BIKE REPAIR: Our Epic Quest To Find & Silence Every Bicycle Noise!

Hello Spokespeople,
I hope your 2012 is off to an exciting start with fun rides and bike projects. I've kicked off the new year by updating my Keep It Quiet, Finding and Silencing Clicks, Squeaks, Clunks, Rattles and Other Annoying Noises webpage. This comprehensive encycleopedia of all those blasted bicycle noises that drive us nuts has grown and grown since I first made it live about 10 years ago.

Maybe the best bike noise webpage going
Today it's among my longest, most visited and most helpful webpages and I don't know of another resource like it online. You might want to bookmark it on your computer and mobile device for easy access the next time you're frustrated by a click, tick, pop or clunk on a ride.

And you helped
While I wrote this page and steadily add to it and improve it, many of the tips came/come from you, the readers. So I like to think of it as our page - sort of a low-tech wiki on quieting noisy bikes. You've provided some excellent bike noises and clever solutions for them. Please keep them coming and I'll continue adding them to the page and slowly but surely maybe we'll fix every ride-ruining noise!

3 great noise-busters from you
Here are a few helpful bike shutter-uppers that you sent in.

First is Josh Naylor's elegantly simple solution for a noise that a lot of cyclists pedaling to work and around town usually just try to ignore, figuring there's nothing they can do about it.

Rattle, rattle
Even if you realize where it's coming from you might just accept it as inevitable, since it's built into the design of your U-lock (and you've got to have a lock to prevent your bicycle being stolen so you're willing to put up with it). The crossbar fits loosely and as you ride over bumpy roads, the U-lock shakes and makes a loud, distracting rattling noise.

U-locks are often carried in mounts/brackets/holders attached to the frame where the lock rattles away over bumps. And they'll rattle worse if they're hanging on your handlebar or rack. Tuck them in a pack and they'll quiet down but that's not convenient for every rider.

Ingenious fix
Josh realized what was making the noise and came up with a nice fix: wrapping elastic bands around the ends of the U (photo). This looks simple but it's actually pretty ingenious engineering and an idea that the U-lock companies might want to consider. In essence, Josh added rubber ends to the U so that when the lock is closed the separate pieces are held apart and kept from moving by the way the rubber elastic bands compress and expand. It's a clever solution, quick to add to the lock and completely free. Thanks, Josh!

Creaking on every pedal stroke
The next one is from Chris Watkins of  Adelaide, South Australia who writes,
 
"My noise happened on every right pedal stroke - a creaking noise driving me and my riding buddies nuts. They could hear me 200 meters away! 

It only happened when I was sitting, not standing!!! Bloody annoying and it got worse as the bike "warmed up!!" It sounded like it came from the bottom bracket/seatpost area so I got that overhauled. $130 later the creaking was still there. I checked the seatpost, cleats, pedals and it did no good.


Finally, I tried removing the bolt in the seatstay/dropout intersection (photo) near the rear wheel axle (I ride a Fuji Team carbon road bike). I took it out, greased the bolt and mating surfaces, reassembled and tightened, and voila, no noise. I'll now do it again but use Locktite to ensure the bolt stays tight and my bike stays creak-free!"


Thanks, Chris! Your noise and solution provides one of the best tips when trying to find and quiet bicycle noises, which is to realize that they can travel and sound like they're coming from a completely different part of the bike. So don't be surprised if your first guess doesn't turn out to be the source and you have to keep looking.

Try to isolate the noise
There are a lot of basic tips for tracking down noises in the beginning of my webpage so be sure to read that part first. A super helpful one is a way to isolate the noise so you can be sure it's coming from the part of the bike you think it's coming from. For example, if you think it's from the rear wheel, to be sure, ask a friend if you can borrow their wheel, replace yours with theirs and see if the noise goes away. If it does, you can be pretty sure the noise is coming from your wheel and you only need to inspect the wheel to find and fix it.

A nifty tool for finding and fixing bike noises
Speaking of ways to isolate and find noise-causers, I'll close with this tool tip from Steve Bales (I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds very promising). Steve uses an inexpensive auto mechanic's stethoscope, resting its tip on the part he thinks is making the noise. If it is, it will sound off loud and clear. In this fashion he has found and fixed squeaking (from a dry derailleur pulley), clicking coming from the rear axle locknuts against the frame dropouts and ticking (from his seatpost). One of these stethoscopes might be a good tool to add to Your Home Bicycle Workshop.

Calling all suggestions
As helpful as my webpage is, I'm not entirely happy with it, though. And maybe you have some ideas how it can be improved. The problem is that, as it's gotten longer, with more and more noises and solutions, it's become an awfully lot to read. Yes you can always use your browser's search/find function and type in the component that you think is making the noise, or the word that describes the noise your bike is making.

But I keep thinking there has to be a better way to present this information to make it more readable, easier to find solutions and hopefully even more fun. Edward R. Tufte would probably be able to help. Seeing as how he's probably way too busy, feel free to offer suggestions and maybe together we can pump up the volume on our great online bike noise resource. Thanks for all the help so far.
Jim

BIKE REPAIR: The Penny Trick

Hope you're all getting ready for a fun New Year's celebration,

Here's a bicycle repair trick that I wrote about last week in my Jim's Tech Talk column. In case you missed it, here it is with wishes it comes in handy sometime in 2012. It has sure saved me some frustration and skinned knuckles over the years.

I didn't mention this in my column because I didn't remember until the other day, but the trivia on this nifty tip is that one of Santa Cruz's cycling visionaries, Ross Shafer taught it to me. He's the bike guru that created the company Salsa that you're probably familiar with. Great guy with an amazing bicycle background you can read up on.

Remove/install that part the easy way

With no further detours, here's Ross' Penny Trick - or how to outsmart ill-fitting parts (rather than them outsmarting you!

This trick is a cool way to deal with annoying fits, like a seatpost binder (the binder is the clamp built into the frame and used for tightening the seatpost) that’s so tight you’re afraid you’re going to scratch your pristine seatpost inserting or adjusting it, or a modern 2-bolt Shimano crankarm that’s stuck on the bottom bracket axle, tempting you to break out the big hammer and teach it some respect.

Don’t do it. Use this elegant trick. It works on single-bolt stems that are so tight you can barely get the handlebars in, too.

The photo shows the basic setup you want to achieve. It’s not possible with every component, but often you can remove the bolt(s), reverse one of them (see tip below) and thread it into the other side of the part. Just thread it in partway.

Then take a penny (or a dime if a penny is too thick - washers will work, too) and place it beneath the bolt to give the bolt something to push against. Make sure the edge of the penny doesn’t protrude to the inside or it will get in the way when you install/remove the component.

Now, by tightening the bolt little by little, it pushes on the penny and that opens the crankarm, stem or seat binder wider making a formerly impossibly tight part into an easy slip-on!

Tip: This is a little difficult to explain and with different components you’ll have to look at them and figure out whether it will work and how to make it work. Please study the photo to understand the principle. If there are 2 bolts, as on the Shimano crankarms, be sure to fully loosen or remove both bolts and don't drop and lose the little plastic keeper that's held by the inside bolt!

UPDATE January, 2012: Since writing this tip about the penny trick for installing tight-fitting bicycle components, Jan Heine of Bicycle Quarterly (one of my favorite magazines) has posted an excellent article on the penny trick (he uses a quarter or dime) for installing handlebars into stems. Yes, it's a no-brainer to put handlebars into modern road and mountain stems with removable faceplates. But the penny trick is for one-piece stems that are sized exactly right for the handlebar and can't be taken apart.

COLLECTIBLES: My head badges in Bicycling Magazine

Everyone,
Here's a quick scan of the artistic photo of a nice selection of badges from my collection, that San Francisco photographer Kevin Twomey took for the Jan/Feb Bicycling Magazine. It's not easy to get good photos of head badges and he took a winner here that I thought you'd enjoy seeing (I only wish my scan was better. I've asked Kevin if I can have a photo so I can improve the quality of this online version). I am always looking for interesting and historic badges so if you run across any in your travels be sure to let me know.

Happy Holidays!
Jim

This photo is much larger so be sure to zoom it

BIKE REPAIR: Bar Taping Continued

Thanks everyone for the great comments on handlebar taping. I had mentioned that there had to be a better way to finish the job than using boring, old electrical tape, and a reader going by camp6ell told me that bike guy Frank the Welder in Vermont had made some copper collars to put a custom finishing touch on one of his machines.

I contacted my friend Captain Dondo (Don Cuerdon) - another former Bicycling Magazine colleague. He lives in Vermont and hangs out at Frank's shop. And the result is that Frank sent me this photo showing his beautiful handiwork. Frank wrote: Here is a pic of the copper tape ferrules mentioned by Camp6ell. They are made of copper tubes drawn over progressive arbors to the final size. The tape is double cloth.

I would like to know how Frank's ferrules work, whether they slip over the bars and then are slid sideways to cover/finish the tape, or if they have a tightening mechanism of some sort. I love how they look. It makes sense to me that if the handlebar tape companies go to the trouble to make handlebar plugs with their logos on them and sometimes even nicer decorations, that they could also make much nicer tape "finishers" than the simple tape strips they provide (that rarely stick for long anyway).

Frank's are beautiful. I could see some made of polished, hammered aluminum, like the Honjo fenders sold by Jtensha studios. Or even ones made of sterling silver! The trick will be how to tighten them and how to make them removable and reusable - that shouldn't be too difficult. I might experiment and see what I can come up with but it's been years since I did silversmithing in high school and college. If you make some or know of anything like Frank's please link us to it or send a photo.

Here's to custom tape jobs that set your bicycle apart like Frank's!
Jim

Frank the Welder's custom tape-finishing copper collars

BIKE REPAIR: Not Gift Wrapping - Bar Wrapping

Happy weekend pedalers,
Lately I've been thinking about wrapping handlebars (much easier than wrapping gifts I think), and it's among the most frequent and fun maintenance tasks on road bikes - so it's a good skill to work on and get good at. I taught myself how to do it and then learned the "proper" method working at a Schwinn shop in 1973. We sold 1,000 Varsity 10-speeds a year and taped every one the same way: top of the bars to the bottom of the bars.

Top-to-bottom or vise versa
To explain, when wrapping drop handlebars you have a choice. You can start at the top of the handlebars or you can start at the bottoms - the ends of the bars. Today, it's almost an absolute that you wrap bottom-to-top. Because this overlaps the tape like roof shingles.

And just like a proper shingle job keeps rain from getting under the shingles, wrapping handlebars bottom to top prevents the natural downward pressure of your hands from rolling and peeling your tape.

This photo is borrowed from the awesome BikeCult site

What's funny is that we didn't see many problems wrapping all those Schwinns the wrong way back in the day (the Varsity tape was a sticky vinyl unlike most tapes today and that helped).

Plus, taping that way results in a super-clean look since there's nothing on the bars except bar tape. The ends of the tape get neatly tucked into the handlebar end caps that press in when you finish the job (also called plugs).

Speaking of handlebar plugs, here are some cool ones in Speedplay's Museum. It's too bad that you don't find stylish ones like these anymore.

Electrical tape is for electricians not bicycles
When you wrap the "right" way, bottom to top, you have to do something to secure the ends of the tape at the top. Tape comes with finishing strips, two adhesive pieces designed to be used for this purpose. But, it doesn't usually work very well. So most mechanics finish a tape job with plain old, rather boring electrical tape, albeit sometimes in a fancy fashion wrapping several different colors to provide a custom look.

A quick aside: In the BikeCult fancy tape photo above, the master taper avoids the issue of peeling, unraveling tape, and also the issue of having to finish the tape at the top by criss-crossing/weaving the tape on. This creates that wonderfully whimsical tape job but it takes some patience and skill to pull off. Note that they used cloth tape (great-feeling stuff if you've never ridden with it). You can also do it with non-padded thin plastic tape. We used to do it with Benotto.

Another trick to avoid finishing at the top is to wrap from the bottom to the brake lever and from the top to the brake lever and then hide the tape ends at the brake lever beneath the hoods. But that one's hard to do too and I've never mastered it.

Make it stand out or hide it

The white finishing tape almost disappears

Like most mechanics I finish my bar taping jobs with electrical tape. To me it's important to finish with a single-width wrapped twice around the bar with the end hidden on the bottom.

Sometimes I will use a narrow strip on top of the first full strip in a contrasting color to add style points. But only if the tape job and bike call out for it. Often it looks best if the electrical tape is the same color as the handlebar tape and blends in when you're done.

Still, finishing with electrical tape bothers me. It's made for wiring, not bicycles, after all. You buy it in a hardware store not a bike shop. Now, you can alternatively glue the end of the tape to itself to finish a tape job, but it's hard to do it and have it look nice. And if the glue lets go, the tape comes loose and unravels when you're riding, which is a pain. That's the same issue when you use the provided finishing strips.

I should also note that some people like having the electrical tape as finishing tape because they feel it gives them something to fix things with if they have a mechanical while out riding. It could be used to patch a tire cut or to tape a broken spoke so it doesn't thrash your bike as you wobble home and so on.

The Rivendell way
But I am still thinking about a better way. Along that vein, watch this nice video to check out how Rivendell's wrenches finish the cloth tape jobs on their sweet rides. (The video won't display if you're reading this in your email, so please click the link to my blog to watch it.)



I might experiment with this technique on my bar tape with a colored nylon or plastic thread/string. Another thought is to make small carbon (?) collars that you would slip over the bars and tighten. Maybe I'll pitch that idea to a bar tape maker someday - a nice logo'd clamp like that would be a touch of class and they could make nicer bar ends to go with it while they're at it!

In closing, if any of you are using Lizard Skins DSP tape in a light color and have figured out how to clean it, I would love to know your secret. I have tried everything from water to acetone, from degreaser to bleach, and I can't clean mine. It's nice tape with a unique sticky grip and decent cushioning but not being able to clean it is a problem when you have a thing for yellow and white tape like I do. To see a pro mechanic wrap Lizard Skins tape really fast, watch this video.

Have fun with your bike this weekend,
Jim

COOL BIKE TOOLS: Campagnolo Bicycle Stand

Good morning,
Today's bicycle eye candy is courtesy of Dale Brown of Cycles de Oro Bike Shop and the vintage road-bike online community Classic Rendezvous. Dale posted some excellent photos of Campy's rare Bicycle Assembly Stand, part #1102.

The only one I've ever seen is in their Catalogue n.17 and I've even heard people say they weren't sure Campy ever sold the stand to the general public. It's really nice to finally see one up close and personal and admire the details of the design and workmanship. There've been plenty of bottom-bracket style workstands, but something about the proportions of this one seem perfect. And I love that it has the identical finish to all of Campy's other fine tools and has their name on it, too.

If you spot one of these rare workstands in your travels and don't want it for yourself, do let me know about it as it's the proper complement to my Campagnolo Complete Tool Case.

Good luck with your bike projects today,
Jim

VIDEO: Inventions: The SkyRide!

I've offered a lot of basic holiday cycling gift ideas, but here's a video of a truly unique one if you've got a large backyard and a kingly budget - the SkyRide!

Kind of like those water tanks that let you swim in place, it lets you ride around a track in the sky (or row). It also has practical applications should the infrastructure ever get built. It seems to me that it may make more sense as a personal than public device - and it looks like fun.



Here's a link to the video: http://youtu.be/PLQ_6yJApRQ

And, here's kind of a similar invention, the 1892 Mount Holly and Smithfield Bicycle Railroad - proving once again that when it comes to bicycles it's hard to come up with something that hasn't been dreamed up in some form before.