Cycling in Sydney Australia
Got my Big Ring back!
As you can imagine, I was devastated last month to find out that my OEM gear cable had frayed and needed repairing.
It's been about three weeks that I have been unable to use my biggest chainring, and at long last, my precious Wiggle package arrived today!
I am a bit of a maintenance & repair newbie... I shamefully admit that I do not do any kind of maintenance on my bike, other than keeping the tyres inflated, lights working, and the inevitable puncture repairs.
However, I decided the time has come that I learn about it, so rather taking her in to my LBS to get fixed up, I was told that cable replacement is a straightforward job.
To cut a presumably dull story short, I have achieved what I set out to do, I have made a mess of the flat, I had a great time and now feel motivated to do more bike-DIY, including cleaning and lubing, and best of all, I can now use all of my gears again! Bring on those Strava segments!
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Comment by PeterT on August 24, 2012 at 9:15pm -
Great job Mike!
If you have more details on the whole process I'll happily read every single word and pour over every picture to demystify this whole process.... don't skim on the bartape bits either!
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Comment by Mike Stuart on August 24, 2012 at 9:21pm -
I don't have any more pictures I'm afraid! No need for bartape changes here though, you can remove the gear cable by pulling on the brake and sliding it through, although you do need to cut off the nipple/ferrule thing. It really is surprisingly easy - cut your outers to the same size as the old ones, slide the new cable through and use pliers to clip on new ferrules. Haven't been out to test it yet but it seems I can get into all of the gears so I'm pretty happy!
Bar tapes are my next project - I'll let you know when it happens!!
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Comment by timothy.clifford on August 25, 2012 at 6:01pm -
Well done - we told you it wasn't hard. Of course now you have entered the rabbit's hole. The more of your bike you learn to fix, the more you will want to know. Every little noise the bike makes will lead to a long reflection of what is making it and how it can be fixed. Example, I pulled by bike apart, bottom bracket, fork and headset, seatpost, and was eyeing off the hubs, to discovering that distressing noise I was looking for was coming from the saddle.
The next step is wheel building followed shortly by frame building...
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Comment by John Knight on August 26, 2012 at 2:33pm -
Hey Mike,
Since you are such a bike maintenance guru now ;~) , I would think about buying some new high quality stainless brake cables to replace the originals - if your factory shift cables were that bad, I'd be wondering about the brakes!
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Comment by Mike Stuart on August 27, 2012 at 10:33am
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That's true - I'll add it to my to-do list!
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Comment by stephen daniels on August 29, 2012 at 8:12pm
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good floor surface to work on.
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