Tech Tips

Most of these comments are a result of watching riders struggle with something while on the road.

Stan's Tube Sealant This year has had another bumper crop of "goatheads", or puncture vines. A popular method of combating the goatheads is to use Stan's tire sealant in both road and MTB tires. Tip: Stan's is a white liquid which is about the thickness of milk that was developed to seal tubeless tires. Since it is thinner than Slime it works well in both road and MTB tubes. Stan's comes in quart bottles with a cone shaped top. The Stan's website has installation instructions. The easiest way to install Stan's is to use Presta road tubes that have removeable cores. Continental tubes are available. Remove the stem's core with a pair of pliers or a special core tool. Attach a small piece of tubing from the Stan's bottle over the stem. If you don't have a piece of scrap tubing laying around you can buy a big roll at Home Depot or Lowes. The tubing that comes with Slime is too big for Presta stems. Squeeze in about 2-oz. of sealant. The bottle has graduations that doesn't help very much. Remove the tubing and replace the stem. Pump the tube up to normal pressure and away you go. You can buy Stan's locally but the website also has syringes that you can use to measure exactly the 2-oz amount per tire. The bottle says it lasts about 9-months. Just add more if you need to.

On the Road Tire Pumping The best thing to do for yourself for fixing flats is to get one of the bike pumps that is a "mini floor pump" of the type that has a short hose. However, these aren't cool so most people continue using the smallest pump they can get away with. Tip: Beware of buying a MTB bike pump for your road bike. Some of these won't go past 70 PSI. Tip: Pumping Technique. Attach the pump to the valve. Kneel with one knee on the ground then rest the forearm with the pump on the thigh parallel to the ground, bracing the pump. The wheel is perpendicular to the ground. Then pump with the other hand. This is a lot easier than other techniques, e.g., pumping in the air unbraced, down against the ground, against a tree, etc. Tip: To make pumping with a presta valve easier, after unscewing the black valve cap and before attaching the pump to the valve, let out a couple of quick puffs of air to free the stopper in the valve that may be sticking.

Dropped Chain A dropped chain means that the front derailer shifts too far in or out and the chain falls between the frame and the crank or outside the crank. If this happens, try to shift the front derailer in or out while pedalling easily to try to get the chain to remount itself. This sometimes works. Tip: The easy way to manually remount the chain is to grab the chain BELOW the crank and pull down and forward a little then simply place it on the inner or outer chainring where it belongs then rotate the crank in the reverse direction. The rear derailer will provide plenty of slack. This takes just a couple of seconds to accomplish. Don't try to grab the chain from the top. This will be real struggle since you won't be able to get any slack in the chain.

"Sealed" Pulley with Cover Removed Rear Derailer Pulley Lubrication We know that bicycle chains need lubrication to reduce wear and energy consumption. What we usually forget is to lubrcate the rear derailer pulleys. The lower, "tension" pulley, often has "Sealed Ceramic Pulley", as the photo on the right, stamped on it. This does not mean that it is permanently sealed. It does need occasional lubrication, maybe yearly. The upper, "jockey" pulley, generally does not have anything stamped on it and does not have the rubber seal. It needs routine lubrication. Pulleys have bushing bearings. These work by having a thin film of oil covering the surfaces like the crankshaft of an automobile engine, so they need routine lubrication. Use a heavier oil for the pulleys. Just remove the covers and clean out the insides and lube the bushings. In a pinch, you can carefully pry up the rubber seal and put a couple of drops of oil into the pulley then let the seal pop back into place. Big Tip: Remove only one pulley at a time, work on it, and replace it. If both pulleys are removed the whole hanger assembly comes apart and is a pain to reassemble. Remove the rear wheel to get access to the pulleys. The pulleys are easily removed and replaced.