- Welcome back to another episode of the GCN Tech Clinic
where I aim to solve and fix you bike related problems.
So if you've got one,
leave it for me down there in the comment section below
or alternatively, on all forms of social media,
using the hashtag #ASKGCNTECH
and with no further ado, let's crack on
with the first question this week
and it comes in from Vrushali, who says,
their chain is jumping on different cogs on the cassette.
It mostly goes down on the lower gears.
What should I do for it?
Right, it could be one of a couple of things really.
First of all, maybe your bikes taken a knock
or you you've dropped it
and then the rear derailleur hanger
has become slightly bent
which means you're not getting perfect gear changes.
If that is the case,
then you can take it down to your local bike shop.
Pay them for a small amount
just to straighten that back up,
so you get good gear shifting.
Alternatively, what it could well be is
that the cables, which are changing your gears for you,
have actually just become a little bit stretched.
So you are likely to just add a little bit of tension
or even maybe reduce a little bit of tension,
depending if someone else has had a look at it
of the actual cable and by doing so,
you're going to have perfectly indexed gears.
There's a link below in the description
where you can find a video
telling you just how to do that.
And next up is Douglas.
Now Douglas wants to know,
they've just bought themselves a bike
and it's got internal cable routing.
Should they do anything special
to get water out of the frame
after riding in the rain
and also can water even get into the frame tubes?
Something I don't need to worry about, question mark.
Alright then Douglas,
yeah a small amount of water
can get inside of the frame tubes.
Normally, it's by the head tube
because there's a little bit of gap there
for water to get in and if you ride in rainy places
such as the Uk,
it happens.
Nothing generally though to really worry about
because, in most cases, that water tends to drain out
from the bottom bracket because
we sent out a little hole in there,
uh, for either cable guide to attach to
or sometimes for a cable to run out and back in.
It all depends on your frame type
or alternatively,
the water can just find it's way out of a chainstay
where we have holes there too, quite often.
If you're really worried though about water
becoming stuck inside of your frame,
what you can do is just simply
to remove your seatpost.
Take that out.
Turn the frame upside down and let it drop out,
but really it's not something
that tends to plague us very long.
It does just to find
it works it's way out of the frame tubes.
And next up is Eugene.
Now Eugene says that he loves the show.
Well that's good to hear
and a quick question,
Shimano 105 rear derailleur started making
squeaking sound when starting the gear shift,
at the moment when the cable is pulling.
Now you Eugene reckons it's coming from
the rear derailleur pivots or something like that.
"Will I need to do some disassembly work on it
or can it be lubed without taking a lot of things apart?"
Yeah, Eugene, I wouldn't go taking apart
all those pivots on the rear derailleurs
because they're not really designed to be removed
and re-inserted, replaced and everything.
Instead, get the bike and apply some silicone lubricant
or something very similar to that from a bottle
is going to be easier.
Therefore, you can apply quite a precise amount
and also really precisely too
and that's important because
you don't want it to go in everywhere.
You want it just to go in those pivot points.
Then it can soak its way in.
Now you are probably going to have to
turn the bike upside down as well,
so it can work in from all the different angles,
but just be patient with it.
Something else it could be,
and this plagues someone I know
and I managed to track it down.
I was so happy and chuffed with myself.
It could well be your rear derailleur outer housing,
where it enters the barrel adjuster
and also the ferrule there.
Where your putting just little bit of increased tension,
when you change gear,
it's causing that little squeaking sound.
So just have a look at where at,
that either outer cable or ferrule,
is sitting inside of the barrel adjuster
and sometimes you just need to apply
just a drop of lubricant there
to just and try to free it up a little bit
to try and remove that squeaking sound,
but I reckon either those two suggestions
will see you just right.
Alright then and next up we got Shahdin,
who well take a little bit of advice here
from a friend and he's unsure about it.
Now Shahdin says that one of their friends
advised them to not clean the bike with water.
Instead, clean it with a wet towel.
Uh, he said it seems painful and will take time,
but it will be long lasting for the bike.
He also reckons that his rear wheel
basically decided to fail
because of washing it with water.
Hmm, now what your friend has said there,
I don't know how good of friend it is,
but I wouldn't listen to that advice,
to be perfectly honest with you.
Instead, I would use a hose pipe always,
just to rinse down the frame and all the other parts,
just try to rinse off any road debris,
grit, stones, anything like that
because if you go ahead with a wet towel
and try and wipe it all clean,
what's going to happen is any of those
tiny bits of grit that are stuck on the frame,
well you're going to start scratching the bike
and your friend is not going to be a friend for very long.
Are they?
Once you start to scratch that up.
As for ruining the back wheel and the hub,
which they've said in there,
try to avoid lots of water,
you know, being aimed at any components
with bearings in them
because ultimately that water will get in there.
It's a slow, slow process,
but you wanna try and prolong your components
for as long as possible.
So in short,
no, don't use a wet towel to clean your bike.
Next up is Peter.
Peter's got a new bike and the rear derailleur on it
is the Shimano R9100 rear mechs
and that's one of the ones with the shadow style design.
Now Peter says they find it incredibly difficult
to remove and replace the rear wheel on the bike.
Uh, they're even having to partly deflate the tire,
in fact, to get it out.
He'd love to find a better way.
"Any ideas?"
Right then Peter, those designs of rear mechs
actually have quite an increased amount
of spring tension in the derailleur
to try and pull the chain forward a little bit.
Basically to try and get better tension
in the whole drivechain system,
but the downside of that is in fact,
like you say it,
it does make the rear wheel
slightly more difficult to get out,
but once you've undone that quick release skewer,
with one hand,
try and rotate the rear derailleur backwards slightly
and then just knock the wheel out.
You should be able to do that A-Okay,
but like I say,
the actual increased spring tension
in those models of rear derailleur,
it's trying to keep it pushed forward,
but it can be a little bit troublesome.
So just put it back, whack at the wheel.
Jobs are good.
Next up is a question from Ludwig.
Ludwig says they're looking to upgrade
the crankset on their bike and at the moment,
they've got the Shimano FC RS510 chainset.
Now the main reason for wanting to upgrade
is that they want to get some shorter cranks
because Ludwig has got too much toe overlap.
However, can they swap them out for a
105 or Ultregra crankset.
Not sure about the bottom bracket compatibility.
Right then Ludwig,
that model of chainset you got is one of the latest styles.
So it's not the old obsolete style bottom bracket
or a square taper or anything.
Instead, you've got a 24mm axle diameter on your chainset,
which means good news my friend.
You can put on a 105, an Ultegra, a Dura-Ace,
anything which is using a Hollowtech II standard
is going to work just fine.
Alright next up is Tineye,
who've got themselves a new bike
and they've settled on the position
and they want cut down their steerer tube.
However, they've got disk brakes on the bike,
which is internally routed in the hydraulics system.
I'm reading between the lines.
Basically, Tineye, you just want to do this
with least dismantling as possible, I reckon.
So what I could recommend to you
is get the bike supported horizontally
and then remove the stem from the steerer
and then have marked out where you want to
cut through the steerer tube,
but importantly here too is to remember
to use all your personal protection equipment,
some sort of dust mask, gloves, safety specs,
all those things
and also cover up the head tube for example
because you don't want any of the carbon dust
to get inside of the actual headset bearings.
It starts contaminating them or anything like that
because these particles are so small and fine
they do get literally everywhere.
So you can imagine now,
you got the steerer tube
and it's coming across you in front like that
and then you can just simply saw through it.
Get through it as straight as possible
because it is going to help
the internal steerer bung too,
to sit nice and flush with the top,
if you've got one of those styles,
but ultimately, yeah,
that's a nice easy hack to do.
Just make sure you do clean up that carbon dust.
Don't blow it anywhere
because it's not good stuff
to get inside of your lungs.
Next up is Lecx.
Now Lecx wants to know,
uh, they're using Shimano 105 with a none series disk brake,
mechanical ones, but they want to shift them
over to hydraulic disk brakes.
"Is it possible to do so with the same mechanical levers
or do I have to get new ones?
If so, what else, other than the levers,
should I also change?"
Well Lecx, the good news is for you,
you don't need to go ahead and change those levers
because there is in fact,
a few different options out there
for you to investigate.
One of them is the TRP HY/RD,
I think it's called,
uh, which is a mechanically operated,
hydraulic disk brake caliper.
So you use your standard cables.
It goes in and attaches
and then it controls hydraulic pistons inside there.
Winning all day long.
Check it out.
Alright and final question is in from David Veasey,
who says,
"Can I set up Shimano Di2 with Synchro shift
and use the hidden buttons to shift up and down
or alternatively set both of the left lever buttons
to shift up and both of the right ones to shift down,
similar to what the the SRAM eTap system is,
thus making it easier to use with gloves?"
Right David, the good news is for you
is that you can.
Using Shimano's E-Tube software,
you can go on in and you can program away
all those shift buttons
to your hearts content and play around.
Uh, I even know a friend of mine once pranked someone
by plugging their bike into it
and changed all the setting overnight
and the next day went out to ride
and he didn't have a clue
what was going on with the buttons,
but yeah, you can do that
and it's actually really good
and in fact,
you can even do it with a Campagnolo EPS too
uh, cuz I saw Caleb Ewan at the Tour Down Under.
He was playing around,
trying to find the optimal way
and basically just change his gears
because he'd been using Shimano
for a number of seasons beforehand,
but yeah just plug it in to the E-tube software
and have a little investigation.
Right, I do hope I've been able to help answer
and solve your bike related problems.
If you've got one, remember to submit it
down there in the comment section below
or alternatively on social media
using the hashtag #ASKGCN.
Also like and share this video with your friends,
big ol' thumbs up.
Don't forget to check out the GCN shop
at shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com
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