Take Those Bikes Apart-------Then Reassemble, Adjust and Grease Your Own Bike!!!! The neighbor I was locating a Dolomite for picked his up at Academy here in Houston on 290 and 34th. I talked him into taking a good look at it before he rode it too much. We took his bike out in the driveway, laid it upside down on some carpet remnants so as not to damage the seat and the grips, and went to work. First we laid the chain aside off the front sprocket and spun the Cranks. They barely went around one complete rotation. We then removed the Cranks and tried to twist the spindle by hand, but it would barely turn, way too tight from the factory. Upon further and deeper inspection the guts were bone dry of any grease at all. The bearings had no damage since he only rode the bike a few blocks so we greased it up and properly adjusted the tightness. The spindle then spun freely and we put the Cranks and chain back on. Solved that problem. Next we removed the front wheel. I first got him to take a closeup pic of both sides (for reference) so he could do this himself at a latter date. After removing the wheel and all the retaining nuts we found the axle could barely be turned by hand. You do not need to remove the Rotor to do this. Another case of having been assembled too tight. Then, what could not be seen on the Rotor side was the silver metal dust guard around the Cone was bent inward at a hard angle. It was bent in enough and cocked so that it was rubbing against the bearings. (pic below) Well we are going to see what MonGoose will do about that, if they will replace that cone. But, we fixed that by tapping the dust guard back into place with a short wooden dowel and hammer so that it seated itself properly. The front bearings were greased sufficiently and you can remove the front wheel without disconnecting the brakes. Rain clouds came up before we could get to the rear of the bike, but as you can see, these things should be checked by each owner instead of assuming the factory assemblers are correctly doing their jobs. If anyone is wondering why their new bike is so hard to pedal, fixing these problems can make a world of difference. While waiting for your bike to arrive get yourself a bicycle crank puller and a 15mm pedal wrench/lock ring remover combination. These are brand new bikes so none of the nuts and bolts are rusted together. Even a cheaper tool like the $5.73 crank puller I purchased from Ebay will suffice. I think I can only list one pic or link in a post so I will string these tools and videos along after this entry. All this stuff is easy and there are plenty of videos on YouTube to teach you how to maintain your bike. Working on your own Bike is a great deal satisfying. Theres a million bicycle crank pullers on Ebay with Free Shipping. You can get one for $4 to about $30 and a cheap one will do just fine. Just look closely at the Arrival Time in the listing. Some will arrive in 30 days and some will arrive in less than a week. In local stores they run around $25 so order one for less than $10 and get it in a week with Free Shipping.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 02:56:44 +0000
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