has anyone got any tips for getting the winter crud off the bike and making it all run smoothly again?
i'm in the midst of a tear-down-clean-and-build-up. the fella at iron city recommended simple green for soaking stuff in, and so far it seems to be doing the trick.
i think my biggest concern is cable housing. how does one know when it should be replaced? i've got all new cables that i plan to install, but i don't want the housing dragging down my new cables when i'm expecting the thing to shift like new again.
also: i rather thought we were done with snow, and that this would be a good weekend for cleaning. oops!
Don't soak any aluminium parts in Simple Green. They will break. Simple Green makes an automotive version that is AL safe but the stock stuff is not.
Get new cable housing. It's super cheap and you will never get it very clean. And on the rear der loop what often happens is the plastic liner wears thru and you end up with rough shifting.
I change the housing when I change the cables.
If you really want it to shift like new, just replace the housing too.
If, when you take the housing off the bike, there are kinks that you can't take out with a little hand bending, or if the plastic covering is worn off or torn, replace.
But, I can also see circumstances where I would want to re-use the housing, waste not, want not, right?
So, pull out the old cable, work the little red tube of a can of WD-40 into the housing and squirt it until it shoots out the other end. Then take an old cable, WD it and wipe it clean, cut off the old barrel so all you have is cable, run it through the housing (freshly cut end first) and pull it through, wipe it clean, rinse and repeat until it pulls through with almost no resistance. If the cable is really badly crushed or frayed where the brake bolt was, cut the worst of that off before doing this.
Figured I might as well do a separate rundown on the right way to replace housing. Once you figure out the right length for the housing, leaving the right amount of slack, etc., pull the plastic liner out of the housing before cutting it! Cut the housing, and file, or even better, use a small bench grinder to grind the end of the housing completely square and smooth, it's kind of a bear to do with a file. When the end is ground flat, take a small nail or something with a little edge, and twist the point in the end of the housing to make sure there is no metal burr in the hole. Then put the plastic liner back in and cut it to length, I like to leave a tiny bit of the liner hanging out and flare out the ends of the liner with the nail I used before, it helps it to stay in place. Then finish installing your cables.
