from Merlin, so that should be sorted soon.

Front gears are now shifting cleanly and I'm back to a full complement of gears (or at least I would be, but the rear mech won't change down to the bottom gear at the moment, leaving that adjustment for another day)

Bicycle Maintenance

Just changed the chain on my bike, was surprisingly straightforward. All you need is a chain tool, new chain and a pair of pliers. Got the old chain off and the new one on in about 10 minutes, the hardest thing was not getting oil all over my hands and the carpet, which I guess I could have solved by taking the bike outside ;)

Panaracer Uff Da

I've only ever ridden a Mountain Bike, despite 90% or more of my miles being the 3 miles to work and back. The reason for this is because I think Mountain Bikes are cool, although I like to hide behind the excuse of I can take a Mountain Bike on the road, but I can't take a road bike off-road. An excuse which has more wait to it now that I've been to Glentress a couple of times.

Anyway, that leaves the question of tyres, I've always ridden big chunky off-road tyres to do me 30 miles a week from home to work and back. While in training for the Glasgow to Edinburgh event, I thought it was maybe time I bought something less knobbly.

That's when I saw the Panaracer Uff Da, £10 or so each from Merlin Cycles. They're big and chunky (2.3") tyres designed for urban use (probably more extreme use than my daily commute, but the look pretty cool). Fitting them on the bike, I was surprised how much quieter and smoother they ride on the road than the Maxxis Ignitors that came with the bike. The rode pretty well on the Glasgow to Edinburgh, so look like a good purchase.

Bicycle Parts online

I've been buying quite a few bicycle parts recently and two websites I've used have been really good: Merlin Cycles and UK Bike Store. Both have a pretty good range of products, reasonable prices and pretty swift dispatch and delivery. Merlin offers next day delivery for free and UK Bike Store do first class Royal Mail delivery for not much money. So if you're in the market for any bike parts, give them a try.