Conference noted::bicycle

    First, gear slipping. Assuming that you didn't have the rear derailleur
    out of adjustment (in which case you'd hear it clattering all the
    time) your problem may be that the 5th gear sprocket has become
    worn: is it the gear you use most? If you take a close look at that
    gear, and compare it against a gear you use less (eg 1st), you might
    see that the gear teeth are worn down. If so, no option but
    replacement! If you do replace it, you might need to replace the
    chain as well.
    Second, your back-pedalling problem might have been caused by having
    the rear derailleur slightly out of adjustment, in which case nothing
    to worry about - just move the gear-change lever slightly.
    Finally, chains are best cleaned by removing them and giving them
    a scrub with white spirit or something similar, old toothbrushes
    are good for this. Lubricate it well when you put it back on - I
    believe you can get specialist chain lubricants which don't pick
    up dirt as much as ordinary bike oil. You can also buy gadgets to
    clean chains without removing them.
    
    Rod

Re: < Note 364.1 by RDGENG::MACFADYEN >
    
>    You can also buy gadgets to clean chains without removing them.

    Any experience with these?  I've seen them, but do they work?
    

    thanks
    
    andy

    re:  .2 
    >chain cleaning gadgets
    
    The subject of cleaning and lubricating chains has been covered
    more thoroughly than you would think possible in topic 182.
    
    Thom
    

    
    	By "5th gear" do you mean, "smallest chain ring, second to smallest
    cog" ?  

    I need to clean my freewheel.  What is the "best" cleaning solution to
    use.  
    
    Also, I've never done this, so (as a novice) is there a special tool to
    remove the freewheel.  I was able to remove an outer nut and a spacer,
    but there was another nut, that was square with rounded corners, inside
    the freewheel that I could not reach with the wrenches I had.  

    re .5
    
    	Somewhere in this file is a note on how to remove the freewheel,
    I can't remember where I saw it....  Oh well...  
    
    	Don't remove the nut that you couldn't reach.  Sounds like that's
    on the axel.  You need a special freewheel tool, and they're different
    for the different types of freewheels.  The freewheel tool (usually)
    looks like a cylinder and fits inside the inner most point on the
    freewheel.  Put a BIG wrench on the freewheel tool and turn it in
    the opposite direction that the freewheel would turn when you peddle.
    
    -Stew

Paint thinner.


If you do get the tool, use a bench vise to hold the tool then twist the 
wheel. The wheel diameter provides a much better lever. It usually takes 
a lot of force to get the freewheel off.


I usually use a rag soaked in thinner. Then I pull the rag back and forth 
through each of the gears. The racheting action of the freewheel causes 
the gears to spin. It works pretty easily.


JC

If the freewheel is a suntour (or one with the same type of remover)
and the connection between the freewheel and the remover looks like
2 or 4 small teeth, there is not much to hold the tool to the freewheel
while you're applying all that torque.  What works well is to insert
the quick release so that it is through the axle and the tool but not
tight.  Now apply wrench or vise to tool to break the thread bind.
After it gives a little loosen the quick release about a turn, unscrew
the freweheel a bnit more and then remove the quick release.

Now, if your freewheel is a Maillard Helicomatic or any of the cassette
types, ignore all of the above.

ed

    I got out of this easy.  I call my local bike shop Franklin (MA)
    bicycle shop and asked if he sold freewheel wrenched.  He told me to
    bring it in and he removed it for me.
    
    Now I have to decide if I want to just replace it the freewheel or
    clean and use what I have.  I would would like buy a new bike by this
    time next year so I don't want to put to much money into what I have,
    but I will be ride alot (to me its alot) this summer and will be riding
    in the Pan-Mass Challege and don't want to have trouble with the bike.
    
    BTW, the bike is about 12 yrs old.  Its a Schwinn Le-Tour that has kept
    my happy.
    
    Thanks for the advise.
    
    TimB. 

    I'm going through my first annual "bike overhaul."  Things are coming
    off easily, but I wonder how easy it's going to be to put everything
    back together again!  Please excuse the part descriptions, I don't
    have a manual and I'm a rookie at repairing these things.
    
    My first question has to do with the gear shifter for the front
    derailler (sp?).  The thing just won't come off.  It has a D ring
    on it, but it doesn't move.  The lever itself moves normally, but
    I don't see how I can get it off.  Any ideas how I can free up the
    D ring to unscrew it.  Is it even necessary to take it off and clean
    it up?  The rear derailler had a slot for a screwdriver so that's
    how I got that off.
    
    2nd question regards the headset.  The fork crown race (?) is quite
    pitted, and lower steering tube cup (?) is pitted to a lesser degree.
    The upper parts of the headset are in good shape.  It's Shimano
    600 and I can't find shops that carry individual parts (except for
    Campy).  When assembled, I didn't notice any "notching" or recentering
    of the fork.  So, can I just put no bearings in, regrease and go
    another season?  Is there any potential danger that could arise?
    I know it's only $20 or so to replace, but the upper parts are in
    good shape so I don't want to buy a whole new unit.      
    
    Thanks,
    Dave
    
    
    

Re: .10

> The [adjuster for the front derailleur] just won't come off.  It has a
> D ring on it, but it doesn't move.  The lever itself moves normally,
> but I don't see how I can get it off...

If you can't turn it by the D ring, and there's no screwdriver slot,
then you're in trouble.  You don't really *have* to take the lever
apart, but if the adjuster is frozen you probably should.  Since you
can't, it may be time to replace the entire lever assembly.  If you
let it go, the friction will gradually diminish as things wear, and soon
your derailleur will shift all by itself.  But only in one direction... 

The first thing to try is some Liquid Wrench, available at hardware 
stores.

If all fails and you decide that you're *willing* to replace the whole
thing, you can at least try to save it by applying extra leverage to the
frozen part by inserting a screwdriver through the D ring.  You may 
break it, but then again you may not.

> 2nd question regards the headset.  The fork crown race (?) is quite
> pitted, and lower steering tube cup (?) is pitted to a lesser degree.
> The upper parts of the headset are in good shape... When assembled, I
> didn't notice any "notching" or recentering of the fork.  So, can I
> just put no bearings in, regrease and go another season?

It depends on whether the pitting is rust pitting or the evenly-spaced 
pits made by brinnelling, which is the process of beating the balls 
against the races until the races take little depressions that match the 
balls.  If it's rust pitting, you're not likely to suffer fatal injury 
if you don't replace the headset.  If it's brinnelling, then you could 
find that it will "notch" - called commutating - at a most inopportune 
time, when a subtle steering adjustment is needed, and you could stack 
the bike up.

The fact of life with headsets is that the crown race and lower head
tube race wear out first.  (The steering tube is the part of the fork
that passes through the head tube, for the stem to clamp into.) 

Headsets are pretty cheap - you cited a $20 figure to replace yours - 
and it's probably good practice to replace a worn or brinnelled one.

If you want to save the bucks, though, you can try knocking either the
crown race or the lower head tube race loose, turning it half the
distance between two of the ball pits, and resetting it.  This is a
fairly exacting operation; it's easier to do the crown race.  Get a
piece of iron pipe that fits closely over the steerer tube, have one end
of it milled true, and seat the race using this pipe as a slide hammer. 

Or you can pay Bike Nashbar $8.50 or so for their headsetter tool, which
includes a pipe like this and also a threaded rod with some slightly
modified nuts and washers, suitable for resetting races in the head
tube. 

Or you can use a hammer and a fairly good sized screwdriver, tapping the
race into position little by little as you work around it.  If you get
too enthusiastic with this method, you can jam the race on cockeyed, and 
that will deform bo the race and the seat for it on the crown.  Take it 
very easy!

- Dick

If it's the matter of just a few pits in the headseat and yours came with 
caged bearings, you might be able to get another 6 months out of it by
using loose balls.  The balls will be spaced differently; they won't all be in
a pit at the same time.

I think I read somewhere that loose ball bearing last longer in general.
Something about more contact points.

-Jeff

    Another way to squeeze a few more months out of a pitted headset
    is to tatero (that's 'rotate' rotated) two of the cups so the pits
    don't line up with each other anymore and then spin the bearings
    so they don't continue to roll on their flat sides.
    
    If there's, say, 12 bearings, you would want to rotate the cups
    1/24th (15 degrees).  I see how that's done for the bottom cup.
    Whether or not the top cup and race continue to line up depends
    on the tightening.
    
    For anyone who wants to come up around Nashua, I have a set of
    headset tools that you may use to seat a headset or remove an
    old one.
    
    ed

    
    My bike is a mess...  Got caught on some gravel roads and it started to
    rain...   I need to clean the whole bike, but thge  rear sprocket / 
    rear derailer is full of mud and grit...  I went to a bike shop and
    the salesman recommended going to a car wash a blasting it with the
    high pressure soap spray for a couple minutes...   Before I get out my 
    quarters,  does this sound like good advise...  
    
    thanks
    
    jim
    

>    ....the salesman recommended going to a car wash a blasting it with the
>    high pressure soap spray for a couple minutes...

If you do this, try to avoid spraying sideways at the freewheel and hub;
spray from the edge.  You don't want to fill your freewheel with water.

-Jeff

    Re:.4 pressure spraying the bike
    
    A friend of mine used the pressure hose at a carwash on his Pinarello
    (SL frame) and washed the paint right off his frame!
    
    Don't do it; pressure is too high and may 'blast' some paint off.
    A regular hose should do the trick, along with a brush and bucket
    of soapy water.
    
    Regards,
    Mark

    ...and of course if you are a Virgo, you would want to use a
    toothbrush.
    
    Eric (Sept 20)

    
    Hummm...  Ill have to talk to my dentist to see what kind of
              toothbrush he recommends....  ;-)  I was aso thinking of
    	      using a degreaser instead of soapy water..  whats that 
    	      stuff called...  Gunk???  
    
    	      I saw some degreaser in a bike shop made from lemon juice...
    	      can said " spray it on and spray it off.."  no toothbrush
              required..     Anyone use these cleaning agents yet....???
    	       
              thanks
    
    
    

     What kind of bicycle is it? Any sealed components you know
    of?
    
     Spraying it off with a garden hose will generally not hurt it.
    The is not the end, however. It would need to be wiped down.
    
     If we're talking serious cleaning, hosing it is good only for
    the big crappy stuff. You'll need some serious disassemby action
    to do it right, plus some stuff like thinner or some other degreaser
    and re-lube all the right stuff to avoid unwanted oxidation...
    
      Chip

    
    Thanks...  I ended up doing it the hard way...  Garden hose, assortment
    of brushes (even a toothbrush ...  no kidding) and gease cutting soaps...  
    What a mess...   grease everwhere....
    
    Big diffence tho...  Rear derailer is alot quieter...  Bad news is
    after I removed all the crud, I saw just how bad the rear gears are worn... 
    
    Looks like its time to spend some more money....         
    
    jim