How to Tell When I Need Help

No Matter How Capable You Are…

Most of the people reading our Tech Tips here on Bicycle South's website are not bicycle mechanics. You can be incredibly capable, and still get into situations with a bicycle where your level of expertise cannot help you. The important thing to remember is bicycles are not toys. Bicycles are vehicles, as well as mechanical devices, and if your brakes don't work right at 25 miles per hour, you could get seriously injured.

Check Before You Ride
Make sure your wheels are on properly, spin them to see if they are straight. Test the brakes by hand, check the tire pressure. Look for shredded cables or housing for brakes and derailleurs. Bounce the bike (on full tires) and listen for rattles. Does the seat twist, are the handlebars loose? Are parts falling off your bike?

We applaud people who work on their own bikes. However, if you smacked your kid's bike with your car in the garage and the wheel is bent, chances are a hammer and a pair of pliers isn't going to put it right. You need some specialized tools - and that wheel still may be a total loss, if it's really bent.

So here are some general things we run across and why - and why you might need us!

Wheels
If the tire is flat, read the Tech Tips section on How to Air A Tire as well as Change That Flat. You may discover your bicycle needs new tires, and you may be comfortable replacing them yourself.

Wheel Wobbles and Broken Spokes
What can be misleading is when you have a flat tire and you pick up the bike and spin the wheel, the wheel looks out of true. It may not be, your bike might have been sitting around on low or flat tires and the tire is flat and warped. If you've got the tire at proper inflation and it has a good back and forth (out of true) wobble or an up and down (out of round) your wheel is likely to need spoke re-tensioning. The wheel may gently hit the brake pads, or in worse case, the bike frame or fork. Make sure the wheel is in straight - sometimes it's fine, but at an angle. Did you or someone else have the wheel off? If so, reading the Tech Tip on That Quick Release may straighten you out, if the quick release is loose or the wheel is in the frame at an angle. If you were riding along and heard a twanging noise, you could well have a wobble from a broken spoke. Look by the hub or rim for broken spokes. Wheel wobbles eventually get worse, and if yours resembles a potato chip, or rubs against the bike frame or brakes pads, this is where the specialized tools and skills part comes in. It could collapse in a pile of broken spokes, so wobbly wheels are a safety concern.

Loose Handlebars, Stems and Headsets
If the handlebars appear to be twisting of their own volition in the stem, you may have something as simple as a loose bolt on the stem, or something as serious as a broken bolt on the stem. If the stem and bars turn when the front wheel does not, the stem is not secure. Bicycles are subject to a lot of road vibration and things get loose over time. It's important to remember, this is the part that steers (controls) the bicycle, so if you are not confident of your ability to detect a loose bolt and tighten appropriately (you can over tighten too!), please come in and see us. If things feel loose on the front of your bicycle during the bounce test (loose often means you hear a new rattle before you notice the parts are really loose) and squeezing the front brake and pushing the bike causes visible movement, or the feeling of movement in the handlebars, your headset is likely to be loose. Again, think steering! If your bike uses a threadless style headset, it may be a simple adjustment with an allen key. If you have a quill stem style headset, there are special wrenches that allow us to tighten the assembly properly. Either overly tight or overly loose - permanent damage to the bicycle and the rider can result.

Also, some quill stems are adjustable for height. One thing to be careful of is that the bicycle is not safe if the stem doesn't fit down to a certain mark on the stem in the head tube. Often times you can get a longer stem so you can raise the stem without making it dangerous, or a stem with a higher angle if you want to sit up straighter. Let us look at it, if you are not entirely sure.

A Word On Adjustable Stems
It's a neat idea - change the angle of your stem and your riding position, without really taking anything apart. Adjustable stems come on lots of new bikes these days. Remember though, things get loose on bicycles, and if the stem feels loose or creaks, it may well be. Again, if you aren't sure how tight is correct, come on in.

Frame
If the frame is bent or cracked - the bicycle is done. If it's a fine steel, handmade bicycle, it can be repaired - but not by the corner welding shop. Don't think that it's OK to ride with a teeny crack or bend in the frame. Once the metal is fatigued through bending, it is weak and could fail unexpectedly.

Slippy Seat
If the saddle wobbles on it's rails, the saddle rail attachment to the bicycle seat post is loose. Ridden that way, it can cause the serrated parts of the seat post to become damaged beyond repair and retightening won't fix it. Your seat post anchors to the seat by a seat clamp assembly which has one or two bolts that can be tightened by metric allen keys, or by two nuts. If the post in the frame is what is slippy (your saddle turns back and forth with every pedal stroke), it is either tightened by something that looks like a quick release for your wheels with a collar, or a collar fastened with a bolt tightened with an allen key, or a bolt threaded through little metal tabs behind the seat post. If you can't make heads or tails of how to adjust this, riding with a loose seat or post can be uncomfortable and/or dangerous.

Saddle Height Adjustments
Either someone wants to ride your bike and their legs aren't as long (or longer!) than yours or you borrowed a bike or maybe changed your pedals and riding shoes, or changed your saddle, and therefore your saddle height needs to change. Read the instructions for Slippy Seat, above and remember - now is a great opportunity to put some grease on your seat post. Grease on the seat post will facilitate removal or adjustment in the future. Remember, seat posts are not the same diameter on every bike, so if yours goes missing, please don't just put one in the bicycle frame that looks right - look at the numbers on the post, or measure it with some calipers. Riding a too small bike with the seat post too far out of the frame isn't a good idea either, because if enough post isn't stuck in the frame, it can break off or damage the bicycle frame. Posts do come in longer lengths!

Waterbottle Cage
Most likely to get loose if you use the cage with a water bottle, most satisfactory noise that nearly everyone can eliminate by themselves. This is the noise that starts on a long ride and makes you crazy because it only happens at certain times (certain kinds of pavement!) and you spend way too much time thinking about it.

Brakes
If the lever goes all the way to the handlebar without appreciable slowing by the bicycle, you've got several concerns. The simplest problem is that the cable is stretched. The worst is the cable, or housing that supports it is damaged, or a brake part is missing or damaged. Simple brake adjustments to increase cable tension can be made either at the barrel adjuster at the caliper (if it's a road bike) or at the lever for most mountain bikes or hybrids. If you don't know what a barrel adjuster is, we suggest you get some help. Brakes don't get well on their own and most brake problems get worse over time. If you've got disc brakes we don't recommend user service until you really understand how they work. Also keep in mind that brake pads on rim brakes are rubber. Rubber gets dry and even if your brakes are properly adjusted, they may stop working as well over time. Sometimes you can lightly file the brake pad to remove the dry surface (also useful for howling brakes if the toe-in is correct) and improve their performance.

Shifting
Generally, shifting problems are caused by cable stretch. Modern bikes utilize index shifting, where the shifter only moves the cable a certain amount, when you operate it. In the Days of Olde, bicycles used friction shifting, so you could pretty much move the lever just a little bit more to make the bike shift accurately, when the cable was stretched. Since those were really the Days of Olde Bicycles, most people don't remember that, and have always had click shifting. Shifting problems can also be caused by the cable hanging up in the housing, either because it's dirty and may be rusty, the housing is worn, or the cable is frayed. Where operational brakes are probably more of a safety concern then the ability to shift, a broken derailleur cable could cause the derailleur to mis-shift the chain, the chain to jam, lock up and you to go over the bars. Even if nothing that drastic occurs, not being able to shift in the gears you need for the terrain you are riding in, is a major irritant. Sadly, to really fix this requires some way to get the rear wheel off the ground and to be able to pedal and shift, as well as some experience in adjusting the cable correctly. A quarter turn on the barrel adjuster on the rear derailleur can be bad or good - but it takes some practice!

Pedals, Cranks and Bottom Brackets
Generally pedals and crank arms don't fall off. Usually if they do, it's because they got loose, got ridden that way and rounded out the part they thread into, and/or damaged the threads. Left hand bicycle pedals are reverse threaded (remember this, when you replace pedals) so they don't just pedal loose. Lots of people change their own pedals, so knowing how to do this yourself is quite easy. Remember, you are threading a steel pedal axle into an aluminum crank arm, so proper bicycle grease is required. You can use the same grease you used for your seat post. Also, use the correct tool to remove pedals. Most pedals have narrow wrench flats and a wide wrench, not designed for pedals, can damage the pedal or the crank. Some pedals remove from the back of the pedal with a very large allen wrench.

We mentioned that crank arms don't usually fall off. They do need to be checked for looseness though, because just like everything else on your bike, they get loose. Riding a loose crank arm will eventually cause it to become damaged beyond repair, and that's not a cheap part to replace. Your crank arms either have a bolt or nut in the center, or in some performance bikes, one crank arm (non drive side) will clamp to the outside of a hollow axle. Again, don't over tighten, but make sure the fastener is properly tightened.

Bottom brackets are extremely important, because they get a lot of force applied to them from the action of pedaling. They do wear out over time, and because of their location, can get dirt and water in them, which speeds up wear. Loose bottom brackets can actually damage the bicycle frame. This is not an easy operation to repair or replace at home because you will need a work stand and some specific tools.

Be Safe!
You don't have to be a bicycle mechanic or an engineer to have a basic understanding of how your bicycle works and how to deal with simple things. Knowing how to change a flat tire, lubricate your chain or tighten a loose bolt can get you out riding and not waiting on your local shop. We recommend you check out your local book store, or the book rack at Bicycle South for a book on basic bicycle repair. Find something that makes sense to you and explains bicycle function on a level you are comfortable with. Knowing enough to tell your bicycle mechanic exactly where that noise is coming from and when it happens is helpful too. Sometimes we don't know your bicycle as well as you do and it you can help us to more quickly solve your problem and get you out pedaling