So sex sells right? The mantra of many an advertising executive, and i'm going to use it as an excuse to start the "Weekly Hot Girl on a Bicycle". Read on for an in depth analysis of this picture where I make a lot of outrageous assumptions. Play the embedded song by Ra Ra Riot while you read for the full experience.
How to replace a bike tube, no hassles. In this vid we are dealing with a presta valve, but it also works with schroeder valves.
You will need some tire levers which you can pick up for a few bucks at any bike shop and a bike pump, you don't need an air compressor. First thing you have to do is get a flat tire, could happen at any time, preferably it's not too inconvenient.
After the flat: If you use presta valve tubes, remove the lock ring. If schrader then no lock ring. Release any air remaining in the tube, probably none or not much left if you had a flat. Use the tire levers to separate the tires bead from the rim. The bead is the wire that goes through the side of the tire and the hook is on the rim and the bead sits under it. Once separated, place two tire levers under the bead and pry them up so the tire releases from the rim. Take one lever and slide it around the edge of rim separating the tire from the rim. Reach in and pull out the tube. You do not have to remove the tire from the rim. If all you are doing is replacing the tube leave the tire on.
QuickTip: Match up the logo on your tire with the valve hole on the rim, this will allow you to quickly identify where the hole in the tube is and what caused it by giving you a point of reference.
Replacing the Tube: Pump a small amount of air into the tube with a bike pump. This helps you place the tube back under the tire without twisting it. The small amount of air helps the tube keep its shape. Once back on the rim, release the air. Then beginning at the valve work the bead back onto the hook of the rim. The last bit is the hardest, so use the tire lever to wedge the bead of the tire onto the rim. Be careful not to catch the tube with lever or you could be doing this all over again. If you were using a presta valve reattach the lock ring, don't lock it down too tight, you never want it pulling on the valve or it could cause a flat. Fill up the tire to the specified psi with a bike pump. And last put the cap on.
In this vid Mike shows how to use a dishing wheel to make sure your bicycle wheel is properly dished.
A typical dishing tool is simply a gauge that allows you to set the distance from the rim to the hub axel, and then compare those distances on the drive-side and non-drive side of the wheel. Or in the case of a front wheel, just one side to the other.
So set the distance on the drive side and flip the wheel over. If you have a gap where the dishing tool center does not touch the hub you need to pull the rim away from that side of the wheel, by tightening the spokes on the opposite side and loosening the spokes on the current side.
Quick Tip: Always start with only a quarter turn and beginning from the valve hole on the rim as a reference point.
If the gap is between the dishing tool arms and the rim, you need to pull the rim toward that side of the wheel by tightening the spokes on that side, and loosening the spokes on the opposite side.
A properly dished wheel is centered over its hub. When centered, the rim is known to be laterally (side to side) true. If the dishing tool finds one side of the hub to be further from the rim than the other it will be necessary to tighten the spokes on that side of the wheel and hub and loosen the spokes on the other. You will need a dishing tool, spoke wrench and some kind of truing stand or device (also can use front fork) Ride on amigos.
In this tutorial we show you how to lace the drive side spokes of a rear bicycle wheel. It's important to remember that on the rear wheel the drive side spokes are slightly shorter than the non-drive side, due to the dish of the wheel. You should also prep your spokes with linseed oil or spoke prep before lacing.
At this point we have assembled everything need to start lacing the spokes onto the rear wheel. Our drive-side and non-drive side have been prepped in two different colors to help us note that they are different lengths.
The first step is to lace through the drive side of the hub, doing "outies" every other hole. "Outies" means pushing the spokes through the hub towards the outer edge of the hub flange.
The initial location of the hub in relation to the rim is critical in order to maintain the lacing pattern. If the hub has a logo, ideally the valve hole of the rim will line up with logo, so when you look through the valve hole, you will be looking down onto the hubs logo. This doesn't necessarily affect the performance of the wheel, but does show a high level of professionalism, which is always good, unless you are totally immature like me....
Most rims are drilled with offset holes, so that each hole is angled slightly toward one side or the other. To place the first spoke you find the valve hole and then use the whichever adjacent hole is drilled towards the flange you just dropped the spokes through. After placing the first spoke, skip three holes moving away from the valve hole and place the next spoke. Do this for the rest of the spokes, until you have placed the first eight. Remember to check the spokes to make sure they are all in rim holes that are angled to the correct side of the hub.
You want to make sure that the two spokes adjacent to the valve hole run parallel to each other so you can get the the valve with a pump. To make that happen you rotate the hub to "pre-load" the spokes, by rotating the hub away from the valve hole.
The next set of spokes you lace are also on the drive sidea and will be "innies" or laced going towards the inside of the hub. Just fill up all the remaining holes with spokes.
So, now we have the first set of eight spokes laced in with the hub rotated away from the valve hole. The next step is to lace the second set of drive side spokes "under, under, over" and into the corresonding rim hole. It will be apparent where to place the spoke once you begin lacing. The length of the spoke will guide you to the correct hole, which will be directly in between two of the first set of spokes that were laced.
If this is you first wheel it is a good idea to grab another wheel to take a look at the patter. If you are working with a deep section rim, such as a Velocity Deep-V, you will have to use a little trick where you thread a nipple a few turns onto a "feeder spoke", which is just a normal spoke use to feed the nipple into the rim and onto the actual spoke being laced. With deep rims, you can't drop the nipples in or you might lose them, and you NEVER want to lose your nipples. If your rim is eyeleted then you don't need to worry about it, unless you are really careless.
If you have a new rim, shake it around a little and see if you can shake any shrapnel remnants out of the rim.
Mike finishes up lacing the 32 spoke rear wheel by lacing the non-drive side spokes. Note the parallel spokes that connect on each side of the valve hole. By now you might need to use a spoke wrench, screwdriver or nipple driver to help get the nipples on the spokes.
At this point, there is spoke in every other hole in the rim. All the exposed holes should be facing the non-drive side of the rim. When lacing the non-drive side, start with the "Innies" or spokes laced toward the inside of the hub. These spokes will be laced into the larger gap created by the laced spokes.The gap acts as self fulfilling prophecy, only allowing spokes that are inserted into the correct holes to make it into the large gap. Placing the spokes in the large gap allows you to actually move the spoke and guide it to the correct hole on the rim.
Now that we have laced the 3rd set of eight spokes as innies on the non-drive side of the hub we need to locate the valve hole on the rim and the existing laced spoke next to the valve hole. You follow that spoke up to the hub, then select the spoke on the non-drive side that is opposite where the drive-side valve spoke connects to the hub. Once you find the opposite spoke, lace that spoke to the remaining empty hole next to the valve stem hole. This will create the gap between the spokes at the valve hole to allow for easy pump access to the valve.
Now the wheel starts to take shape, and you can use a nipple driver, spoke wrench or screw driver to start threading the nipples on. A screw driver works great for getting the nipples started, but you will need a spoke wrench once the spokes are threaded all the way into the nipples. So we continue with our pattern of lacing every fourth hole, or skipping three from where the first spoke was placed. After finishing that set, place the last set of spokes as "outies". Hopefully it is obvious where they go. If it isn't you might have done something wrong. You simple drop these spokes into the remaining holes on the non-drive side of the hub. Lace the last eight spokes "three-cross" going "over, over, under" the spokes that have already been laced. Make sure not to scratch your rim.
Check to make sure that you have parallel spokes at the valve hole and that all your spokes are going "over, over, under"! If you forget to go under and the spokes do not touch, it will weaken the wheel. When the spokes touch it strengthens the wheel. The last step is to true the wheel.
A vital step in bicycle wheel building is prepping the spokes with some kind of spoke prep.
There are two reasons to prep spokes:
You can use prep that is manufactured specifically for wheel building or Linseed Oil. They both work well.
When building a rear wheel where spoke lengths differ, it's important not to mix the spokes. For this reason, Wheelsmith Spokeprep comes as two colors spoke prep. You use one color for the drive side spokes and the other for the non-drive, which helsp keep them separate when you lace the wheel.
Linseed Oil can be found at a local hardware store or Art shop (its used to thin oil paints). The point of spoke prep is to provide some lubrication when lacing and truing the wheel and then to act as a bit of a thread-lock to keep spokes from easily loosening.
Whith spokeprep it's important to not use too much. Dip it just to the threads and then roll the excess off.
In this wheel building tutorial we build a 32 spoke rear 700C rear road wheel.
In this first video we will determine the spokes length we need to build the wheel. First select your hub and rim. We selected a 32 hole Mavic Open Pro and a Specialzed S-Works 32 hole hub. The most common method of determining spoke length in the age of the internets is to head to an online spoke calculator. In this tutorial we will be using United Bicycle Institute's (UBI) spoke calculator. (Wouldn't want to be a Divided Bicycle Institute!)
In order to deterimine the spoke length the factors you need to know are:
1. Wheel or Tire Size: (Road wheels are typically 700c, Mountain 26") In this case we're building a 700C road wheel.
2. ERD (Effective Rim Diameter): This is either posted on the rim itself, brands like Velocity and others have a sticker on the rim that will tell you the ERD. Most quality rims have this. Unfortunately Mavic does not, but usually its online somewhere.
3. Hub Flange Diameter: This is the measurement of the hub between two holes directly opposite each other on the hub flange. Measure from the middle of the hole to middle of the opposite hole. This is where a caliper can be really helpful.
Since we are building a rear wheel, the dish of the wheel becomes a factor. A rear bike wheel is "dished" because the space the cassette takes up on one side of the hub causes the hub flanges to not be centered. Therefore, the spokes on the drive side of the wheel are shorter than on the non-drive side.
On a front wheel the spokes are the same length on both sides since the hub flanges are centered, also some rear flip flop, single speed and track hubs centered hub flanges so no need for dish.
4. Hub Center to Flange: This is determined by measuring the hub lengthwise between the outside face of the two locknuts (where the hub contacts the frame drop out). Don't measure from the edge of the axel. See picture. Once this length is determined, divide it by two to get the absolute center of the hub. Once you have the center, measure from that point to the the hub flange of the non-drive side of the hub and the drive side. To determine the non-drive spoke length enter the distance from hub center to non-drive flange center, and vice versa for the drive side.
5. Hub Spoke Hole Diameter: This is the diameter of the actual spoke holes in the hub flange. On the UBI calculator it alls to 2.5 mm, which works fine for most hubs.
6. Number of Spokes in the Wheel: This is the total number of spokes in the wheel, even if you are calculating spoke lengths for only one side of the wheel.
7. Cross Pattern: This is the number of times a spoke crosses another spoke during its travel from the hub to the rim. More crosses creates longer, more tangential spokes and a more torsionally efficient wheel. Less crosses require a shorter spoke, but it is less torsionally efficient. Basically the hub is better at resisting twist caused by the torque force applied by either the cassette or a disk brake. For this reason, more torsional wheels, like rear wheels and disk brake wheels use 3 and 4 cross. We will be doing the basic 3-cross pattern, which is most common.
Radial wheels (0 cross) should only be used in non-torsional applications, basically only non-disk brake front wheels.
Once you have entered all this information, calculate the spoke length. For a rear wheel do this twice, once for the drive side spokes and once for the non drive side, entering a different Hub Center to Flange Center for each calculation. Round up or down to the nearest millimeter.
After determining the spoke lengths, then you need to either cut and thread spokes to the correct length or go to the local bike shop and get them done. If you want cut and prep the spokes yourself watch the Hozan spoke threading machine tutorial and then the spoke prepping tutorial.
For the 32 hole rear wheel you will need 18 spokes of a certain size for the drive side and 18 spokes of a certain size for the non-drive side. To get these spokes you can either purchase spoke blanks, or cut them and thread them yourself with the Hozan Spoke Threading Machine. In this video we'll demonstrate how to do that using 310mm spoke blanks.
After setting up the Hozan and marking your spokes, all you need to do is clamp your spoke into the Hozan and start turning the lever. The Hozan has a "tap" that forces the threads into the spoke in a process similar to cold forging. This is better than actually removing material, which would weaken the spokes. As you thread the spoke into the Hozan, it will follow the existing threads on the spoke, you will feel more resistance while turning the Hozan as it starts to create new threads. Make sure to calculate the distance you need to thread the spoke, because you do not want to add any more threads than you need. In the video we needed to thread on another 11mm, and then cut off some of the spoke. After you hit your thread mark, back the spoke out of the machine.
The next step is to cut off the excess spoke material. First thread on a nipple. This will straighten out the threads when you remove it after cutting the spoke. Make sure it is a brass nipple and not an alloy nipple, because a brass nipple is harder than the spoke material.
Thread on the nipple until only the amount of excess you need to cut off is showing above it. Then use some kind of wire clips or cable cutter to cut the spoke. After cutting the spoke, clean up the spoke with a metal file until you have removed the imperfections caused by cutting it.
Then as you remove the nipple, it will ensure that the threads aren't messed up. Now grab a beer, put on some classic rock, and repeat 31 more times! Or go to your LBS and get them to cut some blanks for you. Either way.
Some bike shops own the Phil Wood Spoke machine, but it costs $3,500, so it's not really cost effective for individual use. But if your LBS has one, then definitely go get them to cut you a set. If you want a cost effective, but more time consuming way to do it yourself, the Hozan Spoke Threader is for you.
A man and his rag: In this video we give you a quick overview of how keep your bike in superb running condition by keeping your drivetrain (i.e. cassette, chain, chain rings, dearailleur) clean. with a Rag Edition.
First thing, if you don't have a handy dandy chain cleaner, like the one in the video. Most people probably don't, but they do a great job of cleaning the bike chain.
Today, we are going to do a regular guy with a rag situation. Don't use a dish cleaning fluid or heavy chemical degreasers. Use something light and fluffy, citrus based and lemony smelling. It is nice if it smells good.
Go ahead and spray some degreaser on the chain, yes go ahead and drip it on there, unless you are doing this on your Mom's carpet, then maybe not. Then run the chain a little to spread the degreaser all over the chain. Next, hold a section of the chain in your hand to help get all the sections of the chain. It's nice to have a bike stand, but you also can lean the seat on a counter or just do it on the ground.
You might be surprised at how much dirt and grime is on the chain. Probably don't wear your new shirt and pants while doing this.
Another thing you can do is floss the cassette with the edge of the rage. This will get all the dirt out from in your cogs. Here are some quick ideas for bike rags:
Then, take a look at the small derailleur pulleys, (tension pulley and guide pulley is the proper nomenclature) and grip the open spot with the rag and get all the grease off them.
On to the crank. Use the part of the rag with degreaser on it and just give it a rubdown, check out the backside and give her the old reach around.
Jim's QuickTip: Constant cleaning is one of the most important aspects of bike maintenance and prevents things from breaking down and extends the life of your bike. Professionals will tell you this.
Then to remove the degreaser with a clean part of the rag. This is important because you don't want the degreaser removing the lube you put on later after the chain is thoroughly cleaned. You never want a dry chain with no lube, sometimes a dirty chain is even better, similar to women. Sometimes a dirty girl is better than a prude. Pour a little water on it even, but then dry it off before you put lube on it.
Now time to put some lube on as you spin the chain slowly. Now spin the chain again to spread lube onto the chain, using that centripetal force. Then make sure to cap your lube. Now back to the rag, find a clean part and wipe off the excess lube so that it does not coagulate and collect more dirt. You want a nice thing coating.