One thing that I learned this weekend is that a bike stand is an invaluable tool in bike repair. I'm too cheap to buy a nice repair stand so I opted for a cheap bike rack from Harbor Freight Tools. Don't get me wrong the cheap bike rack is not a decent replacement for a real bike repair stand. However it is a whole world of awesome when compared to nothing.
One major disadvantage of the bike rack is that it just has Velcro straps for holding the bike in place. Where as a real repair stand would have an adjustable clamp that can alternately clamp onto the top tube or the seat tube. Another disadvantage of the bike rack is that the height is not adjustable. I'll probably break down an get a real repair stand one day, but until then the bike rack will at least hold my bikes off the ground while I try to work on them.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Bike Repair @ Home
After going over many video tutorials from bicycletutor.com I've finally got one on the old bikes that was cluttering up my backyard reconditioned. One of my old roommates left this Giant ATX 760 mountain bike with me, so I called him up and asked if I could fix it up and sell it on Craigs List for a portion of the proceeds.
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When he gave the OK I started working on it. First the chain and chain rings came off and got soaked in mineral spirits to clean them off from years worth of gunk and grime. I wanted to tear the bike down even further but I soon realized that I was missing a lot of specialized tools such as crank pullers. I settled on buying a chain breaker for 20 bucks so that I could at least remove and repair the chain.
Once I got the chain rings back on in the right position and put the chain back together. I moved on to lubing the chain and adjusting the front and rear derailleurs. The rear derailleur was pretty easy and I had it in good enough shape in no time. The front however, took me all after noon tinkering with it until I went back over the tutorials and realized that I was doing a couple of steps out of order.
After the transmission was working again I tightened up the brakes and now the bike is totally ride-able again. I've got a few responses from my Craigs List ad and I should have it sold in the next couple of days. It was a great experience and now I know all about how bikes work. Especially the damned transmission.
If you've got a old bike laying arround, Repair Your Bike! Then get out there and Ride Your Bike!
[gallery]
When he gave the OK I started working on it. First the chain and chain rings came off and got soaked in mineral spirits to clean them off from years worth of gunk and grime. I wanted to tear the bike down even further but I soon realized that I was missing a lot of specialized tools such as crank pullers. I settled on buying a chain breaker for 20 bucks so that I could at least remove and repair the chain.
Once I got the chain rings back on in the right position and put the chain back together. I moved on to lubing the chain and adjusting the front and rear derailleurs. The rear derailleur was pretty easy and I had it in good enough shape in no time. The front however, took me all after noon tinkering with it until I went back over the tutorials and realized that I was doing a couple of steps out of order.
After the transmission was working again I tightened up the brakes and now the bike is totally ride-able again. I've got a few responses from my Craigs List ad and I should have it sold in the next couple of days. It was a great experience and now I know all about how bikes work. Especially the damned transmission.
If you've got a old bike laying arround, Repair Your Bike! Then get out there and Ride Your Bike!
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