[Closed] Anyone else this useless at bike maintenance?

There isn't a right way round for a front wheel. I would guess that the wheel has been built badly and the rim is not centred. The brakes have been adjust for where the rim is (off centre) so will only work one way round.

^ that.

The main way to tell on a non-disc front wheel is that the quick release lever should be on the non-drive side. If that fails (eg you have a bolt-up hub) then you'd have to look at tyre direction, although that will only help if you have a directional tyre!

Anyone else this useless at bike maintenance?

Find any of the threads by "grannyjone" about why his bike keeps falling apart.... 😉

Northwind northwind northwind.

I once tried bleeding the front caliper and rear brake lever, in my defence I run my brakes euro style and it actually did make both brakes a bit better.

If you like to line your tyre logos up with the valves then you'll probably also want the front wheel in the way round so you can read the logo on the hub when sat on the bike.

akira Subscriber

I once tried bleeding the front caliper and rear brake lever

I've done this before & took a while to work out why I couldn't get any fluid to transfer from the syringe at the lever to the syringe at the caliper 🙂

I've also put a disc front wheel in the wrong way round and then scratched my head for a minute or two wondering why the spokes were fouling the caliper, completely failing to realise that the rotor was not passing through the caliper...!

There isn’t a right way round for a front wheel.

There is, the lacing of the spokes will give it away.

Putting a new tyre on and my logo's and valve were slightly misaligned.
Slid the tyre along the rim to line up but caught my little finger on a spoke and fractured a metacarpal...

I once couldn’t get a power link to snap into place, despite jumping up and down on the pedals with the brakes on. Much frustration, until I realised the link wasn’t on the part of the chain under tension....

trick is to pull the spoke to line the rim up central and then nip the qr up

[strong]joshvegas[/strong] wrote:

Northwind northwind northwind.

Anyone else this useless at bike maintenance?

Yes me definitely
I don't seem to "get" anything when it comes to bike maintenance and after 5 years of biking I still rely on local mechanic for anything that's harder than changing a tyre or putting a new chain on.

Servicing fork lowers- I managed to put the lowers on the wrong way round. Only realised when I was finishing up..

I know it's not bike maintenance, but today I found myself trying to help a postgrad in the lab. She was struggling to get a new balance to tare, and give a reading. No matter what button or menu we went through, the thing stubbornly refused to register anything other than 0.0mg. A good few minutes of head scratching and random button pressing ensued...

Then I lifted the weigh boat up, and removed the protective lid that sits over the balance plate....

I swore I'd never speak of it to anyone, but I can trust you lot, can't I?

Yes me definitely
I don’t seem to “get” anything when it comes to bike maintenance and after 5 years of biking I still rely on local mechanic for anything that’s harder than changing a tyre or putting a new chain on.

You are not alone my friend. It took me literally hours to line up a rear wheel on a single speed bike. It just wouldn’t sit straight no matter what I did. I now take my bike to a competent adult for anything remotely tricky.

Well I did find a random ziplock bag in the garage that turned out to be a reverb that I took to bits about a year ago and now have no recollection of how it goes together... But that just doesn't make a good tshirt 🙁

Servicing fork lowers- I managed to put the lowers on the wrong way round. Only realised when I was finishing up..

I've done that but didn't spot it straight away.. I told my mate I was experimenting with shorter / negative offsets lol!

While using a finger to spin the cranks backwards with the bike in a workstand I managed to trap my fingertip between the front mech cage and chainring - which is a 3mm gap. Cue trip to a&e to have the nail re-bedded and some stitches where the teeth went into the flesh.

Apart from that I'm genuinely awesome at bike fixering.

I've stripped my bikes down, and built them back up, even built a bike from a bare frame and components. But 95% of the time I'll thread the chain on the wrong side, between the jockey wheels, through the rear derailleur

I spent 2 hours trying to press a headset into a bike. Gave up, called lbs the next day and found out it just sat in the cup, no pressing required.

Also really bad for ****ing up pedals. just can never remember which one turns which way first time.

My other half, but not so much useless as chaotic. Swqpping bits from one frame onto another, you strip the bits you need off one and stick them on the new one, right? Nope. Randomly attack the old bike, take bits off it and put it down somewhere else. How you can spread tools and bits of MTB across a 6m x 5m garden and into the shed is beyond me.

Once in the car park I put the wheel back in – correct way round. All is well. I didn’t know there was a right way – and without disc brakes how do you know!!!!

A little arrow on the tyre showing rotational direction is often the giveaway. 👍

spent about 20mins battering hell out of a hope hub trying to fit a bearing, only to realise that there was already a bearing in that side.

My classics are pedals that just refuse to budge, same for bottom bracket cups. Oh yeah, left hand thread.

I once trimmed a brake cable end, only it wasn’t the end, it was the bit that you need for braking.

Faulty chain that wouldn’t sit on a narrow wide chainring. Took a Good half hour to realise how they work.

And my ultimate favourite. Built new bike and just wouldn’t shift the rear gears. All was fine in the workshop. All I had done was wrap loads of insulating tape around the chainstay to protect it, not realising the gear cable was underneath and so not able to operate. I amaze myself sometimes.

And my ultimate favourite. Built new bike and just wouldn’t shift the rear gears. All was fine in the workshop. All I had done was wrap loads of insulating tape around the chainstay to protect it, not realising the gear cable was underneath and so not able to operate. I amaze myself sometimes.

I once connected the brake cable from a pair of road shifters to the rear Mech, couldn't understand why the cable was such a pig to thread into the mech nor why the gears wouldn't shift at all. annoyed I took it out of the stand to hang up and revisit tomorrow, pulled the lever as I lifted the bike and heard the Mech click. Doh.

Doubly annoying as it meant I'd trimmed the shifter cable to fit the front brake.

Yes, I've clamped cables in the stand before too! You brought back some good memories.