BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

If you're using the regular spiral cable housing for your shifters you should switch to a compressionless housing. I had no end to shifting problems until I went to the compressionless kind. The spiral kind would work nicely for awhile, but then things would start to get crummy.

here's a Sheldon Brown quote :

Although people pay a lot of attention to what kind of derailers and brakes are fitted to a particular bicycle, good cable installation practices are more important than most differences between different brake and shift systems. The most expensive brakes and derailers will work poorly if there is excessive friction or play in their control cables. Even the cheapest brakes and derailers can usually be made to perform satisfactorily if care is used in installing the cables.

The great majority of service problems with brakes and gears are the result of cable friction, not deficiencies in the levers, calipers or derailers.

and here's a link to his page on cables:

Cables

My bike has work wonderfully since I put the compressionless housings on.

ooo... that sounds like a try for the derailleur hiccups.

the spoke thing has me spooked, though.

hey, that's the guy with the awesome light advice. I should just bookmark his pages.

Thank you!

yea , he has alot of good info.

Bikes have a lot of moving parts and mechanical stresses. Parts break and wear out. They may break more frequently when they weren't high-end to start with.

You can replace the spoke and see if the wheel will get back to true. If there are bigger problems than that with the wheel, you may have to replace it.

If your chain was stuck between two gears and you were jamming on the pedals, you may have bent the chain. You should take a look at that. If one or two links are bent, you could just remove these as a temporary fix, and eventually replace the chain. If it skips after you replace it, you might need a new cassette on the back too.

I don't know if DH replaced your shifter cables, but it sounds like with all your shifting issues maybe the cables themselves have seen better days, or the housings are shot. You can replace both relatively cheaply.

yeah, problems with shifting repeatedly going out of whack does sort of point to cable housing. sometimes new housing will compress a bit over time (even though some people will insist that it's your cables stretching), causing you to frequently adjust things until it finally settles in.

regarding the rear wheel: was it a drive side spoke that broke? that is always more ominous than a front spoke or left side spoke, and of course they seem to go a lot more frequently. if your spokes have ever seen any extra stress or scoring (such as from a chain that has skipped over your biggest sprocket/lowest gear on the rear wheel), you can pretty much bet every one of those spokes will break in the coming months, and a new wheel might be the least expensive way to go.

then again, maybe you should just junk it and get that pink rhinestone bike.

they were new shifter cables, I replaced the shifters prior to taking it in (it was acting like a fixed gear until then). The housings... that's blurry. I don't remember if I pitched the old ones or not (can't check, in different city now)

I'll check the chain... The repair bills are adding up to the cost of a new bike, another $50 and it would have been the same price to purchase the one I'm considering as a gift for the fiance (and am now wondering if that's too cheap - I love the guy and don't want him to go through this!).

I learned on my house that some repairs are "I'll do that myself for mostly nothing and save a bundle" (like adding a 3-way dining room light switch and installing a chandelier) and some repairs are "It will cost twice as much to hire someone to fix my attempt than to just hire someone to do it right to begin with" (like rewiring the rest of the house and breaking up circuits). I'll have to figure out what that is for bikes.

@ejwme --@HV makes a good point above. You want to make sure that the chain did not shift between the large cog in back and the spokes. If you have a broken spoke on the drive side, look very carefully at the other ones to make sure they are not chewed up in any way. If two or three spokes fail at once you are probably going down hard. Such a wheel needs to be fixed/replaced asap.

If you can, get a better quality bike asap. You can always keep the old one for nostalgia rides right?

It's totaly worth every penny in the long run imo

You know to pluck your spokes like a guitar string and listen to the note, right ? see if you get all about the same pitch.

You will not regret getting a nicer bike. With the amount you're riding (will add up to thousands of miles a year), it's just not worth maintaining such a low end bike. Even fixing that rear wheel is probably going to cost more than the wheel is worth.

OOOPs.

I thought I was in another thread and I posted nonsense here.

< NYC cop voice> The show's over. Nothing to look at. < /cop>

spokes shall be plucked, I'm rather giddy at that test, given my acoustics background. Like I said, my bike has spoken, I just needed to figure out how to listen. If I get any chords I might just sing along.

It was a left side spoke, not drive side, but I'm also not sure if there are other spokes broken or not... I may have two, now that I think about it. I was futzing on the left with the bike right side up at the side of the road, my head in traffic (yes, I know, but that's how I remember). But in the lot it was on the drive side... hmm... further investigations are necessary. Come to think of it, the rear break has been a bit more 1R rhythmic past three days than lately.

What kills me is that the funky noises (spoke breaking?) happened at the same time as the chain jamming, but the two (given the side of the broken spoke) should be unrelated? OR this is truly the beginning of the avalanche of the end of my poor crate bike.

HV, that's funny you talk about the cable housing flattening vs. cable stretching... DH said it was cable stretch. They continue to adjust it very nicely for me when I go in, so maybe it's settled. HA right about when it may be time for a new bike. Am I sick that I honestly think that's funny?

Since the new bike coming in to our household will technically not be mine, I can't bedazzle it (he's secure about himself, but nobody loves me *that* much). Perhaps I could bedazzle removable sleeves for the tubes, so it can convert back to Manly Bike when he uses it on weekends.

Can you knit?

OH MY GOD.

I can crochet. I can crochet with sparkly pink thread. That is the awesomest thing ever in the whole world. The little blue bird is perfect. The cute little pearl buttons belie excellent attention to detail. Ridiculously fun detail. You have cheered me up immensely (and I was pretty cheery to begin with!)

Is this a thread or has it become a yarn? (nyuk, nyuk)

this thread is giving me the dia-beatis. need insulin now...

UPDATE:

Autopsy results are in. One broken spoke, drive side. Spokes on both wheels have high side and low side in pitch when strummed - at least a major third between the extremes (not as much as a perfect fourth). Worse yet, the drive gears 2 and 1 are missing/worn to nubs 5 and 3 teeth respectively. Well, they actually all look pretty worn, but some teeth really didn't have much in the way of even ghosts left. The chain seemed fine.

So I didn't look at the cable housing. Performance didn't have much in stock for me (apparently I describe a niche market), so I'm headed to Dirty Harry's to pick up one of the ones they had shown me before... all I remember is one was a Trek, and one was white, one was red. It was less important at the time!! I'll probably strip it and drop it off at FreeRide this weekend. *sniff* Maybe some kind soul there can ressurect it for its next owner or it can donate its organs to live on through other bikes.

Thank you guys for all your help! I'm actually feeling pretty ok with the decision. Now I just have to worry about whether I can afford what I need, and figure out how to tell the difference.

good luck getting your new ride, that's exciting even though it means moving on from your old bike which you seem to be fond of. take your time deciding! nothing worse than a rushed purchase that you regret.

i'm digging the spoke intervals. mine are all tensioned to a diminished chord

incidentally, the rear wheel should have spokes on one side tuned to a higher frequency than spokes on the other, but not so in the front.

good luck, and have fun with your quest for a new bike! i suggest shopping around a bit if it's an option. get the one you can afford but can't afford to live without.

way to dish out the advice, there.

I like that - can afford, can't afford to live without. I tend to be what appears to be an impulsive buyer - in reality, I just know exactly what I want when I see it. So hopefully I see it very, very soon!

Thank you everyone, you've made a difficult time actually kind of fun and exciting

way to dish out the advice, there.

nice.

nice.

Very true.

took me a minute

and another ic wut u did there to the thread title/topic!