Author Topic: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!  (Read 27039 times)

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Offline PeteJack

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #15 on: August 25, 2011, 09:08:10 pm »
What I won't leave home without is a tiny multitool with needlenose pliers. MY latest is a Leatherman Squirt PS4. Just the thing for pulling those slivers of steel from old truck tires out of your tires or even in lieu of tweezers for pulling wood slivers from your fingers.

Offline Bicycle Rider

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #16 on: August 26, 2011, 02:32:25 pm »
BicycleRider, I like some of the old stuff too, but be aware that Shimano's hubs all still use cup-and-cone bearings because these last pretty much indefinitely if they're adjusted right, meaning there's some play in them when they're out of the bike, just enough that it just barely disappears when you squeeze the skewer down tight.  With rubber seals just inside the dust caps, they keep the dirt out a lot better than the older type also.

Modern external-bearing bottom brackets last far longer than the old loose-bearing ones we had decades ago.  (That's not true of the internal-bearing ones though, especially the Isis type.)  I have 26,000 miles on my GXP external-bearing BB and it acts and feels like brand new, in spite of a lot of climbing.  You mention the "cog set" though.  If you mean a cassette, that goes with a freehub body, so you better have the tools to remove and replace that too, because they do go out.  For Shimano, it just takes a 10mm allan wrench.  If you mean a freewheel, make sure you add the appropriate freewheel remover to your list of tools.

As long as you can at least open them up to inspect them before you leave, and change them if you think there's a possibility they may fail during your journey. "No maintenance required" is fine if you're a day rider and don't have to worry about whether there is a bicycle shop within a few hundred miles.

Most of my ball bearing components have well over 40,000 miles on them. The oldest is the Maillard "Atom" ("Schwinn Approved") front hub, with 80,000 miles on it's shell and cups. The cones and balls have been replaced about three during it's lifetime. All my bearings get cleaned, regreased (waterproof boat trailer wheel bearing grease, no less!) and adjusted at least every 2,500 miles, or whenever I think it might be necessary. I'm not afraid to get my hands a little dirty if it means keeping my machine running at it's best! ;D

And yeah, I meant cassette. Although mine consists of loose spacers and cogs, not a permanet prefabbed construct. All of which were hand picked by me to achieve the exact gearing pattern/spacing I wanted. My entire bike is designed like that; to suit my needs, strengths, type of riding etc. exactly. or as close as possible (yeah, I know A.R. ::) Guilty as charged and proud of it! ;D )
« Last Edit: August 26, 2011, 02:34:13 pm by Bicycle Rider »
May you always have the winds at your back, and a low enough gear for the grades

Offline whittierider

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #17 on: August 26, 2011, 03:58:35 pm »

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As long as you can at least open them up to inspect them before you leave, and change them if you think there's a possibility they may fail during your journey.

I now trust the GXP BB a lot more than the old-fashioned type.  The reason is that putting the bearings external like that gives room for more balls to share the load, and it also reduces the load on them because the two sides are farther apart.  In fact, the right-side bearings are almost in the plane of the middle chainring.  If you want to take an extra BB with you on an around-the-world trip though, it wouldn't take much room, as the spindle is part of the right crank arm, not the BB.  Removing the crankset takes only an 8mm allan wrench, nothing else.

I worked in a bike shop in the 1970's when all wheel bearings were cup-and-cone.  Although I saw a few that were pitted because they had been installed too tight, I never saw any that actually failed.  I even opened one up that had been packed without any grease at all and ridden that way for a long time, and it looked perfect.  When I opened my rear Shimano Ultegra hub up a couple of years ago to replace the failed freehub body after 8,000 miles, the grease was still that clear yellow-green color Shimano uses.  No graying at all.  When I opened up a Campy one after 20,000 miles and cleaned it up, I could hardly see where the bearings had ridden on the races.  (I can't say the grease was clear, because it was black moly grease when I packed it.)  I wouldn't have any qualms about beginning a 3,000-mile trip without re-packing or inspecting my hubs.  I know they're fine.  I would be more concerned about a freehub body going out again (although I munched freewheels too, and broken rear axles, something that doesn't happen with a freehub body).

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All my bearings get cleaned, regreased (waterproof boat trailer wheel bearing grease, no less!) and adjusted at least every 2,500 miles, or whenever I think it might be necessary.

Do you do that with your car too?

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And yeah, I meant cassette.  Although mine consists of loose spacers and cogs, not a permanet prefabbed construct.  All of which were hand picked by me to achieve the exact gearing pattern/spacing I wanted.

I do kind of miss the days when you could order a freewheel with exactly the number of teeth you wanted on each cog.  Well, actually you still can, mostly, from loosescrews.com .  But with nine or ten cogs on a cassette, the spacing is pretty doggone close, closer than I had with my optimum touring half-step setup with a 5-speed freewheel and triple where through the cruising range each gear was 11.8% higher than the last which is possible only with 13-16-20-25-31 and 30-42-47 (the chainrings can go up or down a bit, together, like 29-41-46, without ruining it, but not the cogs), omitting the combinations that give extreme chainlines.  AFAIK, TA is the only crankset manufacturer left that allows you to have virtually any combination of chainrings you could want (although I understand some sizes are running out and will not be made again).  The disadvantage with this is that the parts won't be mated, so shifting is not as quick.  The bigger cog or chainring won't help the chain up from its smaller neighbor at the right place to make it mesh perfectly with the teeth.  The modern system, when used as designed, makes for shifting that's instant in the back and almost instant (less than half a revolution) in the front.

Offline Mattie

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #18 on: September 18, 2011, 04:09:11 pm »
Latex gloves - two pairs. I recently had to repair a chain and had one pair of latex gloves kept with with the spare chain link. But the chain required to be replaced completely by which time I had used my one pair of latex gloves so had to set to work on a filthy old chain bare handed. My hands were absolutely filthy.

Offline waynemyer

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Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #19 on: September 19, 2011, 01:54:23 pm »
Latex gloves - two pairs. I recently had to repair a chain and had one pair of latex gloves kept with with the spare chain link. But the chain required to be replaced completely by which time I had used my one pair of latex gloves so had to set to work on a filthy old chain bare handed. My hands were absolutely filthy.
They don't take up any extra space, really. Carry a lot. Unless it has been an unfortunate day, I am usually carrying at least five pairs of latex gloves. Put them in a ziploc bag to keep them from developing holes from abrasion.

I use them for just about every repair; it's much easier to avoid getting dirty in the first place than it is to clean up afterward.

Also, when you're done wrenching, the gloves make for easy carrying and disposal of messy stuff. Just hold in your gloved hand whatever waste you have. Pull one glove over the trash, turn the mass 180 degrees, pull the second glove over the rest. Anything messy will be safely contained in the gloves.
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Joe B

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Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #20 on: September 19, 2011, 03:26:46 pm »
Sugru.
Since I discovered this stuff I can't imagine not having some around all the time. I can't even begin to explain the ways to use this because it it so useful and versatile. Think of Silly Putty but when it cures it is a soft tough silicone jacket type of stuff, flexible, waterproof, electrically inert , incredibly tough, heat resistant to 350F , cold resistant to -75F etc...

Places on my bike you will find it:
  • holding the hub/light wires to the frame almost invisibly
  • dampening the rattles of pannier hooks etc on racks
  • making a 31.8mm accessory mount work on my old handlebars
  • mirror mount in the bar end
  • enlarged grippy zipper pulls on my handlebar bag
  • water bottle cage grippy nubs

The stuff has a 6 month shelf life (before it cures, after it cures it probably has a lifetime measured in lifetimes)
It's not a throw in the tool kit and forget it kind of item, but I am always running out of it WAY before the exp date
I always have at least 2 packs ( 5 gram each about 2$ a piece ) in my repair kit and a dozen in the  top drawer of my home workbench
« Last Edit: September 19, 2011, 03:31:00 pm by Joe B »

Offline PeteJack

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #21 on: September 19, 2011, 11:45:49 pm »
I've never had to do this but I think it will work: if your freehub fails use zip ties to lash your largest gear to the spokes and you will have a sort of fixie to get you to the nearest shop. Theoretically you will be able to change gear provided you don't try to use the gear the zip ties are wrapped round.

Offline whittierider

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #22 on: September 20, 2011, 12:32:37 am »
Some cassettes (my SRAM anyway) have big gaping holes in them that would allow you to get the zip ties through without interfering with the teeth.

Although I won't say it definitely can't happen, I have never heard of a freehub body totally giving out catastrophically.  What I've had happen is that they will skip under high torque like when climbing a steep hill or accelerating hard.  The last time I had one go out, the problem showed up when I was climbing a 16% grade.  I had to zig-zag up the hill to effectively flatten it out a bit and remain seated and keep the torque as constant as I could around the turn of the pedals instead of having a torque peak where each crank arm reaches the forward-pointing position.  It was similar to having a chain skip from the cog or chainring being too worn (which they definitely were not in my case).  I had a lot of 6% grades after that before the end of the ride and it held fine on those.

Offline johnsondasw

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #23 on: September 25, 2011, 02:03:26 pm »
The following have saved me and/or a partner in the past: zip ties of a couple of different sizes and extra cleat for my eggbeater pedals.  My riding partner was pretty impressed the time he lost a cleat off his shoe and I opened my little miscellaneous baggie and came up with two of them!  It happened about 25 miles into a 75 mile ride.  Zip ties have multiple uses, as the time 3 years ago when the derailleur cable guide on the chain stay snapped off (thanks, Specialized--LBS told me there's nothing they could do, warranty was up and it was a "frame malfunction" that was not fixable). I zip-tied it on nice and tight and it's still there, working as good as new!

Wouldn't leave home without either of these items.
May the wind be at your back!

Offline Bike Hermit

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #24 on: October 06, 2011, 11:39:47 pm »
I always carry the Unior cassette lockring tool.
http://biketouringnews.com/bike-stuff/unior-cassette-lockring-tool/
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Offline PeteJack

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #25 on: October 14, 2011, 11:07:28 pm »
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I always carry the Unior cassette lockring tool.

Where can you get these? The link doesn't tell you.

FredHiltz

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Offline BikeFreak

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #27 on: October 30, 2011, 05:30:55 pm »

  • Tiny chain tool (about 1/3 the size of a disposable lighter) works with an Allen key and the crescent wrench.


Could you please provide some more information on that tiny chain tool.

Thanks in advance,

Lucas

FredHiltz

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Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #28 on: October 31, 2011, 05:51:21 am »
Could you please provide some more information on that tiny chain tool.

What would you like to know that you could not find in the web sites returned by that Google search?

Fred

Offline staehpj1

Re: Your Portable Repair Kit - What's Inside?!
« Reply #29 on: October 31, 2011, 10:51:31 am »
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It can't apply as much torque as a real pedal wrench, but there's no need to get pedals very tight since precession keeps them from loosening as you ride.
Despite the thread arrangement I have had pedals loosen up.  A nice thing about the 8mm hex hole is that you can use a torque wrench instead of an allen wrench (at home).  Shimano specifies a torque of 35-55N-m (26-41ft-lbs), which I consider to be fairly tight.

Some of the multi-tools on the market how have an 8 mm hex gadget that slips over the 6 mm.  If you're worried about sufficient torque, you could start with your multi-tool, then stop at the first auto shop and ask either to borrow their torque wrench or to have the mechanic could check it for you.  I've been looked at oddly, but never turned down when I asked for something simple like that.  (If you feel guilty for asking, slip him a fiver when he's done.)
Another option is to carry a 1" stub of an 8mm hex key and turn it with either an 8mm or adjustable wrench if you carry one.  That is what I have done in the past.