(metallic swooshing)
- Welcome back to the GCN Tech Clinic,
where we'll try and solve your bike problems
that have been pestering you and have stopped you
getting out on the bike and enjoying yourself,
so if you've got one, leave it for me down there
in the comment section below, and also,
why not try and leave me one on all forms of social media,
using the hashtag #ASKGCNTECH.
With no further ado let's have the first question this week,
and it comes in from Jason F, who says they
"currently have a Mavic wheelset with the XDR hub
"that they use on a bike with SRAM AXS,
"they want to start using the wheelset on a winter bike
"which has a Shimano groupset,
"what are the steps of doing this?
"Is it as easy as just replacing the cassette on the wheels
"to the 11:30 Shimano cassette that they have?
"Or does Jason need to change the hub as well,
"for it to be compatible?
"Do you have to use a specific wheelhub for Shimano
"versus Campagnolo versus SRAM groupsets?
"They're all a bit confusing for me."
Right, I'm going to answer this one, and hopefully
it solves all these questions you've got there, so;
you've got that SRAM 12-speed on there you say,
because you're using AXS, so you're using
a special XDR driver on the body, the freehub body,
so with that, if you take off your cassette,
you can't put a Shimano one on there
because it just doesn't fit the splines or anything.
So, you can't also use that wheel
with your Shimano groupset because that's 11-speed,
and you've got a 12-speed cassette on there,
so it's not going to work.
So, your only option here is to actually
remove the freehub body, and then put a new one on there,
so a Shimano compatible one, so for that, XD driver
or an XDR driver.
It's fairly simple to do, in fact I'm pretty sure
the wheels you've got are probably even the tool-free ones,
so it's nice and easy, you don't have to unlock
or undo anything whatsoever, you simply pop off an end-cap,
you pull off the freehub body, put the other one on,
put the cassette on and go, and you are happy.
Now, your other question on there was asking about
one which works on SRAM, Campagnolo and Shimano,
I think that's what you meant by it;
no, there's nothing really because the latest versions
of SRAM and Campagnolo are 12-speed, Shimano's 11-speed...
Shimano and SRAM, normal cassettes,
they use the same fitting system,
so it's the same sort of spline pattern,
Campagnolo uses a deeper one.
There are some hubs out there, I think it was PMP,
possibly an Italian brand, who had something
that worked with both types, probably wasn't PMP,
I think I just made that or imagined that,
but it was definitely one of their, Miche, possibly Miche,
they did something that worked with both cassettes,
but, it wouldn't of course work
with that SRAM 12-speed cassette,
because they use a very small cog on there,
that simply won't go onto a standard diameter freehub body.
Hopefully, that'll see you all right though
with those answers, essentially in essence,
you need to get yourself a Shimano freehub body
for those Mavic wheels.
Right, next we've got Ron Gatenby, or Gatenby, who says
"do you have to do anything special
"with your front derailleur if you want
"to try an oval front ring setup?"
Right then Ron, thinking about going oval, are we?
Nothing major to do here, what you do want to do though,
is rotate your cranks, so that the chain ring is in its most
ovallised position I guess, where it goes near
the front derailleur, so you want it
so it's at the high point if you like,
of those rings.
You then need to adjust the front derailleur up slightly,
probably, just so it can clear it, 'cause obviously
if you don't, if you try and shift it, it's just
going to bash against the inside of the chain ring
and probably render the front mech useless,
and scratch it up, if not that.
So that's really all you need to worry about,
something to consider though, is when you are changing gear,
it's probably not going to be quite as silky smooth
as a chain set is from the factory, because generally
you're asking it to jump just slightly higher,
of course if you're using an oval inner ring as well,
it kind of is all right, but it's not, it's never quite
perfect, you know, it's like, it's almost perfect,
but it's just like a hair's width difference.
Yes, so you use your legs almost as a clutch mechanism
if you like, so just back off the gas a little bit,
so just ease off, and allow the chain just to climb up,
and then lay down those watts again.
Next up is Yahya Baali, that is a cool name.
Really cool name.
"Hi Jon, I was wondering for pulley wheels.
"Do I need to lube them after cleaning my bike?
"I usually remove all the grime from the teeth,
"and then dry them. I don't know if I have
"cartridge bearings or not. It's the original
"pulley wheels that came on my R8000 mech. Thank you,
"and have a great day."
Right, pretty sure they are cartridge bearings in there,
either way if they're cartridge,
or you use the standard ceramic bushes,
I always like to give them a little bit of lube
after I wash the bike, so make sure it's nice and dry,
then this is the only time I would suggest
laying your bike on its side,
if you've watched anything of mine before you'll know
there's a few things I don't like; one is noisy bikes,
one is bikes upside down, and the other one
is leaning bikes on their side, basically.
You want to work on a bike
when it's in it's right place but,
if you want to lube those pulley wheels, obviously
you don't want to take them out of the mech each time,
'cause it's bit troublesome, bit of a hassle really,
so, lean the bike on its side, get yourself some chain lube,
something like in a bottle. I prefer to use a bottle
than an aerosol for this, because it's just,
you can control it a lot easier, because aerosols obviously
it blasts out and you can't sort-of control that
quite as easily, so get the rear mech there,
and just apply a few drops to each one, and then
with the bike back up in its natural, normal state,
just back-pedal a little bit, but before you back-pedal,
you want to allow that chain lube, you can use dry, wet
doesn't really matter, just to soak in a bit more really,
so that all of the bearings are going to
get a nice coating there, and like I say
if you're not using a sealed bearing in there,
it will find its way into the bushing, too.
Sealed bearings; they are sealed obviously
that's the name of them, but generally it will just
help it a little bit as well, and it could well just
flush out any of the grime too.
Now we've got Milos Duric, who says "Hello to all at GCN,
"great show as always! The thing I see a lot of debate
"about on forums"-- Right, first off, forums.
They can be an absolute minefield of information.
We're not going to go there today, though.
Anyway, "a lot of debate, about replacing the chain
"before doing the same thing with cassettes.
"Many people have had skipping issues, and claim
"that a new cassette is almost a must
"when you replace the chain.
"Does the new chain/old cassette combo need breaking in?"
Right, I'm going to set something straight here,
from my own experience, I've been cycling
for quite some time now.
No, you don't need to break it in at all, providing
you've replaced your chain in time,
if you've let it wear away, now chains don't stretch,
people say they stretch, they don't, they wear, okay.
The two things are pretty different.
I've already, I can feel the comment section below
getting lit up, right, because I've just said that.
Anyway, provided you've replaced your chain in time
it's not necessary to put a new cassette on.
One of the easiest and most simplest things
that everybody out there can do,
and I'm going to get on my soap box, just quickly,
is just wash your bikes, take real care of them,
your drive chain, it is in the firing line
of all the rubbish that comes up off the road;
the salt, the grit, the sand, the dirt, everything,
and when it gets inside the chain
that acts like a cutting paste
on your beautiful chain rings, your expensive cassette,
your pulley wheels, everything, and it starts to wear out.
Get yourself some de-greaser, and just spray it over
when your chain starts to get manky,
and give it a good clean,
and everything is going to last way longer.
Now, you say this about casettes need replacing;
I reckon I've had cassettes, where I've probably
replaced the chain five times before I've needed
to replace the cassette, so I've had five new chains
for each cassette, that's how long they can last
if you take really good care of it.
Yeah, this one is going to get heated down below
in the comments.
Go easy.
Now we've got Dmitrijs Starikovs, who says,
"Hi there, not sure if this is tech, maintenance,
"other issue."
You've come to the right place, whatever it is!
Right Dmitrijs; "autumn riding comes with wet riding."
Awful isn't it!
"Lately when I'm riding in the wet my wheel brake tracks,
"rim brakes, get covered in oily gunk,
"almost like the one you get on the chain.
"Braking performance suffers,
"not to mention the pain to get it off.
"Am I doing something incorrectly?
"Or are the roads that dirty?
"It's not my chain, as the front wheel gets as dirty
"as the rear one."
Right, Dmitrijs, perfectly normal, mate.
What's happening is a combination of you braking,
and the water, basically it's deteriorating
your brake pads, that oily gunk is actually
your brake pads wearing out.
Disc brake users, they're sat right now, going
"ha ha ha, Dmitrijs!
"Seriously mate, get yourself some disc brakes."
But, don't worry about it, okay, yeah,
it does make a horrible mess,
and braking performance is probably affected slightly,
I mean, at the end of the day, you're in the wet,
so it's never going to be quite as good as it could be,
but, don't worry about it too much,
because when you brake, your brake pads,
more often than not they have little grooves in them
and those grooves move the water away from the rim,
and then they fall down, and that's why
if you look on your front fork, you'll quite often
have bits of this horrible like gunky mess,
which you're talking about there, like black, gray grime,
down the fork legs because it's come out,
and the pressure of the wheel has pushed it back,
and it's run down there, same thing happens on the rear.
Now that stuff is really easy to get off the frame
and forks, unless you've got a matte frame.
Not quite as simple, if you have got a matte frame
by the way and you've got that; WD40 bike cleaner,
really good for that, tends to get it off really well,
but we were talking about your rims, okay...
What I use for it is nice, hot soapy water.
And get yourself a scouring pad,
it depends where you're from, it could well be called
Scotch Brite, I think it's called, and use that,
now it's quite abrasive, its the sort of thing
which you're clean the bottom of your cooking pots
or pans if you burn a lot of food,
which I'm quite experienced at as well, anyway,
you get that, and apply a decent amount of pressure,
but make sure, right, you stay away from the actual
side wall of your tire, because it's quite abrasive,
like I said, and you could well damage that.
Likewise, if you've got black rims, or any colored rims,
that sort of thing, you want to try
and stay away from that too, so try and break it off
into little bits perhaps, just apply
a really small amount of pressure and just work through it,
because what happens is all that oily gunk
is getting caught in the very small grooves
on your braking surfaces normally, and what happens is
it gets stuck in there, and there's one bit
where it always gets stuck, and that is just at the very
top lip of the rim, just where it meets onto the side wall
of the tire, that tends to get real messy as well,
so with that just use a sponge again, hot water,
try and get it as hot as possible 'cause that tends
to shift that grime, now, you don't want it so hot
you're going to burn your hands, in that case get a pair
of marigolds, you know the rubber gloves you would
do the washing up with as well, so, yeah,
when you've finished with the scouring pad,
when you've cleaned out your burnt pads
you can just go straight off and wash your bike with it.
I'm only joking, but, that's the sort of thing you need,
really, just to protect your hands from it,
cause hot water makes a big, big difference with this.
Importantly here, you're not doing anything wrong,
it happens to everyone out there who uses rim brakes,
and when it starts to wear away, your rim brakes
you get through them so quickly those pads,
I remember my dad on his commute, he used to get through
in the winter, sometimes a pair every,
probably every 10 days, with V-brakes on his mountain bike
that's how quick they used to wear down,
you know in traffic, stop, start, stop, start, but yeah,
not doing anything wrong, it just requires
good old fashioned elbow-grease.
Right, final one this week comes in from Pianowcascade.
I often wonder, and I've said it before,
where do you lot get your names from?
Right, anyway, Pianowcascade says,
"will a down tube tension shifter work
"with a Positron Shimano rear derailleur?"
Right, we are stepping back in time now,
about 37 years, I think, Shimano Positron, I think
from 1982, 1983, so, a very basic rear derailleur
I guess you could say, so it's not indexed,
or anything like that.
A down tube shifter, which you've said,
down tube tension shifter, with that, I'm not sure
if you mean a friction or an indexed one because
they're both under tension at some point, but
I'm pretty sure it'll work absolutely fine
with six, seven, eight speed, something like that,
well I reckon six and seven, definitely.
How well it would work with a 10-speed down tube shifter
I don't know, because remember it does work
on a parallelogram-style design, and I don't know how much
movement it has to actually be able to play around with,
but it should work absolutely fine,
this is the time, really when I want a thorough
ask-the-audience, will a down tube tension shifter
work with a Positron rear derailleur?
I was only two years old when that product was released,
so I don't have much experience,
I have actually maintained one, and those derailleurs
back then were actually designed to work
for a friction shifter but, index shifters were introduced
not that long after, and they still worked fine with it,
and on an old bike somewhere, I think it's at my mate
Alice's house, I've even got one of those
Positron rear mechs on there or something very,
very similar, and it's got an indexed down tube system
on there, I think it's got eight speed on there,
so I reckon you'll be okay up to eight, anything more,
(inhales sharply) well yeah, we're treading
into murky waters 'cause I've never tried it myself.
Right, there we are, I hope that answered that question,
if not, someone else, MrGrumpy53, MrGrumpy53
a regular commenter, you will definitely be able
to help that one out, because you seem to know
about a lot of this old stuff, too.
Get involved in the comment section, and like I said
at the start, if you've got a bike-related problem,
let me know about it down there in the comment section
and I will do my utmost best to try and solve it
in a forthcoming episode. Right, remember as well,
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