Category: Maintenance
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International Twist Your Seatpost Day
Happy International Twist Your Seatpost Day to all who celebrate! And that should include everyone who has a seatpost. It’s very simple to play along: It’s important to do this on a regular basis — at least once a year — to avoid having the seatpost seize in the bicycle frame. Take it from someone…
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Catch-up potpourri
I’ve been quiet over the past couple of weeks as I’ve struggled with the aftermath of a self-inflicted mechanical, something that I really should know better than to have allowed to have happened. I was able to get home with no trouble, but when I hit a roadblock in sorting out the problem, I got…
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Dunning–Kruger effect
Last week, on the first ride for Kuroko since I started a sweeping round of maintenance in July, I thought the gears were making a bit of noise and the shifting was somewhat sluggish. I was nearly home before I discovered the issue: I’d routed the chain improperly through the rear derailleur cage. With rain…
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Breaking Bad
Today marked my second attempt to replace the front caliper for Kuroko following the hack job to unscrew the rounded bleed screw. I had no trouble returning the faulty caliper I’d installed a couple of weekends ago, and I received the replacement today, a day sooner than expected. Installing the new caliper and bleeding the…
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I’ve been told I’m cracked
Following the fight last weekend to release the bleed screw for Kuroko’s front brake, I rode the bike to the office on Monday. All seemed well at first except the front brake was pulsing: grabbing and releasing. This is often associated with a loose headset, and when I got to the office I had a…
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Splittin’ heads
It’s been seven weeks since I put new wheels, tires, cassette, chain, brake pads and disc rotors on Kuroko in one big maintenance session. After a huge fight to get the tires on the rims, the stopping point in the end was the front brake caliper, which wouldn’t expand enough to allow the wheel to…
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Hijacking José’s bike
The youngster and I are leaving first thing Saturday morning for a group ride (psst! Tour de Tohoku), so he told me earlier this week he’d be bringing over the bicycle beforehand, saving him the hassle of an early morning ride / ride on the train with the bike in a bag on Saturday. I…
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Almost ready to ride
After last weekend’s failure to get the rear tire mounted, which resulted in the shredding of the rim logo, I had a break to rest and think about next steps. I’ve seen some mention of the Tyre Glider recently, and after watching a video demonstration, decided to give it a try. I had to first…
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Jumping Through Hoops
I’ve been holding off on some much-needed maintenance on Kuroko while I completed Hornsby. At last I can get started on this project, aided by the fact it’s too hot to ride. The following are all slated for replacement, more or less in order of urgency: I’ve known the brakes (front in particular) have been…