Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op - How to Guides

Rear Wheel Removal. If you own a workstand, great. Mount your bike onto it. If not, flip the bicycle upside down so it rests on the handlebars and saddle.
If the bike has derailleur gears, it's much easier to remove the back wheel when the chain is at minimum tension, so shift into a gear where the chain runs on the smallest rear cog and the small or middle chain ring.
Next step to easy wheel removal is to disable the brakes to ensure the tyre doesn't get trapped between the brake blocks. This is simply a matter of loosening or unshipping the brake cable. If your bike has disc brakes, go to the section below because tyre-grabbing pads are not an issue here. If your bike has V-brakes, squeeze the brake arms till the pads hit the rim, then release the 'lead pipe' from its retaining cage. If you have a road brake, open the brake caliper's quick release and the brake arms will open out to facilitate wheel removal.
Next check how the wheel is secured to the frame. If it has a quick release (QR), open the lever through 180° (don't twirl it like a wing nut) and it will come loose. If the wheel is secured with track nuts, loosen them off with a spanner (usually 15mm). If its an MTB bolt-through axle, means of detachment vary so check the manufacturer's instructions.
Pull the rear derailleur backwards while instantaneously pulling the wheel forward. If the bike's on a stand, pull the wheel downwards. If the bike's upside down, pull the wheel upwards. If the wheel is not forthcoming, you might have to slacken the nuts / QR off a little more and give the tyre a tap to persuade the wheel to come off. While you're removing the wheel, note the orientation of how the chain wraps round the rear cog. You will then know how it goes on once it comes to refitting the wheel.

Front Wheel Removal. Removing a front wheel is much easier because you don't have to work your way around the chain and derailleur. Simply unship/loosen the brake cable, loosen the QR or axle nuts and lift the wheel off . Most forks have safety lips at the bottom of their dropouts (which help prevent a poorly-fitted wheel coming loose while riding) so you'll have to slacken off the nuts or QR a little more to remove a front wheel.

Locating The Puncture- Once the wheel is removed. Starting opposite the valve, insert a tyre lever under the tyre bead, then lever the bead over the rim and hook the end of the tyre lever around a spoke.
Insert a second tyre lever under the bead about 3 inches to the left of the first lever. Again lever the bead over the rim and hook the lever to the spoke closest to it.
Repeat this process with a 3rd lever another 3 inches to the left of the 2nd lever. (With practice, you might learn the knack of removing a tyre with just two or even a single tyre lever).
Remove the first lever and slip it under the bead, just to the left of the 3rd lever. The tyre should now be slack enough to pull this lever all the way round the tyre till the whole bead is off the wheel rim.
Remove the inner tube, starting at the valve. You'll have to undo the valve nut if it's a Presta valve.
Inflate the tube till it's double its normal size. This might not be possible if the hole is very large in which case inflate it as much as possible.
Escaping air usually makes the location of the puncture immediately obvious. If not, immerse the tube in a basin of water and look for tell-tale bubbles.
Once you have found the hole in the tube check the tyre to investigate the cause of the puncture. For instance if the hole is 90 degrees west of the valve, carefully check the tyre around 90 degrees west of the valve hole. Run your finger inside the tyre's carcass to check for glass, thorns and so on.
If the puncture was on the underside of the tube (so it couldn't have been caused by something penetrating the tyre) check your rim tape is intact. If not, replace it before you refit the tyre and tube.

Fixing The Puncture. Roughen a patch-sized area around the hole using the sandpaper in your puncture repair kit.
Apply rubber solution to a patch-sized area around the hole.
Allow the glue to become touch dry. This takes 5-10 minutes.
Remove the silver backing off the patch, stick it in place and press it down firmly for 45-60 seconds.
Peel off the clear cellophane cover off the back of the patch, peeling from the centre.
You don't have to re-inflate the inner tube until it is back in the tyre. However, you can do so to check that your repair was successful. Use the water basin test again if available.

Refitting the Tyre and Tube. One bead of tyre will still be on the rim unless the tyre was removed in the puncture repair process. If the tyre was removed, slip one side of it back on till the whole bead is in the rim well. Some tyres are directional. Arrows on the sidewall will alert you to the direction of travel if this is the case.
Pump a little air into the inner tube, just enough for it to give it some form.
One good tip is to lightly talc the tube. This will help dry off any excess glue. A dusting of talc also facilitate refitting the tube by helping prevent the tube getting trapped under the tyre bead. We were pleased to hear that Specialized, that most modern bicycle company, have given a nod to that old tip by packaging their pro-level Turbo Tubes pre-talced.
Starting by inserting the valve into the valve hole, refit the tube so its in the rim well and inside the tyre. Check that the valve is perpendicular.
Again starting at the valve, reseat the second tyre bead. Take care that the tube is entirely inside the tyre. If any of the tube gets trapped between tyre bead and the rim, you'll suffer another puncture and your tyre will blow off as soon as you inflate it
Always attempt to refit a tyre using just your fingers and thumbs. Tyre levers can help as a last resort, but there's always a risk that a lever used to refit a tyre will pinch the tube.
Depending on the tyre/rim combination, sometimes it's difficult to slip the last section of tyre onto the rim. One tip is to grab a handful of tyre on each side of this recalcitrant section and squeeze the bead towards the mid section of the rim well. Another is to stand the wheel on the ground with the difficult section pointing away from you at around knee height. Then with the wheel braced with your thumbs on your side of the rim, grab the bead with the fingers of both hands to force the tyre back onto the rim.

Refitting the Wheel. This is essentially the reverse of wheel removal.
Pull the derailleur back to install the rear wheel, ensuring the chain is relocated on the smallest cog.
Ensure the wheel is properly located with the axle in the frame dropouts and the tyre running equidistant from the frame's chain stays (or fork if it's the front wheel).
If it's a disc brake wheel carefully slot the rotor through the gap in the brake caliper.
Secure the axle nuts / quick release. It is important to ensure quick release skewers are tightened properly. The lever should meet resistance to closing half way through its swing.
Re-engage the brakes. If it's a rim brake, make sure the pads are equidistant from the rim. You can quickly tweak this adjustment by loosening off the axle nuts/QR, centring the rim by eye, then securing the nuts/QR.
Inflate the tyre to the recommended pressure, printed on the tyre sidewall. Running your tyres at the right pressure minimises rolling resistance - the key to easier riding - and maximises the tyres' performance and longevity. If you find inflating your tyres takes more effort than riding the bike uphill, you owe yourself a track pump. Then your properly inflated tyres will be far less likely to suffer punctures, and you won't have to refer to these tips ever again.

Chain Care. A complex piece of engineering, comprising 114 outer plates, 114 inner plates, 114 rollers and 114 rivets, the chain of a multi-gear derailleur bike has a hard life. It's out in all weathers, exposed to the elements. Its narrow (2.6mm) links get bent sideways every gear change. It's made to cope with extremely high loads, such as when you're pushing hard on the pedals and you have to change down.
Given that you put the chain through a hectic workout every time you ride your bike, the least you can do is give it a bit of pampering by keeping it cleaned and lubricated. Cleaning the chain removes the debris that gets lodged between the chain's plates and rollers - a major cause of premature wear. Lubing the chain acts as a buffer between all these metal parts.
The pay back for looking after your chain is significant. A recent study at Herriot-Watt University calculated that a dry chain is 12-13% less efficient than a wet chain. We know people (many of them Bike Co-op colleagues) who spend a fortune upgrading their bike components to pay for that kind of improvement in performance. Anyone can enjoy a similar improvement for the price of a few drops of lube.
We would be first to admit that cleaning a really dirty chain is not a job anyone looks forward to. Prevention is better than cure. Maintain the chain regularly and it will never get too dirty. Happily, there are a host of lotions and potions and contraptions dedicated to keeping your chain in tip top conditions. Use them and you can easily triple the life of your chain. And everything it touches: the cogs, the chainrings and the jockey wheels. That's significant because even a budget transmission will cost around £60 (plus labour) to replace when worn out. A higher-end transmission can cost hundreds.
Last but not least, a bike with a clean, smooth-working transmission is just so much nicer to ride than one with a grungy, gungy, squeaky chain.

Chain Cleaning. For the sake of your bike, and for the planet, we only stock water-soluble biodegradable degreasers. Unlike household detergents, bicycle cleaners don't contain abrasive salts so they won't tarnish your bike's paint job. Being dedicated to a single purpose, bicycle degreasers just work better.
You can apply the degreaser with a bicycle brush, designed to penetrate your bike's wee nooks and crannies such as the space between the chainrings. The easiest way to clean a chain however is to spin-wash it in a bath of degreaser using one of our chain cleaning tools. One of these chain baths really can turn a mingin' chain spotless in one minute flat.

Chain Lube. There are 2 categories of chain lube: wet and dry.
Dry lube is so named because once it penetrates the chain's bushings, pins, and rollers, the carrier evaporates leaving a clean, water-repellent film that's dry to the touch within minutes of application. Dry lube therefore doesn't attract dirt. The one drawback of dry lube is that it doesn't take too much rain to wash it off, so frequent re-lubrication is essential.
Wet lube goes on wet and stays wet. This means it hangs on much longer - even through thunderstorms and river crossings. The one drawback of wet lube is that its very stickiness means that it inevitably attracts more dirt.

The Scottoiler Cycle Oiler. All this advice is all very good in theory. In the real world, chain cleaning and lubing is rarely the most important priority when you get home from a ride. It's often a job that's put back to that mythical weekend when you have time to catch up on unattended chores.
The Scottoiler Bicycle Oiler is an innovation that gets round this problem. (Apologies for endorsing a single product in this section but the Scottoiler really is a one-off design that deserves wider recognition.) This semi-automatic chain luber makes it amazingly easy to oil the chain 'on the fly'. Simply squeeze its frame-mounted 'squid' dispenser a couple of times every ride and the Scottoiler flushes the inner working parts of the chain with Active Fluid - a combination of water, oil and corrosion inhibitors. This drives out dirt and leaves a thin layer of lube where it's needed. Because it becomes second nature to squeeze the squid every ride, your chain is never under-lubricated. Because the lube is so light and water soluble, you don't get a build-up of gunge as happens when you over-lube. The Scottoiler is a clean, happy medium which guarantees maximum transmission longevity matched with much longer service intervals between chain cleaning sessions.

When Should I Replace The Chain? There are 2 answers to this question.
The chain definitely needs replaced when it starts skipping and slipping on cogs and chainrings and you realise that continuing to ride a bike in this condition is, at best, unpleasant and, at worst, dangerous. When a chain gets this stretched and worn, it will almost certainly have knackered the rear cogs and probably the chainrings too.
The chain has reached the end of its optimal life once it has 'stretched' by 0.75 to 1%. Replacing the chain at this point makes a lot of sense because doing so drastically reduces cog and chainrings wear. Timely replacement means that you will probably get away with just spending 10-£20 on a replacement chain rather than a potentially 3-figure sum for the whole transmission. Both Park and Ice Toolz produce chain-checking tools that instantly reveal when the chain should be replaced. Highly recommended.

How To

A Bike For Life

How To Fix A Puncture

Chain Care