Happy and satisfied with self (DIY) repairs on MTB

Wheels of Happiness

During the last few days, the MTB, both the SAVA and Twitter had difficulties subject to repair. These were done by myself and the LBS.

1.  The FD of the Sava Ti bike would not switch.

      I thought the FD, an XT was toast.   I brought this to the LBS, who sprayed degreaser on the pivot

      and reinstalled the cables which prayed.    However this was a short lived solution

      This post tried another tack before pursuing a replacement.   I removed the FD from its mount to have a better view of the crud that accumulatetd and the pivot (bearings) of the FD. And saw the culprit  end cable cap jammed the mechanism which I dutifully removed.   Ergo the FD worked again.   

2.  Worn out front disc brake pad, new one would not fit

     The SAVA bike showed hissing sound whenever this post braked downhill.   And the disc seemed to      be warped as the  brake lever was pressed.  However, upon examination, the brake pad was worn out       and  there was all ready a metal to metal contact.   The other piston was all ready out by about 2 mm      due to  the brake pad wear.

     It was good that I had resin pad with fins at hand.  However as I reinstalled, the caliper would not fit 

     into the disc.   What could be solution.?   Reinstalling the worn out pads, this post pried open the              opening so that the piston would sit flush to the caliper.   That did it.  I was able to reinstall

      the pads without further hitch

 3.  Repairing the flat with very tiny puncture

      The Twitter bike rear wheel got a flast.  However, I could not find the site of puncture at the

      exterior, and the interior.  The bike has been used by another member of the household.

      I installed a new interior.   As soon as this post got home the tire was soft again and then became

      flat again.

     How to find the hole.  ?

     It took me one whole afternoon to find the puncture.  The culprit was a fine staple wire that protuded

     from inside teh interior.  It took a long nose plier to remove the culprit.

     The next difficulty was finding the puncture at the interior (I had two punctures).   It was not

      visible to ordinary water submerge test.   Reason, the bubbles were tiny and came at out very

      slowly.  It was difficutl marking the puncture.   But the will power prevailed.   And eventually

      solved the puncture porblem