It’s been a weird and sad start to the year at Happy Days this year. On the first day back after Christmas our beloved shop dog Charlie wandered off on his morning walk, sparking a search to find him that it seemed like the whole Calder Valley was involved in. Unfortunately, especially given the incredible effort everybody went to to search for him, it was a sad outcome in the end and we had a few very rough weeks in the shop missing our chief bike checker very much.
As well as being distracted by our missing hound I’ve not had that many properly weird jobs or bodges in the stand over the last month. But I’ve had a few quickies in that have had a couple of interesting fixes so I’ll ramble on about those for a while and see where we get to.
We’ll start off with a control switch off a Giant E-bike with a broken hinge. This is a bike I see A LOT! Its owner rides it constantly and I don’t think he’ll mind me saying that he could definitely take better care of it! As well as its lack of maintenance routine its owner also has a slight propensity for riding it into solid objects every now and again, which had caused the hinge to break on the bike’s power controller.
The unit was still in a totally workable state except for the cheap plastic hinge so it seems a shame to have to replace it completely, especially seeing as a replacement is over £60.00. On another note maybe handlebar mounted ebike controls need to be built a bit more like bike parts than computer parts. A cheap plastic mount may be ok for a 50p reflector but a £60-£100 controller should maybe have a slightly more robust method of attachment so it doesn’t, oh I don’t know, snap off at the hinge leaving you with a hefty bill if you don’t have a crafty enough mechanic?
So anyway… to get it going again all that was needed were a couple of tactically drilled holes and every cyclist’s best friend one humble cable tie. I’m willing to bet that this is a stronger connection than the original hinge and on the off chance it does break again we always have more cable ties.
Next up is our Saturday boy and his constant dropper post woes. Young Jack likes to ride his bike a lot,(I’m noticing a theme here). He doesn’t like to maintain it though. He claims that he does but just a cursory glance over his bike will tell you a very different story.
He came in last Saturday complaining about his Whyte branded dropper post “not popping up” correctly and being stiff to drop as well. So basically not performing any of the functions it is supposed to.
We dropped the post out and started to disassemble it. The main seal was torn and the post was full of more grit than Clint Eastwood’s entire filmography. Actually removing the stanchion tube of the post from the lower took a lot more body english than I really felt comfortable with but enough grip it finally dug itself out of the gunk.
The post is a simple cartridge affair (pretty sure it’s a rebranded BrandX) so not loads to do to service it other than cleaning and lubricating it and then putting it back together. That damaged seal is gonna be more of an issue though and I don’t have any in the shop to replace it with so young Jack can ride this week.
I do however have this rather lovely set of Chili branded dual crown forks! They were destined for the scrap pile, the only reason they’d had a reprieve this long was because a friend recently left a set of Marzocchi Monster T’s with me while he’s in the states and I was enjoying the juxtaposition of one of the worlds’ biggest dual crown forks sat next to the world’s twiddliest little dual crown fork!
It must have been bike shop serendipity striking once again convincing me to keep them around, as a quick measure of the stanchions reveals they’re actually the exact same size as the dropper’s shaft.
Upon removing the seals from the fork I found that they were way too wide to fit into the dropper’s seal head so a bit of customisation would be needed.
After a little while whizzing away at it with my Dremel it’s a real nice fit, ready to start its new life as a dropper post seal.
A quick reassembly with plenty of fresh grease and it’s back in the game. This isn’t a repair I’d generally do to a customer’s bike but it saves Jack a few quid to spend on some of the other parts he so desperately needs to keep his steed off-road worthy.
Last up this month is what to do if your rabbit eats your entire moulded rubber chainstay protector!
I had this Trek in for a full strip and rebuild after a few hard seasons and also a rabbit attack. Almost the entire chainstay protector had been chewed off along with the grips and any other exposed rubber – except the tyres, for some strange reason.
We could have just gone for the traditional Lizard Skins neoprene chainstay protector but they look tatty before long and I wanted something a bit neater.
Upstairs at Happy Days we have our giant tyre stack full of second hand or part worn tyres. It’s the bane of our lives as far as keeping Upstairs tidy goes, constantly threatening to topple over and create an ungodly tangle of rubber and bikes , but it’s great if you have a kid come in for a puncture repair who’s riding on treadbare tyres and can’t afford a new set, we can set them loose on the pile and 99% of the time they can get themselves a much fresher set for free or at most a few quid.
The giant tyre stack also comes in real handy for making chainstay protectors, I knew that there was a load of worn out full slick Michelin road tyres tucked away in there somewhere and with a little rooting I struck gold.
A bit of cutting to fit and a soak in some isopropyl alcohol to remove any dirt or grease from the inside of the tyre and a similar deep clean on the frame so both surfaces are as clean as possible.
I then used some tough double sided tape to attach the rubber strips to the frame and wrapped the whole thing in insulation tape to create a strong bond between the frame and the rubber. I left the insulation tape on for nearly a week and when it was removed the tyre was totally bonded to the frame, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out and I’m confident that it’ll last at least as well as the original did.
Let’s just hope it’s stored away from the rabbit in future!
And here’s Dieter removing a stuck seatpost. Give that man a lever and he’ll move the earth…
