Cycling UK Forum

Cyclothesist

I bought a new Raleigh Ti3000 mountain bike back in 1991. It's gone through a few parts over the years- chains, cassettes, tyres, replacement stem, bars, saddle, cantis replaced with v brakes, several fork rebuilds etc. In all those years the wheels have just stayed true and smooth. The bike has seen a lot of mud, grit and water. After 32+ years of trouble free running I thought just maybe I should service the Parallax M563 hubs. Yeah I know.
Front and rear came apart easily and unscrewing the left cone on each revealed pristine looking cups, cones and bearings. There was even a healthy and clean looking measure of blue/green grease in there. I was both delighted and amazed. Those bearing seals really work. And it was clearly before the time Shimano started scrimping on bearing grease. I repacked the bearings with a generous helping of marine grease, readjusted and put the wheels back. Those old Shimano cup and cone bearings are truly impressive.
I had a different experience servicing the Shimano RX31 hubs on my cyclocross. There was hardly any grease in the cup and cone bearings front and rear. Water had got in on the rear driveside. I was lucky that the rear bearing surfaces were fine once cleaned up. They are now packed with marine grease but I'm not expecting them to last 30yrs.

Cyclothesist

I love this forum. It's an education and inspires me to look things up. Never heard of a Nu vinci hub 'til now. Discovered it's an ingeneious CVT hub gear using tilting ball axis to vary the transmission ratio. Also discovered this type of CVT is 70-90% efficient. Though allegedly the manufacturer of the Nu Vinci hub never published efficiency figures (ref Wikipedia). Heavy too. Not that great for a human powered bicycle. No wonder cycle tramp found it tiring!

Cyclothesist

JohnR wrote: ↑8 Apr 2024, 8:26pm
peetee wrote: ↑8 Apr 2024, 6:41pm Shimano Tiagra 12-28
To be fair, Shimano do say you should use a Shimano chain within this groupset. Normally I treat such self-interest with scepticism but looks like there is some truth to it after all.
I've had good experience, so far, with the KMC X series chains.

+1

Cyclothesist

Thanks Pebble. I can visualise it now. Essentially steepening the right hand ramps on the sprocket. That in effect moves the valleys a tiny bit clockwise around the sprocket and makes the teeth in between tall and spiky. A precision job to do it well. If you get it wrong the load bearing engagement between chain and teeth could end up on just the one tooth and link. Turning the sprocket over is much more appealing.

Cyclothesist

maanderx wrote: ↑8 Apr 2024, 8:02am
531colin wrote: ↑4 Apr 2024, 1:49pm I’ve got an SL4, nice bike …. I wouldn’t fall out over something as simple as gear adjustment, I might need the shop for the electrics!

Put it on the stand, put it in bottom gear, shove the R. Mech. with your thumb, adjust the low gear limit stop so the mech. won’t go past bottom gear, but will go straight into bottom gear.
Now you can adjust cable tension safe in the knowledge that the limit stop is right.
Simples?
Just to be clear; shove in which direction?

Towards the spokes of the wheel.

Cyclothesist

A diagram would really help here. Worn sprockets have lost material. I can understand removing the hooks can temporarily help reduce chainsuck on a worn chainwheel but on a sprocket the problem is the chain slipping due to loss of material on the teeth to engage with the chain (ignoring any contribution from chain wear). I'm struggling to understand how removing more material from the sprocket is going to help much. Filing down the valley between the teeth will reduce the circumference of the sprocket which needs to correspond to a multiple of the chain link length if the chain is to mesh properly. To fix the worn sprocket you really need to put material back and reprofile the teeth and valleys. Or am I misunderstanding?

Cyclothesist

There's a good article on the subject here:
https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/sizing ... or-cycling
Personally I have found switching to 165mm cranks has helped with pain from patellofemoral syndrome with a minor increase in power and speed. Smaller cranks make a difference for how far the knee and the hip have to bend at the top of the stroke. That reduces some if the biomechanical strains on the joints, ligaments and tendons around the knees and hips. If you switch to smaller cranks expect to need to put your saddle up by a similar amount to keep your leg extension in the optimal zone.
I'm 1.73m talll with an 80cm inside leg.

Cyclothesist

Brucey wrote: ↑7 Apr 2024, 6:32pm
jb wrote:..... With a dremmel or a die grinder it could possibly be quite a quick process to knock back the ramps without to much precision needed. However I'm now far to rich to be buttocked to do such jobs - as I suspect are the majority of folk hereabouts.
currently 12s cassettes start around £50 retail and go on up to ~£330 or so. Call me a cheapskate if you like but that does motivate me.

And that's why I've stuck at 10s with a 2x set up. Much more cost effective. 11-34 HG500 10s cassette currently £22.99 at Tredz. At that price it's really not worth my time.

Cyclothesist

Sounds like a fiddly job. I've never done this but for what it's worth I'd advise tackling it well away from a cluttered environment or anything with fridge suck. I've pictured the ideal workstation. Good luck!

Cyclothesist

The pictures without the rim tape are telling. Lots of corrosion around the valve hole and adjacent spoke holes with a fracture line running between them. That does look like saltwater ingress through the valve and nipple holes. Brucey has written a lot on stress-corrosion cracking on this forum viewtopic.php?p=1228148&hilit=corrosion ... k#p1228148

The vaseline idea is a good one. I used to do the same on an old Viking BSO racer I had when a student in the 80s. It worked well but you had to be very careful not to get any on the braking surface of the steel rims.

Cyclothesist

Pebble wrote: ↑3 Apr 2024, 2:54pm ........
- running my chains out from 0.6 to 1.25 %

What does that do for chainwheel wear? I can't imagine it's good.

Cyclothesist

Cowsham wrote: ↑4 Apr 2024, 8:58am
Brucey wrote: ↑3 Apr 2024, 8:47pm
scottg wrote: ↑3 Apr 2024, 7:27pm.....Now what can you do with a sack of 11t cogs ?
give them to MickF
Or me cos that's the one I wear out on my mtb

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255078792375 ... media=COPY

Probably better than sending to Mick F. In a previous post he was railing against 11t sprockets because they wear out so fast (viewtopic.php?p=1793896#p1793896). I see Brucey has an evil sense of humour

Cyclothesist

Brucey wrote: ↑3 Apr 2024, 7:06pm
Also, it is possible to use waxoyl to corrosion-proof a rim's hollow sections, even if the rim is double-eyeletted. The trick here is to introduce the waxoyl via the valve drilling, then to use heat to melt it and ensure that it penetrates everywhere. You can use a heat gun or blowtorch to heat the rim locally, whilst allowing gravity to propel the heated material. Some waxoyl tends to 'bleed' from every double eyelet, so you can gauge your progress even if you cannot see the waxoyl directly. If you just want the thinnest coating, it is possible to hang the rim up so the valve hole is at the bottom, then 'chase' any surplus waxoyl out of the rim top to bottom using local heating again. You can be sure that you are not overheating the rim by temporarily installing something like a damp rim tape of the kind commonly used in Westwood rims. If the wet tape starts to steam vigourously, you can be sure that the rim is above 100C. This also applies to a built wheel, too.

When I first did this, I was a bit concerned that if the rim ever got hot in service waxoyl might come flooding out, or that the waxoyl might attack the tube. However, provided the coating is suitably thin, and the rim tape is of the right kind, it seems that such worries are without foundation. One concern that probably isn't baseless is that the waxoyl might penetrate the spoke threads of a freshly-built wheel (that doesn't have double eyelets) and help the nipples to back out. Correct use of threadlock compound prior to the waxoyl treatment is advised.

Brucey would ACF-50 be a good substitute that doesn't require heating? It's reputedly kind to rubber too. I really don't like the idea of applying a blow torch to my nice wheels.

Cyclothesist

I've only just discovered the topic title is editable.

Cyclothesist

cycle tramp wrote: ↑3 Apr 2024, 6:22pm
Nicholas wrote: ↑3 Apr 2024, 1:48pm
I don't see the point of these polls.
Have you tried raising your handlebars to give better visibility?

Cycling UK Forum

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Praise for Shimano Parallax M563 hubs, and a shameful admission

Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Re: Shimano/SRAM incompatible now?

Re: save your sprockets!

Re: Bad adjustment or normality ?

Re: save your sprockets!

Re: crank length

Re: save your sprockets!

Re: TRP HY/RD Cable Hydraulic Calipers - replace lock knob retainging clip

Re: Protecting wheel rim from salt-induced corrosion

Re: save your sprockets!

Re: 9-spd cassette on 7-spd hub - it fits!

Re: Protecting wheel rim from salt-induced corrosion

Re: Connecting Batteries in "Parallel"

Re: Handlebar height