Dieter is the kind of bike nerd mechanic that every good bike shop should want. He is endlessly enthusiastic about getting people of all kinds onto bikes of all sorts. He can fix your bike even when the outlook looks bleak. Go for a ride with him and you’ll probably end up doing high fives and exclaiming ‘sick!’. In short, he has boundless enthusiasm for all things bike. He’s also a bit of a socially conscious punk environmentalist, so he’s probably a bit rubbish if your bike shop is one of those glittering concept store type places where it doesn’t smell of rubber and GT85 (Or WD40). Luckily for him, and us, he works at our local social enterprise bike shop, and we’ve talked him into bringing us a few of his more ingenious and interesting fixes, alongside whatever commentary he might like to get off his chest. We hope you enjoy…
I hate the mountain bike industry.
Don’t get me wrong I also love the mountain bike industry – the opportunities it’s afforded me over my career I couldn’t have found anywhere else. I love what I do and without it I would be hopelessly lost in the world!
As far as general life skills outside of fixing bikes go, my repertoire is severely limited. For confirmation just ask my ever patient partner how many holes are drilled in our wall to fit a cat shelf that only required two bolts…
But my issue with the mountain bike industry is the enormous disposability of it. You shouldn’t need to buy a new fork just because your 2014 model year one doesn’t have service parts available, especially seeing as 99% of fork service parts are just standard sized o-rings. Psssst, hey fork manufacturers, How about an online, easy for the consumer to find, exploded diagram of each new fork/damper with the relevant o-ring sizes, so in 10 years time when I come to service them I can still have a good go! (And yes, as much as you’d like to sell them new ones people will still be riding your forks from today in 10 years’ time).
A leaky brake piston shouldn’t warrant a whole new caliper on a brand new 2021 brake, not when two caliper seals cost pennies to make. We need to take into account the impact that each of these parts that just end up thrown away as unserviceable have on the world. All that aluminium starts its life being strip mined out of the earth creating long term health and environmental issues for the people, animals and fauna in the surrounding areas. And yeah you can use recycled aluminium which uses only 5% of the energy of refining aluminium from bauxite ore but to recycle aluminium you still have to keep the furnaces burning with good ol’ coal…
Shouldn’t the cycling industry as a whole, especially seeing as it tends to be viewed as a ‘green’ industry, be doing its level best to make sure its impact on the planet is kept to as minimal a level as possible?
I’m not trying to stifle progression here. I don’t want to see brands stop releasing new bikes and parts. Obviously as the years go by the technology that is used is going to improve massively, but I’d just like to see some more attention paid to keeping the parts people already have still going.
So maybe this article isn’t written aimed at the new bike every season or two, up to date space age fabric wearing, religiously ride data checking side of the Singletrack readership, but I know there are still plenty of die-hard, let’s call them ‘classic’ ,mountain bike riders out there still riding on their 7-8-9 speed, triple ringed, 26 inch wheeled bikes with the exact same gusto as that guy on the electric geared, carbon, 29 inch wheeled dream machine in fluoro pyjamas*. People keeping their old bikes going with a blend of bodges, ebay finds and parts salvaged from friends that have traded up to the latest and greatest.
This one is for them!
*that’s not to say you won’t enjoy reading this if you do ride an electric dream machine, but the things I’m about to show you aren’t due to happen to your bike for approximately 6-8 years…
Case study #1
This severely mangled axle in Maxle in a Rockshox fork.
Not only is it missing the quick release lever assembly entirely, the slot that the QR lever would fit into to undo or tighten the axle is heavily damaged. This is a well known issue with Maxles of this vintage, it was addressed in later models with a much neater cam mechanism similar to the Fox/Shimano 15mm axle.
But with parts shortages replacement axles aren’t currently available, not to mention the client is on a limited budget. What can we do to get this going again?
A quick root around in the spare quick release lever box in the shop and I found this lever. It has a nice big cam on it as close as I could find to the original Rockshox one.
A vernier into the main axle tells us what length we need to cut it down to.
This is one part where it really helps to have a box of all those random bolts, washers, and other assorted twiddly bits scavenged from parts over the years! If you don’t have a box like this of your own I’d recommend not only getting a box and starting one, but also making good friends with the folks at your local bike shop so they might let you raid theirs from time to time.
If you keep your random parts box well fed with random parts it will always serve you well.
In this case it had this wedgy piece (I think wedgy piece is the official Rockshox part code for it), which happened to be the exact wedgy piece I needed.
Next up after trimming the quick release skewer down to length is to tap some fresh threads into the remaining length. Always remember: half turn on, third of a turn back, and lots of cutting fluid!
Then it’s time to tidy up the mangled faces of the axle so the quick release lever has something to sit home into.
A quick bit of Dremel action and a few passes with a file and it’s looking loads better.
I’m one of the few mechanics in the UK with access to Rita Ora’s upcoming new bike maintenance range. This is a sneak peek of her new reanodiser (TM). Look out for the full range at your local bike shop or Superdrug soon!
All the ingredients ready for reassembly.
Everything assembled and back together, plenty of grease on the back of the cam helps to clamp the axle much tighter for way less effort and wear on the cam.
Looks neat, and works a treat!
You have until midday on the 8th October 2021 to order one of these very special watches.
