Bike Maintenance 101

30.000 or 3.000? :face_with_monocle:

As mentioned before, I have stuff to clear out.
All new, almost new, and surely in perfect condition.

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Wow looks like a bike shop! Used is my preferred option.
Seems like you have what I’m looking for :+1:
30000!! Got my figure and conversion rate wrong there, going by prices on U.K. online bike mags.

Well, for 30.000 you can have several sets, nothing that expensive :rofl:
Send me a PM and I will send you some pics of the box items, and some other that I might consider to sell.

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This week has been headset maintenance week.


First, the LittleBig bike of my daughter. Easy.


Then, my Scultura Endurance. Not easy. I did my best to clean both bearing areas without disconnecting housings nor removing handlebar tapes. Lower bearing was difficult but possible. The upper bearing wasn´t going anywhere without, at the very least, removing handlebar tapes.

It was the lower one that needed the most care, with some grind in the area from some recent rain, wet and muddy rides. The upper one was cleaner, but since I could not take it from the frame, I could not clean it properly. I’ll source some bearings and fresh tape for the next time, which has to be sooner than the almost two years (not a huge distance though) that took me this time. I’ll have to disconnect all the housings from the levers to replace the bearings…

TL;DR: Routing through the headset looks cool, until the headset needs care. Really need a repair stand.

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Yes, yes you do. Don’t go cheap on one, though. I bought a cheapo one and the bolts either stripped out or the plastic butterfly tighteners broke.

Added: This one. Do not buy this one.

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Very impressive to attack that headset bearing change/cleaning yourself.

Last week I had to change the headset bearings because it was a corroded/salty mess. I’ve been meaning to take it into the Giant shop for over a month and when he took off the handlebar off to look he almost gagged. ‘Terrible’ was his word choice. Rookie mistake on my part not to take it in sooner…but it has not yet been a year of having the bike.

When I came back the next day to pick up the bike, he showed me photos in all its gross glory. Luckily I didn’t put on my reading glasses. I put my imaginary tail between my legs and mumbled something about being overly sweaty dude and passing the blame to Taiwan’s humidity.

I guess after each ‘summer’ I need to get a full cleaning to avoid this embarrassment.

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This is the reason why I still don´t have one :laughing:

I didn’t have this problem before because when I only had the MTB I wasn’t riding very often, therefore it was rare to get caught by the rain. More over, there are 6 cm more of distance between the front wheel and the lower part of the headtube in the MTB than in the road bike, so it doesn’t receive so much grime from the wheel. And I’m sure the headset cover of the road bike is not as waterproof as the MTB one because of the cables going through it.

Once per year I would say it is a must if there are some wet rides involved. Removing the bar tape, probably loosening the levers too, should give me enough room to do a proper cleaning of the upper bearing area. But to replace any of the bearings (the lower one is already a candidate) I’ll have to disconnect all the lines going to the levers.

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By the way, with your TCR it should be super easy to do. Loose the stem bolts, headset cap and voilà. Maybe you should also loose the front brake caliper to fully remove the fork. But that’s it, you’ll have full access to the bearings. No excuses for a deep clean and regrease every 6 months.

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How?! I’ve had my bike 10 years and it’s still on the original bearings after 12,000km

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I think the modern frame designs require more maintenance. Most headsets today are just a couple of bearings and a top cap. Bearings sit straight on the carbon. It’s a lighter design but probably not as water resistance as slightly older designs.

Oh, and cutting corners with crappy bearings too. I don’t think the ones in my headset are very good neither. The lower one had some signs of corrosion (I couldn’t see the top one clear enough so who knows). My bike has almost two years, but less than 1.5 years worth of riding and just under 3500 km. Even in Taiwan, a good quality stainless steel bearing should not rust that quick.

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I made a bike stand myself some years ago, and it works perfect.

I prefer this version with the fork clamped on the stand, as opposed to the stands which clamp on the frame or seatpost.
It is all very solid to work on, not moving at all, and I fold it away if not used.

I made it to clamp roadbikes, as well as for the (longer) MTB, I simply move the quick release to the forward position.

For the rare occasions where I need to take the fork out, I simply turn the bike, and clamp it on the rear drop-outs.

Total costs; a trip to the B&Q, purchase of a big drill bit, an old tri-pod, some old bike parts and other stuff, and some hours of work.

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I had some real hassle changing the free hub on old Campanolo hub, original hub on the wheel,I buy 11 speed cassette but securing o-ring came with cassette 27mm, freehub o-ring size 26mm! Original hub is 9 speed but 11 fits ok.
Try to buy 26mm securing o-ring, I found 1 eBay U.K. he wouldn’t ship to Taiwan.
I find a Campagnolo reproduction 11 speed freehub Shoppee 600nt :+1:
Get it yes 27mm top ring👍
However the freehub bearing set it lower and smaller dimensions than original, so axles thread doesn’t not go deep enough for fixing nut. Original spacers and nut to wide for new bearing.
Solution hacksaw off bottom part new fixing extended nut. file out thread to make a spacer. Then I can fit wider old spring spacer and nut on.
All sorted now axel and loose bearings out cleaned and re greased, races and bearings still mint for wheel of its age.

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That already sounds like a fortune to me when adding the times I will screw it up.

I can’t really say which one I would prefer. The problem with this version is that some works with the front wheel (like alignment of brake caliper) can’t be done with the stand.

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Ya, you’re the guy I was thinking of. That’s a gooder.

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I have this bike stand, had it for 4 or 5 years no with no complaints, so I guess YMMV.

I used it 5 times and the bolts mushed out. Maybe there are different factories putting them out. There are about a thousand sellers on Ruten selling the same-ish thing.

Back home I made a wall mounted stand in my garage very similar to this one.

After use I could fold back flush against the wall. I have thought about making one here and fit on apartment rear balcony. However my landlord’s apartment under mine, don’t think he’d like me drilling holes in the wall.

Another way using plastic t-pipe joiner for clamp.

I have done this several times and you just made me remember that I told myself to change the bearings next time, at least the one at the bottom, which is not a mess yet but doesn’t look great.

I believe the corrosion destroyed the bearings. The corrosion was not subtle…it was obviously salt and rust and looked nasty. I finally took it in when after a rainy ride I noticed some reddish water coming from where the bottom bearing and top tube would meet. The bottom bearing was much worse than the top. I probably had about 7,000kms on this bike since I got it in March 2022 but never got a full cleaning / bearing greasing last year.

The bearings would have been fine if I had cleaned the headset area in regular intervals. The issue for me is that I sweat a lot with exercise and and my body position on the bike makes it so that much of the time (in the drops or out of the saddle) the sweat drips right on the headset. So bike geometry / body position may play a role.

I’ll need to take some cues from this thread and add some more home maintenance skills to my tool box. I did watch him first remove the top cap and handlebar and it didn’t look too difficult. I will give a try probably in April.

The other week I had to change to a new tubeless tire w/ sealant and when it seated correctly I nearly broke my arm patting myself on the back.

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I didn’t quite think this through earlier. My bike is steel frame, that combined with presumably steel bearings isn’t going to be a victim of electrolysis, especially in the presence of sweat. (I don’t swear that much, but i’m not Prince Andrew) my bike has been underwater previously i’m fairly sure. I was a bit nervous about putting aluminium pedals on it.

Carbon fibre will rinse steel and aluminium components pretty quickly.

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