It’s a 1986 bike, snaps up or down. (Also I know my pedal on my mountain bike is snapped)

My old school steel frame Bianchi is currently at a sand blasting facility to strip all the paint off. My goal is to keep the raw steel look but try to make it as shiny and polished as possible. I know this will require A LOT of sanding with finer and finer grit. My question(s) are, has anyone done this before? What did the final product look like? What sandpaper grits, polishes, products, tools did you use for the job? Any and all advise/ pro tips are welcome. Can share photo update when it's been sandblasted.

Hey gang,

I picked up an old (late 90s) Raleigh Serengeti thats been sitting.

The shifters were completely gummed up, but came back with a disassembly and good cleaning.

The bike shifts well now, but the gears are completely unaligned.

Position #3 on the shifter window has the chain in granny gear and position #8 only gets it into the 2nd smallest cog.

Before I start adjusting the derailleur, I thought id ask the group if the (non replaceable) derailleur hanger looks bent.

If so, am I ok to bend it back in place, or will that just cause more problems?

Have an early 2000’s frame that came with the original seatpost clamp to the frame. I noticed that the way the collar sits, it’s very much design to be facing directly forward however then the clamp bits at the back would not be exactly aligned with the cutout on the frame. Is there a correct way to align these? Thanks!

Hi, long time viewer first time poster. Been toying with the idea of converting my 1x10 to have some more range and chucking some chainrings up front.
Here is my dilemma and why I haven’t bit the bullet yet:
On there right now is a 44T with I think 11-48 on the back, which gets me to and from work nicely but when I start to get some elevation the granny gear feels just a little too heavy when the bike is weighted with bags etc. I know the bike is about 10kg heavier so it will be harder to pedal uphill but will a 2/3x setup help with this or should I just save my time and money and put a smaller ring up front?
Thanks!

Hi everyone,

​I’m looking for some troubleshooting advice for my Giant Contend 3 (equipped with Shimano Claris drop-bar shifters).

​Recently, the left shifter (front derailleur) completely stopped working—the lever moves freely, but it doesn't engage or shift the chain at all. On top of that, the right shifter (rear derailleur) has gotten pretty clunky and sluggish, missing shifts or taking a while to react.

​Context: I got a full Performance Service done on the bike at Decathlon back in June. Everything was smooth for a few months, but these issues have popped up since then. Any ideas? I'd like to try and fix myself before going to a repair shop.

Only happens when pedalling. I got a brand new groupset put on less than a month ago and have developed this squeaking recently. I put on the (press fit) bottom bracket myself and lubed everything. I took off the lower jockey wheel and re-lubed it because it wasn't as loose/free spinning as the top one. The squeaking seems to be louder/more prevalent while in the smaller chainring.

https://imgur.com/a/jhPvjJF

Hi guys I tried to attach my skewer to a trainer and failed because it is not large enough to mount with the trainer. I am now having trouble actually putting the bike back to its original state. Attached are some pictures, i haven't been able to ride the bike as i couldn't figure this out and on both sides the frame is just not set with the skewer. Help!

I crashed my carbon road bike, and the frame got scratched pretty badly near the seat tube junction.

The damaged area feels hard to the touch. I can see some gray material underneath the paint, but I don't see any obvious exposed carbon fibers or cracks.

I'm trying to figure out whether this is just paint and clear coat damage or if the carbon structure itself could be compromised.

Based on these pictures, how serious does this look? Thanks

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to make my bike lighter, cleaner, and more comfortable for daily rides.

1. Removing extra weight:

I'm planning to remove the rear rack (the cargo carrier) and the rear fender/mudguard. Are there any specific tools or tips I should keep in mind, or any other unnecessary parts on this setup that I can remove to save more weight?

1. Brake Issue:

My disc brakes have very poor stopping power. The caliper isn't clamping down on the rotor firmly enough when I pull the lever. What steps should I take to diagnose and fix this? (e.g., cable tension adjustment, pad alignment, cleaning rotors/pads, or adjusting the fixed inner pad)?

La mia ebike ha iniziato a scricchiolare durante lo sforzo in salita dopo 2000 km. 3 meccanici, 360 euro e risultati solo momentanei. Motore bosch mandato a controllare. Tutti ingrassavano, ingrassavano, perni e piastre. E cuscinetti. Il rumore spariva bagnando il motore. La causa dopo 6 mesi? Non si deve ingrassare i punti di attrito dove il motore si ancora ma usare pasta grippante e frenafiletti. Ora è tutto ok, ma tre meccanici diversi, rinomati, non sono stati all'altezza di risolvere il problema. Spero sia d'aiuto.

Nexus 3 internals

I have a very low hour nexus 3 that seems to have sticky pawls. It sometimes freewheel fwd under load.

I don't want to try to understand the entire internal mech, so I bought a new in box nexus 3 on ebay

I (maybe foolishly) intended to just swap the guts from the new to the old. I do not want to re-lace the hub/wheel.

The new nexus 3 isn't a coaster brake model??? It lacks the external arm completely.

I thought all 3's were coasters. I have six different nexus 3 coaster equipped bikes at the moment, and had a few others in the past (one current bike has belt drive, but is still coaster brake)

Can I swap the guts from non coaster to coaster?

Maybe I should buy an exact match? If so, can I swap the guts from a new coaster to the old coaster?

I recently tried to restore my late grandfathers bike. I assume it’s 30 years old. It had been outside for 6 years without being ridden. I cleaned the rust as best I could, removed or replaced accessories, regreased what was needed, replaced cassette and chain, inner tubes and tires and brake pads.

Surprisingly it rides again! However, something is off with the rear wheel still. It makes a rolling noise/rumble when spun hard.

Is this obviously the bearings? What can I do to troubleshoot? What needs to happen to fix it?

Thanks in advance for your advise.

Hi all,

So I went downhills too fast and slid out to gravel shoulder as I made the left turn. Amazingly the bike was ok, except sand and grits got into the left shifter (ST-R8000). I blasted out the best that I could but the shift lever still felt gritty. What would be the best way to clean it thoroughly?

Thanks!

I have a wheel with a NON-ECCENTRIC White ENO hub that would be very handy to make eccentric. I swear a couple years ago there was an eccentric conversion kit to swap the axles to make it eccentric, but never bit the bullet to buy one due to international shipping and can now no longer find one. I did, however, grab a full eccentric hub at a great deal.

Does anyone know if you can swap out the axles from the two hubs or am I stuck building a new wheel if I want to run the eccentric? I’m struggling to find any such info anywhere. Thanks!

My situation is that my current rear cassette has a 36 tooth large cog on the cassette, which I find inadequate on long and steep climbs, with the 40 tooth chainring. I had bought the CUES 9-Speed shifter and derailleur together, and thought I would try a 1x 9 speed drivetrain. So, the most straightforward solution to me would be to swap out the cassette for something with a lower climbing gear. What would be the largest cog that the Cues derailleur could accommodate? Or should I just replace it and upgrade to the 11-speed drivetrain?

I switched my bars and when I took the brake lever off to switch to my other bars' brake, it spun around a bunch and now the wire is stuck in the lever. I've tried pulling super hard and it wouldn't come out. Any tips how I can fix this?

Inexperienced with forks - and having doubts about this 3-4mm gap at the fork crown.

Is the top of the fork a bearing seat? Do I need to tinker with the headset to get it to fit? Thanks in advance.

Hey mechanics!

I hope you can help me out.

I bought the BBB btl-73 this as my first real torque wrench for my home bike maintenance. But when resetting and it reaches the hard stop the micrometer shows 1. I would have thought this should be 0nm (which is a mark on the micrometer as well - it goes from 0nm - 0.5 - 1 -1.5 - 0nm). I wrote BBB which quickly replied that “the hard stop is equal to exactly 2nm. Then look at the ‘window‘ for main torque value and then when it’s ie. 4, then wind the knob 90 degrees to have 4.5 nm."

But if this is the case then the micrometer reads 1.5 When the torque is set to 4.5. This make the readings on the micrometer more confusing than useful. Am I missing something. I also read the manual like 5 times but it didn’t mention a thing.

Had my bike hooked up to the trainer the with no issue for the last few weeks, and went out for a morning ride which I cut short cause it was way too cold for me. Hooked it back up to the trainer and all of a sudden I have this annoying squeak / creak on the right side downstroke

So far I’ve taken out the seat post and cleaned and put new paste which did nothing. Took out and regreased pedals. Removed the cranks and putting them back and it still persists. Tried loosening the cranks and lo and behold it went away but I’m not gonna ride it with cranks torqued to < 20NM

Any ideas what it could be?