Remove the rear wheel
Getting to the rear cassette for removal requires the rear wheel to come out of the frame. This job is easier if you can put the bike in a workstand, though it can be done when the bike is on the floor too.

Smallest rear sprocket
Using the rear gear shifter place the chain onto the smallest cassette sprocket to make removal of the rear wheel easier. You can jam the rear derailleur as you try to remove the wheel if left in a larger sprocket.

Undo the rear quick release
Undo the rear quick release (QR). Depending on geometry of the rear drop-outs you may have to take a turn or two off the nut side to allow clean release from the frame. If the bike has a chain hook, use it.

Remove from the frame
With the QR undone, remove the wheel. Hold the rear derailleur body slightly rearwards and tap the top of the tyre with your other hand, this should allow the wheel to fall out of the rear drop-outs.

Remove quick release lever
With the rear wheel now free from the frame you need to remove the QR lever assembly. This should just be a matter of unscrewing the nut end from the threaded section. Slide it out of the hub.

Cassette removal tool
Get your cassette removal tool and insert it into the end of the hub on the cassette side. The splines on the tool should fit snugly inside the splines on the cassette lock ring. Sometimes they can need a wiggle.

Fit chain whip
Using the chain whip wrap the chain around one of the middle sprockets so force applied to the whip locks the cassette into drive. With the removal tool and chain whip in place apply counter rotational force.

Slide the cassette off the freehub
Remove the tools and unwind the last threads of the lock ring before sliding the main body of the cassette off with your fingers. (Wear gloves to keep your hands clean.)

Brakes too far out
Bikes come from the factory or shop with the brakes slid out to the inside edge of the grips. For many this places the lever blade too far outboard, reducing the brake’s power, leverage and sensitivity.

Perfect power
Slide the controls inboard – you’ll need to move the shifters as well as brake levers to get it dialled. The nearer the end of the lever you pull, the less force you’ll use, and the more sensitive and progressive the brake power delivery will feel.

Shifter position
On SRAM shifter pods and Shimano XTRs you can adjust the position of the shifter in relation to its clamp. With SRAM this is a separate clamp mount position (shown). It’s a sliding clamp bracket on Shimano XTR.

Shifter position 2
Brakes with long lever blades may be so far inboard that mounting shifter pods inboard of them would put them out of reach. Refit shifters so clamps are between the grip’s inboard end and brake lever clamp.

New angle
Brake lever angle is a matter of taste, some riders like brakes almost level (horizontal), others like a more vertical position. Most opt for 45 degrees, where the lever blades follow the line of your arm when holding the grips while seated in the saddle.

Dangle angle
A small amount of rotation can make a huge difference to how cleanly you can hit the shifters. This is especially true on SRAM shifter pods where the smaller downshift button can be tricky to access with some brake lever designs.

Bar rotation
Bars have sweep and rise angles so some rotation in the stem clamp can affect how comfortable the bar is to hold. Try a few degrees either way, most bars have sighting lines that you can zero with the stem clamp slot for reference.

Screw up
Keep the bolts for your bar controls well greased and regularly inspected. They need to be just tight enough not to move when you use them, but you want them to move if you crash, as this saves them and the bar from unnecessary damage.

]]> http://magazine.bikeradar.com/2012/03/07/eight-steps-to-fitting-a-hope-head-doctor/feed/ 0 http://magazine.bikeradar.com/2012/02/24/eight-steps-to-caring-for-your-cables/ http://magazine.bikeradar.com/2012/02/24/eight-steps-to-caring-for-your-cables/#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:13:52 +0000 Su Kear http://magazine.bikeradar.com/?p=6549 Follow these simple steps to keep your cables in good nick

Sharp cut
Blunt cable cutters can cause ragged cuts and frayed, kinked ends so buy a new set; even cheap ones will cut well for a while. Don’t whatever you do try to use the wire cutters on multitools or pliers.

Cable ends
One of the biggest crimes against bikes is fitting fresh gear inner cables, trimming them neatly then leaving the ends bare. These raw cut cable ends are sharp and prone to fraying. Small alloy cable ends are cheap and easy to use.

Proper crimping
We recommend at least two passes with the crimper over the cable ends. Most cable cutters have crimping slots on the jaw’s inside edges. Fact: pro mechanics often have a ‘signature’ crimp style that they use to sign off a finished bike.

Solder on
As an alternative to crimping the ends on trimmed cables, place a small drop of solder onto the freshly cut end, just enough to stick the individual wire braids together. Tip: file any excess solder away to achieve a smooth finish.

Clean up
Keeping your inner cables clean is the best way to ensure they last as long and work as effectively as possible. A regular wipe down with a cloth will remove any floating muck, tainted lube or trail debris that may have got into your cables.

Add lube
Some cables come pre-coated with a low friction Teflon, which helps them to slide more effectively inside the outer housing. All cables require some sort of lube to aid sliding inside the housing. Use a light lube and remove and replace it often.

Fresh outers
If you’ve gone to the effort to ensure that your inner cables are fresh and oiled, check that your outer housing isn’t letting you down by being kinked, cracked or just rusty. It will add to the cost but taking care of it will be worth it.

Rubber baffles
Fitting rubber baffles to your inner cables is especially useful in areas where water is likely to run down them and sit on the entry points to the outer cable. The baffles disrupt the flow of the water and help seal the cable outer.

Hit the bottle
Fill a 500ml bottle with 2-3in of degreaser, drop your chain in and shake for a minute. Take the chain out and brush it to remove any gunk. Rinse in clean water, then reprep with lube before wiping away any excess with a rag.

Remove the pedals
You can’t do anything with the pedals still attached to the cranks. Removal is easy as long as you remember that it’s left to loosen and right to tighten – ‘lefty loosey, righty tighty’.

Right rim
Make sure you have the correct replacement rim. Rims vary in their cross-sectional dimensions and a different model replacement can cause your original spokes to be the wrong size. Also check it’s got the correct number of spoke holes.

Loosen spokes
Having removed the tube and rim tape, start at the valve hole and loosen the spokes. Work around the wheel, reducing tension gradually (about half a turn at a time). This avoids placing undue stress on any one spoke. Don’t fully undo them.

Join the rims
Line up the rims so that the stickers on each rim face the same direction then align the valve holes so they’re directly adjacent to each other. Tape the rims tightly together with some electrical tape.

Transfer spokes
Begin at the valve hole and start to unwind spokes from the original rim. Swap them directly sideways so they fit into matching holes on the new rim. By going one by one you don’t need to understand lacing or drive spoke direction.

Starting tension
When you’ve transferred the spokes to the new rim, begin the tensioning process with an even tension on each spoke. Work methodically around the rim, tightening the spokes a turn at a time until the nipple just covers all the spoke threads.

Add tension
Now you can add further tension to the spokes, again using half turns. Starting at the valve for reference, continue until you’re at about half the total tension required. Use your other wheel(s) as a rough guide as to what full tension feels like.

Check dishing
Check the centralisation of the rim in the frame with a ruler or tape. Add tension of one eighth of a turn to the spokes (on a complete side) to pull the rim over to make up for any discrepancies.

Final tension
With the rim evenly positioned in the frame you can add final tension (half a turn at a time). When you reach the correct tension (using your other wheels as a guide), you can fine-tune the trueness of the wheel.

Spokes and nipples
Spokes join the hub to the rim. At the rim end the spoke is machined with a fine-pitch rolled thread for strength. The nipple passes through the rim and screws onto the spoke thread. Spoke tension affects the wheel’s trueness.

Non-driveside rear spokes
The longer non-driveside spokes are generally less tensioned than the driveside spokes, thanks to the way the drive and non-driveside spokes triangulate asymmetrically from the hub to the rim.

Driveside spokes
Driveside spokes carry a lot of drive forces and are often where breakages occur. It can be tricky to finely adjust them, as the tension loads are so great that nipples, particularly when old, can become seized.

Trailside truing
Flip the bike upside down and sit at the rear wheel looking towards the front of the bike. Make adjustments where the rim is nearest the ground and turn spokes clockwise to loosen them and counter-clockwise to tighten.

Quarter turns
Spokes on the driveside pull to the driveside and vice versa. When the pull forces are evenly balanced, the rim is true. Adjusting spoke tension will alter the lateral position of the rim. Make quarter turn adjustments as necessary.

Pairs not singles
Adjustments to re-true a rim are best made to pairs or even triplets of spokes on the same side. This distributes the correction over a wider area of the rim and means less tension is required in a single spoke, which can cause problems.

Zip tie guides
Attach a zip tie to each of the seatstays (or fork legs if truing the front wheel) so the ends run in the direction of wheel rotation and are a millimetre or so from the rim edge. Use as visual guides to check you’re making progress.

Less is often more
If you’ve spent 10 minutes fixing your buckle but are still not making any progress, then it might be time to call in the professionals before irreversible damage occurs. A re-true costs from £10 depending on the severity of the buckle.

Ride before you cut
Before you trim any bar work out if it’s the right thing to do. Consider long ride comfort, possible fitting of bar ends or other bar furniture and remember that wider, shoulder width bars are more comfortable and offer more control.

Set your grips
Before you move to make any cuts try adjusting your grips and controls by the amount that you want to remove. Ride for a few more weeks to see if the new narrower stance is really the one you’re after.

Measure evenly
Don’t risk a crude ‘by-eye’ trim. Use a tape measure, a ruler or even a piece of string with a knot in it to ensure that you’re removing the same amount from each end of the bar. Wonky won’t do.

Mark with tape
When you’ve got the amount to be trimmed nailed, mark the cutting point with masking tape. Make neat parallel wraps with only the cutting mark exposed as a visual guide. You can use the end of a lock-on step grip to give you a square cut.

Roll cut alloy
If you’re using a roll cutter retract the blade, then slide the bar though the tool. Locate the blade edge onto the cut marks and lightly snug the blade down. Begin rolling the tool around the bar. Increase the blade pressure gradually and the bar will cut.

Hacksaw carbon
Carbon bars require the cut marks to be covered again with some masking tape. This stops the ends of the carbon from splintering. Use a new hacksaw blade with a fine pitch and remember that blade speed makes a neater cut.

File the ends
When you have achieved your cut, you need to finish the ends of the bar neatly, not only for looks, but for safety reasons too. Sharp alloy burrs or carbon splinters are very painful. Use a fine file to remove the rough edges.

Fit some plugs
Fit a set of plastic bar plugs. They don’t weigh anything and stop your bar from filling up with mud every time you drop the bike. You might have to shave the fins a bit with a sharp blade to make them fit some bars.

Get set
You need to access the whole length of gear cable so the first step is to make some slack in the gear cable in order to unhitch it from the frame without undoing the cable pinch bolt. Shift the chain to the biggest rear sprocket.

Down shift
Once the cable is at maximum payout in the big sprocket, downshift the shifter all the way to the end, but don’t turn the cranks. Because the derailleur doesn’t move you will end up with a loop of slack inner cable.

Unhitched
Use the slack in the inner wire to jiggle the plastic cable ends from the slotted cable guides, which are fixed to the frame. This will allow you to expose pretty much all the inner cable with a bit of shuffling of the sections of cable outer housing.

Apply lube
Apply a dry lube to the inner cable. Use a clean, dry, lint-free rag, making sure it doesn’t have fibres that will be left on the inner cable, to lessen dirt-trapping potential. If the cable is dirty or rusty, clean it first using the lubed rag.

Run Ragged
Once clean, lube the cable using a clean bit of rag with a generous squirt of fresh lube on it. Slide the rag under sections of inner cable and run the cable through the lube patch. Let the cable soak up the lube for a second or two to ensure a thorough finish.

Grease is the word
In winter or when it’s wet, slip the metal or plastic outer cable ends off and apply some grease inside the cable end. This partly seals off the aperture where the cable passes through, reducing water ingress inside the cable outers.

Run the outer up and down
When you’ve got the inner cable covered in lube, run the sections of outer housing up and down the cable. This helps introduce lube to the inside of the housing. Clip the sections of housing back into place.

Just because summer is the season for blue skies, dusty trails and warm breezes, it doesn’t mean that it’s any easier on your bike than the cold, dark winter was. Follow our simple steps to ensure you spend every possible moment of this summer riding and not wrenching.
All the steps are ones the WMB test team has been employing for years, so you know they work. You may already do some of these yourself, and others may be new – but give them a go and we think you’ll enjoy more performance and less hassle on the trails. Of all the tips, fitting a semi-slick or lower profile tyre on the rear and sealing your tyres will make the most difference to your riding.

1 Brakes
The first job is to bleed your brakes, but don’t overlook your brake pads. Damaged or thin pads – those with less than 1mm of pad material – should be replaced.

2 Gears
Look out for narrow tracks with tall grass on either side, as these grasses can break off as you ride past and become tangled in the sprockets and jockey wheels. This can gum up the transmission as fast as any winter bog.

3 Drive
Dust can cause as much damage as wet mud if you leave it to turn into a dry grinding paste, so get the chain clean and keep it clean. Using a dry or even wax lube on the chain – and cleaning it off and replacing it as regularly as possible – will help keep your summer transmission running smoothly. Don’t forget the chainrings and pedals either.

4 Computer
There’s no time like the summer to start upping your fitness with some longer rides, and fitting a computer will let you monitor your progress and help keep you motivated. Basic ones act like a digital speedo and odometer and, as you go up in price, you’ll find handy features like heart rate monitoring and lap counters. Fit one and get logging.

5 Tyres and tubes
For most summer cross-country (XC) rides you can opt for lighter weight tyres and inner tubes, and tubeless users can go light as well; using an anti-puncture sealant will mean less punctures and a better ride. Try a narrower semi-slick on the rear with a wider treaded pattern up front for optimum dry running.

6 Suspension
Forks tend to get very dusty stanchions on dry summer rides as some run slightly ‘wet’. Make sure you give them a dry wipedown between rides. Using a dry cloth to keep them clean reduces the chances of dirt making it past the fork seals. Rear suspension units tend to run dryer than forks, but they do get a bit grimy. Being precision parts, they work better when not choked with dust and dirt so make sure you give them a regular clean with a bit of soapy water and an old toothbrush.

Click through to the next page for our step-by-step guide to getting your bike ready for summer, from checking the frame and wheels to sealing your tyres