Working on the bikes.

A couple of weeks back I went into the bike shop where I typically have my work done. I certainly don’t go often, so it’s not like they know me. I’ve just been happy with the work they’ve done for me so I just kept going back.

This time I had a few easy things I wanted done. Replace the rear derailleur cable on both of our bikes and the rear brake cable. The housing may need to be changed on the brake cable.

As he was writing up the work order, he says “Alright so a tune up and a couple cables for each bike”.

“Tune Up? What is involved with that?”

“Oh we clean the chain, true the wheels… that type of stuff”

“And how much is that going to cost?”

“$70 per bike”

“Right, well that is unnecessary. In fact make a note that I don’t want to you make any adjustments to the Front Derailleurs as mine can be problematic and it’s working great right now”

“So just the cables”

“Right”

“Well since you are just having cables done, I won’t be able to get to your bike until a week from…”

“Nevermind.”

“What?”

“I’d like to buy 2 derailleur cables and a brake cable, I’ll do it myself.”

“Alright, it’s just that we are really busy. There are only 2 of us”

“Not a problem”

So I leave with 3 cables costing me less than $15.

The thing is, I’ve never replaced the cables on my bike myself. I’m fairly certain that I could do it, but when I do something like this, I like to know all the details.

This is where I’m should be posting links to all the great videos on youtube showing how it’s done. Well, I didn’t look very long but I never found anything that was very good.

I’ve got a bike maintenance book but it didn’t have anything for bar end shifters…

The good news is we were headed to our hometown for a week off. I decided the best plan would be to go to the shop there to get some help. I might even be able to go in and do the work and have them give me pointers along the way. Except that it’s race week, so they are going to be busy. I stopped in anyway. I explained that I wanted to try to do the work myself but needed a backup plan in case I ran into trouble. They scheduled me in to drop by so they could check my work. Perfect!

I started by taking apart the shifter on my bike. (If I’m going to make mistakes, I’d feel better if it was on my bike and not Genine’s) Of course when I pull it apart, pieces have to fall out… I suppose the good thing is that I’ve now seen the entire shifter apart and I was able to put everything back into place. I then sent the new cable through and tightened it into place… a couple times until I got it in the right place.

Next the brake cable: I ran the new cable through and noticed it was still slow to release. So the problem was with the housing. The housing was catching, right where it enters the brake. Trimming off a small bit of that housing fixed that problem. The only other problem was that the cable end at the brake lever wasn’t the right shape. So I was going to have to buy another cable and run it again.

Now to Genine’s bike: I had to swap her rear derailleur cable as well. It was going to go easier than mine. Because once I had the shifter all pulled apart on mine, I realized that you don’t have to take the shifter apart to change the cable! Just shift into the smallest cog, release the cable from the RD. I cut it because it was so frayed and didn’t want to damage the housing when I pulled it through. Then just send the new cable through the front of the shifter.

Then her brake cable: It was also just a housing issue. A quick trim and she was back in business.

Next I headed to the bike shop to have them check the indexing and to get a few pointers.

My bike was up first.

First he swapped out my brake cable for the right barrel end. Then he checked out the rear derailleur. I had the indexing set well. The only part I missed was to “center” the barrel adjuster before tightening the cable down. This would assure me that I’d have adjustment in both directions.

As he was checking the indexing he noticed that the chain line was bad. This had been pointed out to me at 2 other bike shops in the past, but no solution was ever offered. I always figured the previous owner obviously crashed the bike badly, seeing how it had been repainted and the original derailleur was not on the bike. Well today, they pulled out a derailleur hanger adjustment tool and went about bending the hanger/frame back into alignment. It probably took less than 2 minutes. My guess is my chain catcher isn’t going to see much action now. (not that you can ever tell when the chain hits it). Good as new! He did warn me that bending the frame is trickier/more dangerous than adjusting a removable derailleur hanger.

Then Genine’s bike: Quick brake cable adjustment. Indexing looked good other than I didn’t center the barrel.  It was good to go.

I talked with him briefly about the squealing brake issue I’ve been having since I’ve put new brake pads on. He showed me how the front of the pad should hit should touch first at a very slight angle. It might be that I’ll have to take some sand paper to the one pad.

Total cost in parts + what they charged me to take a look at my work. Less than $40.  Money well spent seeing how I now know how to cable our Tri Bikes. 

The one tool I need to buy is a decent cable cutter. The cutters I have in my toolbox will be destroyed if I continue to try and cut bike cables with them. They can barely cut the cables. The money I saved will go towards buying this tool.

I also put new bar wrap on my bike. Yellow Lizardskins. I’ll admit that my cutting of the wrap wasn’t too fantastic but I can hide that under the tape. I'll revisit that step again when I have some time. I think my bike is going to be in better shape than I am at Timberman. Ha ha!