Interbike 08 bike show report

Folks - Here's the Interbike report I promised earlier. To explain - in my 9-to-5 job I work for SmartEtailing, a company that provides a website service for bicycle retailers. We were at Interbike to report on the show so that our clients would have coverage on their websites. I'd like to thank ace reporters Will Calkins, Russell Eich, Keith Jennings and Shaine Smith for help with the story. The photo of Lance from the Cross Vegas race should whet your appetite. Here's the link to the full story. Questions? Feel free to ask and I'll see if I can point you in the right direction.

Q&A: clipless concerns; crankset removal; crunched dropout; stuck pedals

Soon, I'll report more from the Interbike bike show I attended last week.
But first, here are some of the latest tech Q & A's that have come in:

Q: Hello there,
I do hope that you can help. I am a fairly new commuter cyclist (6 months)
and am really enjoying it. I just purchased a pair of cleated shoes for my
clipless pedals (today), and am frankly a little daunted. I've been out
practicing and I'm not too fussed about stopping. What does concern me is
pedaling off from a stationary position. It is almost like I need something
to hold onto so that I can get both feet clipped on!

Any advice? Many thanks,
Dan

A: Hi Dan,
My advice is to practice while you're standing on a grassy field. Don't
ride. Just click in and click out, over and over and over and over. You need
to train your feet how to get in and the only good way to do it is while
you're standing still on a nice, soft grassy surface. I would say about 100
times in and out with each foot should do it. You're training your muscle
memory to know what to do.

Also, be sure that your pedals are adjusted to be loose. Most clipless
pedals have tension adjustments. These come from the factory pretty tight.
By loosening them you can make it significantly easier to click in and out
of the pedals. If you're not sure how to do this, look for small Allen bolts
near the jaws of the pedals. Typically, you'll turn these bolts
counterclockwise in 1/2 turn increments to loosen the tension adjustment and
make it easier to get in and out.

But, it really helps to practice, practice and practice some more and the
best way to do it is over and over while you're standing in one spot. Keep
working on it until you can do it super easily and without looking down,
either. And then, practice on that same grassy, safe surface getting on and
off the bike for real.

With practice it will become very easy, natural and safe.

Hope this helps!
Jim
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Q: Jim,
Do you sell a crank removal tool for a 1995 or 1996 (year purchased)
Crestline tandem bike. The ID of the threaded crank hole is 0.623 inches or
15.82 mm and the thread pitch is either 27 or 28. The cranks have never been
taken off and I want to repack the bearings. I've tried a three-finger gear
removal tool and got one crank (without sprocket), but so far the one with
sprocket has resisted. I've been soaking the joint with PB blaster. The
drive shaft is 0.514 inches between flats or 13.05 mm, and the shaft end is
threaded for a nut.

Thanks,
Art

A: I'm afraid I'm not sure what a Crestline bike is, but you probably need a
standard crankarm removal tool, like the ones Park tool makes. Here's a
link:
http://www.parktool.com/products/detail.asp?cat=26&item=CCP%2D2

This is for removing standard square-taper crankarms. On these, there's a
square tapered hole in the crankarm and the bottom bracket axle has square
tapers on the ends. To remove, you remove the nuts on the threaded ends of
the bottom bracket axle, insert the tool and screw in the plunger that
presses on the bottom bracket axle and allows the crankarm puller tool to
pull the crankarm off the axle.

If you don't want to buy a tool, an easier way to get the crankarm off is to
loosen the crankarm nut and then ride around the block a few times. Without
the nut holding the crankarm on there the arm will gradually work loose
because it's on a taper, basically an inclined plane. Pretty quickly, the
friction will break and the crankarm will slide down the taper and be loose
enough to remove. But, do NOT ride with any pressure once the crankarm
loosens. Stop and walk home. If you pedal on a loose crankarm, the hard
steel of the axle will bite into the soft aluminum of the arm and can ruin
it.

That should do it,
Jim
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Q: Hi Jim,
I recently received a new Surly Crosscheck frame (chromoly) which I'm
building up. I tried installing the rear wheel today and was surprised to
find that the axle wouldn't slide into the derailleur side dropout. A quick
inspection showed the dropout 'pinched' to a more closed position
(approximately 1mm smaller). Can I fix this myself? bring it to a shop? Is
the dropout finished?

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks
Joel

A: Hi Joel,
It sounds like your frame got dropped somehow and landed on that dropout and
it got squished - a very common accident. To fix it, take a large
screwdriver. It needs to be about a foot long and with a sturdy flat blade.
Hold the screwdriver parallel to the dropout and place the blade fully into
the dropout. Pull down to lever the dropout that extra mm open until it's
back where it was. Metal has memory so it should go back almost perfectly
with one somewhat gentle pull with the screwdriver. You can make a cardboard
"feeler" gauge to check your work and make sure the dropouts are the same or
you can sight across them and eyeball it to make sure the bottom edges are
parallel. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it will probably be very close
once you get it back where it was.

This shouldn't weaken the dropout very much. It's a common accident and a
common repair and I've never had a dropout break after fixing one this way.

Good luck,
Jim
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Q: Hi,
I have an bike from the late 70s and the pedals are stuck on the cranks.
I've tried my best pushing on the opposite crank and the pedal wrench (both
about horizontal) to no avail. I've squirted some WD-40 in there in hopes of
loosening them. Also, to no avail. I've checked and double checked that I'm
trying to loosen them in the correct direction. It's a Sugino Maxy crank and
Lyotard pedals. The pedals only have the flats at the base. No Allen key on
the inside.

Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Joe

A: Hi Joe,
I have a page on pedals with lots of tips on removal, on my site at this
link: http://www.jimlangley.net/wrench/pedalbasics.html

But, to save you the time of having to read the page, you might try taking a
propane torch to the crankarms and heating them up a bit. Also, I know you
said you're turning the pedals the correct direction, but since turning them
the wrong way is the most common reason they're hard to take off, be sure
you're turning both pedals towards the BACK of the bike to loosen them.
Heating the crankarms, too, should loosen the pedals and make them easier to
remove. Keep in mind that you need a decent amount of leverage to loosen
them. If you're using a short or weak or thin wrench, it can be almost
impossible. I use a proper pedal wrench that's about a foot long. If you
don't have something like that, you can use a cheater bar, like a pipe, over
a regular wrench, too. But, heating the aluminum crankarms will make them
expand slightly and should ease removal, too.

Hope this helps. If you simply can't get them off, you could ask a shop for
help. They'll probably charge you about $5 to remove the pedals. They might
even do it for free.
Jim
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NEWSWIRE: Lance returns, Interbike looms

The big news this week is Lance's return to the Tour de France, a story so huge you probably already know all about it. If not, there's a major feature story on it on Vanity Fair's site here. For we Santa Cruzans this means The Legend will finally be pedaling into our bike-crazy city since his first race will be the Amgen Tour of California, and one of the early stages ends here. Yay! Whether he wins or loses the Tour, Lance's return to racing will also be huge for cycling in general and should boost cancer-fighting efforts, too, both great things.

The other exciting news is that show season has arrived with Eurobike in progress and Interbike commencing September 22 in Las Vegas where we'll spend the week in two-wheel heaven. You can follow the fun at VeloNews and MTBR. Look for stories, photos and videos as the shows happen. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak of one product I hope to see there, Yuba's Mundo utility bike. It might be just the thing to get you out of your car - or even your truck - more often thanks to its ability to carry long, large and heavy loads - and even passengers. Look at the stretch frame and built-in rear platform and you can see how this is possible. These clever work bikes are already changing lives around the world and there are other designs like this, too, such as the Xtracycle and the Worksman industrial bikes and trikes. Fun stuff!

Q&A: Correction - Mavic Tech Site login

Sorry everyone, and thanks for letting me know about the mistake - the correct login for Mavic's tech site where you'll find manuals and repair instructions for most of Mavic's wheels and components is as follows: Go to the URL http://www.tech-mavic.com For the Login use mavic-com And, for the password, use dealer

That'll do it! Ride safe out there,
Jim

Q&A: Binding Mavic Ksyrium cassette

Q: Jim - The cassette on my Mavic Ksyrium rear wheel is binding. I first noticed this by seeing that if I spun the rear wheel by hand, every now and then the chain would suddenly start being driven by the rear wheel and the pedals would turn - almost like on a fixie bike with only one gear and no coasting feature. At first it only did this once in a while, but now it's binding all the time and when I am riding the cassette tries to turn with the wheel and this creates slack in the chain and I bet additional friction at the wheel that's slowing me down! Not good on what are supposed to be my fast wheels. What do you think is wrong, and do I have to return my wheel to Mavic for service, or is this something I can fix myself?

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Lloyd

A: Hi Lloyd,

The likely problem is lack of lubrication, or some grease that has gotten congealed and is now sticky instead of slippery, right where the cassette attaches to the hub. There are cartridge sealed bearings inside and also seals. All these things need to be nicely lubed for the cassette to spin freely and not bind or drive the chain forward. I recommend visiting Mavic's tech website at http://www.tech-mavic.com/, login "mavic-com" and password "dealer" (do not include the quote marks)

Here you'll find manuals for all Mavic products going back years, and instructions for your specific wheel (like the diagram above). Assuming you have a few basic tools (you'll probably need a 5 and 10mm Allen wrench and a way to hold the axle, such as an axle vise - or home-made version) and a little mechanical ability you should be able to fix this problem yourself by following the directions.

For a sticky cassette, you would disassemble the hub by removing the axle with Allen wrenches and then carefully pulling off the cassette (don't drop/lose the pawl springs!). This reveals the bearings and seals and you can check the grease inside and clean and lube as necessary. Use a light and safe oil (it mustn't attack rubber or plastic) on any seals because if they're dry they can cause the binding. Then reassemble the hub and you should be good to go. Or, if you'd rather let a professional handle it, any shop that sells Mavic wheels should be able to service yours for a reasonable fee.

Happy hub and cassette repairing!

Jim

Q&A: 3-speed cable; installing bottle cages on old steel frames

Q: Saw your site online,
I have what looks like a an old Raleigh 3-speed, which my wife likes very much. I just bought a basket for her and while putting it on decided to see if I could fix her shifter. The bike was only shifting to 2 instead of 3 gears. I tried adjusting the cable, which broke, naturally. Now I'm trying to find anywhere where I can buy a new one. Any help with this will be immensely appreciated and I will forever be indebted to you.
Imploringly yours,
John

A: Hi John,
First, you should call local bike shops as this is a relatively common replacement part if they do a lot of repairs. If the bike shops don't have one, you might next try a few departments stores, which often have bike sections and sometimes even stock replacement 3-speed cables. If both those ideas don't pan out, you can order one online from http://www.bicycletoolsetc.com/
Just use their search box up top and search on the word "Sturmey" and the cables should come right up.

Also, you didn't tell me how the cable broke, but if it broke in the middle, you can usually tie it back together, or add a piece between the broken ends, as a workaround until you get the new cable. Most British 3-speeds have clips on the frame that you can move down to essentially create slack in the cable so you can tie broken ends together. But this trick won't work if it broke at the head inside the lever.

And, to adjust the cable properly, the best way to do it is to shift the bike into the easiest gear, which is first. The lever will be all the way down. In this position there should be very little play in the cable. Also, before you attach the cable, be sure the indicator rod (the piece screwed into the Sturmey-Archer hub; photo by Sheldon Brown) is screwed all the way in and then backed off slightly if needed to align correctly with the cable. Also, it's a good idea to grease the cable where it runs inside housing and under or over pulleys. And, when the cable is adjusted correctly and the bike is shifting properly use 2 pairs of pliers to lock the cable adjustment by tightening the knurled lockring on the indicator against the end of the cable. That way you won't lose your adjustment over time.

You can learn lots more about adjusting Sturmey-Archer 3-speed on Sheldon Brown's awesome website here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer.html

Hope this gets you going,
Jim
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Q: Several of my friends and myself with old-school 70's steel frames(Reynolds 531 DB, etc) are thinking about getting water-bottle fittings installed. The local shops want to drill a hole in our frame tubes (down- or bottom-tube) and insert a pop-rivet nut. That meets our need but we're all worried about putting holes in our old, thin-wall tubing.

Any ideas, anecdotes?
...0ran....

A: Good question, Oran. If you look back at quality steel road bikes made before around 1970, you'll see that very few framebuilders ever installed braze-on water-bottle bosses on the frames. Instead they insisted that you put clamps on the tubes to hold your bottle cage on. This looked ugly, but the framebuilders said that if you drilled holes in the frame tubes it would cause them to break. (It's usually not a good idea to drill holes in structural frame members like bicycle tubes because the stresses of riding can gradually work on the edges of the hole and create shear points and over time you can have cracking or tube breaks that start at that hole, the weakest point in the tube.) It's important to understand that butted steel tubes are weakest in the center of the tubes, which is exactly where you drill the holes for the bottle braze-ons. Here, a quality steel frame tube could be less than .5mm thick.

Slowly the concern over the tubes breaking changed, though, and by the mid to late seventies most steel bikes came with bottle bosses brazed onto the frames, usually on the down tube only, but later on both the down and seat tubes, and then even later, also beneath the down tube on touring bikes (usually used to carry fuel for your stove). The reason this happened was because the braze-ons used and the installation of them addressed the issue of the holes weakening the thin-wall tubing.

The braze-ons were designed to reinforce the tube at the hole. Most were threaded inserts with a reinforcing rings or tabs that rested against the tube and when the braze-on was brass or silver soldered in place, it actually doubled, or more than doubled the thickness of the frame tubing at the hole making it plenty strong. This is the key reason they worked: they reinforced the tube and they were soldered in place.

That gives you some background. Rivet-type bottle bosses came along with aluminum bikes and they usually work fine on them, but I'm not sure I'd trust them on a nice old steel frame. I'm sure they would work for a while and maybe forever if you don't ride that far or all that hard. But, I'd worry that since they aren't actually brazed to the frame, that the holes in the frame could develop stress cracks over time, which could travel outward and into the tube. I've just seen too many broken steel frames from cracks like this, so I'd worry about it. If it was a heavy-duty steel frame it might work fine. But, a nice Reynolds double-butted frame has thin, thin tubing.

I'd recommend having a local framebuilder braze some bottle bosses on for you instead, or going low-tech and just using boring old bottle-cage clamps. The only drawback to having bottle braze-ons installed is needing to repaint the frame at the braze-ons. (Some people just touch it up with primer and don't worry about the looks - or, if you're good with painting, you might be able to match the original paint finish pretty closely and almost make the bottle braze-ons disappear.) But, you'd at least have a permanent high-quality job that you could rely on - and your frame wouldn't break.

I hope this helps and thanks for keeping those classic bikes on the road, Jim
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RECALL NOTICE: Cervelo Wolf SL fork

Folks - If you ride a Cervelo bicycle that's equipped with a Wolf SL fork
made by True Temper Sports (I do), please stop riding it immediately and
bring it to your bicycle dealer for replacement. The Wolf SL fork has been
recalled due to several reported failures leading to crashes and injuries.
Cervelo says, "The recalled forks have a clear coating over black-painted
carbon fiber, with the words "Wolf Superlite" and related logo just below
the crown on each fork leg, and the words "SL" on each leg above the fork
blade dropouts. There is a True Temper CRTMC logo on the inside of both fork
legs. The recalled forks could have been included on the following bicycle
models: R3, R3 SL, Soloist Carbon, Soloist Carbon SL, and certain P3 Carbon
framesets and complete bicycles."

Here's a link to Cervelo's recall page, which has photos and more:
http://www.cervelo.com/wolfslrecall/default.aspx?lang=en
Here's a link to the BikeBiz blog that has links to some examples of broken
Wolf forks with photos:
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/29731/Cervlo-alone-recalls-third-party-fork