Shimano Ultegra 6700 shifter repair/rebuild

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I used to have these shifters:    6700 and 6800.   I never had difficulty with these shifters.  But this is a guide in case something turns out bad.  It turns out with ridgid training one can do this.  One needs good memory and good spatial logic

Do not try this.  Let the mechanic do this repair.

SRAM shifter rebuild

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Steps:

1.  Remove shifter from handlebar

2.  Remove hood

3.  Remove cable.

4.  Remove cover removing the three screw.  Shift to No. 7 pawl

5.  Remoge the screwa holding pin for the drum

6.  Remove pin

7.  Replace the drum from the donor shifter

8.  Replace the cover

9.  Insert cable

 10.  Replace the hood.     

Repair of sram Red shifter. I only spent P800..00 for this with Mario

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I encountered the same problem with the same problem with my SRAM red shifter.  The drum cylinder where the head of the cable shifter was inserted.  The outer lip shattered and the cable head would not get installed_  it would slip.

The solutions available were :   buy a new shifter, or get a new nylon drum cylinder.  But it SRAM does not support its old shifter with parts.   There was one available at Bike Inn which would set me back by $500.00 (same at Ebay)   We paid all ready but Bike inn notified that it ran out of stock. 

So I ran out of solution.   Just buy the new SRAM 22, or wait for SRAM shifter at the Marketplace.   

I brought this to Mario and he came up with a brilliant solution.  He plastic welded the drum nylon cylinder.  SOLVED.  Only for P800.00.  It could have been P25,000.!!

(I let him do this because the other problem I had was threading the internal cable at the internal cabling system -  it is too much of a hassle)

Why do Pros in tours use bigger chain rings?

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1.  They can run at 60 kph+

2.   Less friction of chains are in middle cogs.   Therefore more efficient.

Why do Pros use bigger chain rings?

Bike repair and improvements are great teacher - and exercise for the brain and hands

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Since this post was not able to bike today, I made the following improvements on my Ti MTB

1. Crank bolt pre load.  Adjusted the preload as advised by GCN.   I loosened the pinch bolt, hand tighteend the crank bolt, and then tightened the pinch bolt.   The crank spun more freely.

2. Cmpression ring. The headset kept on getting loose.  It must be the compression nring that was left out.   So I reinstalled the compression ring.  Hopefully the problem is solved.

3.  Second life to headset bearing.  This post spent P500.00 for headset replacement.  But all that were replaced were two berarings:  the 55 and 44 mm od bearing.   And so I reviewed the parts that were salvaged and they were shells of two bearing.  There was the plastic band that encased the braring for the bottom and two other shells for the top.    The top bearing shell lacked three bearings.  And the top bearing lacked about 20 - 24.  It was good that there were spare 1/8" bearing (left over for the hub repair I bought from Sising.   Sure enough, I was able to reassemble the two top and bottom berarings.   That should save me about P500.00 next time

Bike repair really teach you a lot -  how to repair, improvise and think

Important things to remember in rd and hub assembly disassembly

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When I diassembled the rd and hub  of the TI mtb, this post forgot certain key points:

1.   For the RD: (Deore XT 8000) no clutch

     1.   When you reinstall the rd, there is a stopper that must be at the bottom and the rid cage must slant 180% not 90 degrees.  When I did not observe this the consequences were:

           1.  The central pulley bumps into the chain stay and the 11 cog dfoes not shift;

           2.  The limit screw does not work,

           3.   You cant remove the ws assembly

 2.  For the RD again   When reassembling the spring assembly, you must turn the cage 180 degrees.   Watch the YT video well, adn you can clear the cable attachment by playing with the parallelogram.  It may look like an impossible puzzle to you (but that is whre thinking out of the box in space topology works)

  2.   The axle lentgth  -  It must be longer at the non drive side and not at the drive side, otherwise, again, you cant shift properly nor get the WS out

   

Non bike post - Caitlin Clark outstanding WNBA rookie and getting the same noticed

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Caitlin Clark of Indiana Fever is doing spectaculary at WNBA.  She is getting the WNBA noticed by many sports fan.   She did triple double double .

She brings excitement and awareness to lady basketballers.  WNBA

Hurrah       

Getting your tire pressure right

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You might buy an expensive tire and get the tire pressure wrong;   it is better to have an inexpensive tire but right tire pressure.

Am switching to low priced tires.

Worked the whole afternoon getting my TI MTB in tip top condition.

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On my bike ride to Wawa, I noticed the shifting to be hard.   The headset problem has been solved.  Now its the time to look after the drive train.  These were the things I did:

1.  First, this post disassembled and soaked the rd and fd in degreaser and cleaned them well.  Then the oiled the pivot points.  However I could not get the main spring have the proper tension.   I could only get

the cage to 90 degrees vertical not at horizontal.  Therefore the chain was slack  II tried a dozen times to get the tension of spring back.

2.  I researched at YT and found out that I have to rotate the cage clockwise by at least 180 degrees.  This I could not do since I observed the part that attaches to the cable gets into the way.  (You will be surprised that I was not thnking outside the box.  )  It looked immovable.  The only way out is to move the spring by other means.   I gave up on my DIY and went to the bike mechanic,   He proposed creating a tool to rotate the spring.  Later on he found like solving a puzzle that the parrallelogram can be moved and the cage can be rotated 180 degrees.  Voila.  I gave him P50.00 for the effort.

3.  Then I found out that the cable inside was rusted.   So I had to replace the outer too.   And so I looked for  full length shifter cable and I found one.  My waterloo there is inserting the cable at the changer.   I entangled a cable before.   I had smooth sailing this time.   I replaced the outer at the last 20 cm portion of the cable near the RD.

4.  It took me 4 tries to get the cable to the right tension.  And I had to adjust the limit screws.  The bike would not shift to the biggest and smallest gear.   

5.  Then the rd would not shift back to the lowest gear.  I found out that the upper pulley was hitting the chain stay.  So thats where the B screw adjustment came in.  I scewed in the B screw to clear off the chain stay.   

Perfect.  Now the Ti MTB is a Ok.   But was tired.   Finished at 7:00

Biked to Wawa Eco park this morning

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This post biked to Wawa Ecopark this morning.  I observed that the the lake has overflowed to the road works of the eco park.  There was lot of water lily intrusion.  A number, including a cyclist were angling for fisth.  There was one MTB rider and I took his picture and posted the same at social media.

The water concessionaires must be smiling because they have plenty of water.   God has blessed them (Maynilad and Manila water) with bountiful water supply -   free.  

Still unable to ride because of incessant rains

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Rode only to buy lugaw and buko  from Wawa eco park.   Used the Mtb to ride.

Noted the lake water level to be high only about 7 inches from the edge of the lake embankment.  Soon there will be flooding from the lake.   

It was good to note that the river banks did not overflow thanks to the year round river dredging project by the LGU

DIY carbon frame repair

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One need not worry about repairing carbon frame.  No need to bring to rush this to CNC near Sta Lucia for 4 to 6 figure repair.  You can do this yourself.

Steps:

1.   Do the coin test;   Tap the part you suspect to be broken.  If the sound changes and sound becomes dull, then it is broken.

2.  Remove other parts.   Cover the other parts of the bike, paper, masking tape to prevent epoxy from spoiling other parts of the bike.  Use safety equipment:   face mask, gloves, if needed respirator.   Carbon fiber dusts are bad for the skin and lungs.   

3.  Sand paper the broken part.

4.  Cut the carbon to fit into the broken part.

5.  Mix the epoxy.  Some say 1:1  (hardener to epoxy) some say 1 to 2.

6.  Apply epoxy with a brush (tooth or paint) to the broken part and the carbon fiber.

7.  Paste.  Apply more epoxy.  To be sure, you make this three layers.

8.  Attach compression  tape.    Secure with electrical or duct tape.

9.  Shrink the shrink tape with heat gun or hair dryer.

Carbon fiber repair kit at Shopee. P700+

10.  Leave overnight.

11.  Sandpaper

12. Paint.   

How long does carbon fiber frame last? Urban legend says 5 years

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Most of the bikers I have met say that carbon fiber frames last only for 5 years.  I had a Fuji carbon fiber frame and it was ok for the 5 years I owned it.  I sold it and about 3 years have passed and it seems to be still OK

The video says a good carbon fiber frame lasts for 20 - 25 years.

The advantage of carbon fiber is repairable and its easy even with DIY (carbon fiber kits are cheap and available at many places)

Carbon fiber bikes have been paraded as fragile.   They could have figured in some really bad crash or accidents.   I have had 4 carbon fiber bikes and they are strong and durable.

Other urban legends to be corrected:

1.  The original bikes from Europe are better because they are hand made.    -->> All carbon fibers even those made in China and Taiwan are handmade.  The carbon fiber are cut automatically but they are pasted with epoxy on molds by hand.

2.   China Taiwan OEM carbon fiber unbranded frames are suspect.

Not true.   Taiwan and China have had 20 years ++ of experience in building carbon fibers.  One of my bikes is Taiwan OEM.  It is great.  Carbon copy of the real McCoy.   

Buying breakfast and pan de sal during a typhoon

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This morning, this post braved the heavy rain and strong winds to buy pansit and pan de sal from my suki near wawa.   The vendors praised me for braving the bad weather to buy.  I too praised them for having business as usual.   Typhoon Enteng's wrath?

I feared though for the BB, and headset bearing.    Well, I wiped the bike dry and trained the electric fan to dry the moisture.  

The bre month was greeted by great floods in Rizal

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The "bre" month, September which heralds the start of the Christmas season was unusual -  it was a floody welcome for the month  The whole of Rizal (almost) was flooded:    Baras, Pililla, Tanay,  Mabitac, Cainta, Rodriguez, San Mateo, Cainta.

In less than 12 hours, the rain came and torrents and places which did not get flooded were inundated.

Those places are the places we use to bike.   How could our landscape turn into scene of destruction and deluge for such a short while?

NDRRMC was constantly texting through NTC the yellow and orange rainfall warning. This accompanied the arrival of Typhoon Enteng which was by 7 last night was all ready in Bicol.   Many would have disregarded them.  But they were accurate.  Thank you PAG -ASA, NDRRMC.  

Let us pray for the safety of those who are affected by the flood.  

(The PAOCC chief navigated his way through the flood on a cabinet.  (That is why people of his level are called cabinet officials?)  

What could have been the cause?   Natural -  act of God.  The climate change has caused all the rains to dump unusual amount  of rain.   Denudation of forest, quarrying operations.    

Let us not cheer if there are floods in China.  We are in the same boat.