Thank You Kurt,

I'm sure you will be a busy man on here. I had a local bike shop tell me that some of the chain degreasers(Simple Green,Pedros) actually are too rough on chains and can not only remove the exterior dirt and oil but get inside the chain and cause damage?? Do you have an opinion either way?

Steve

Welcome to the forum. I am curious to what type of mechanic do you consider imposters? And if you have any recommendations on finding the right ones? Like any easy tell tell signs.

I have and know a few great mechanics in my area now, but would to hear more (for when I inevitably move, etc.).

Kurt !
Thank you for taking the time to help us. Here is a good one for you. Trek SC, DA Di2, brake shifters and bar end shifters (2 buttons) battery last at the most 2 weeks. One battery was replaced by Shimano under warranty, apparently was bad...Did the software updates and found system all good. Ride between 500 to 1000 a month, flat and normal amounts of shifting. Something is draining the battery when not in use it seems. Could it be that every time you check the battery status by pressing any shifters buttons and hold till status light lit up the system doesn't go back to sleep mode ?

Thanks !

You will indeed be busy here! :) A lot of us here wrench on our own bikes.

Here's a road bike question. Recently replaced a 120mm stem with a 100mm one (aluminum). The new stem, which is a pretty high end $90 part from 3T, has a single bolt clamping down to the steerer tube. Every stem I've ever used before has had two bolts.

How safe is having a single bolt on a rotating interface like this?!

This is a threadless steerer tube and headset. The stem is what's holding the entire thing together.

Thanks for the question IMkeywest.

I have never experienced an issue with the bike not going back into sleep mode. I have had issues with DI2 batteries that seem to last half of the normal life when in hot conditions. Especially if the bike is left in a building without A/C or spend a lot of time on the car rack. Have you noticed any difference in battery life between summer and winter?

Thanks Kurt...Great point. This will be the first winter so I'll keep an eye on the diff if any. It does sit in the garage with no ac in the summer but all the other Tri geeks here in FL do not seem to have the same issues I do. Shimano doesn't seem to be much help diagnose it either.

I'll do more research and keep looking for your inputs !

Thxank you K !

Degreaser can be damaging to the chain. There should be chain lube inside the chain to allow the rollers of each link to move more freely. When you use degreaser you remove all lube and grease. If you do not properly re-lube the chain enough then you are riding a dry chain which will put excessive wear on the chain and rob you of power.

I never use degreaser. I simply apply chain lube after each ride. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then wipe off all excess lube. I seriously spend about 3 minutes holding a rag on my chain while pedaling. This removes and excess lube and removes dirt and grime you collected from your ride. The only place we want to leave lube is on the inside of the chain.

I am going to tell you to lube your chain as often as you dentist tells you to floss and you are of course not going to do it that often but here is my breakdown for roar/tri bikes:

Every 50 miles or every 3 days, whichever comes first. Or, anytime you ride in the rain or sweat excessively on the bike (trainer rides).

Also, this is your hobby and passion. It is worth it for you to replace your chain often. If you replace it every 1000 miles you are going to get a lot more life out of your cassette and chainrings and have a much more efficient drivetrain.

I hope this helps.

There is a common misconception from people that the life of a bike shop employee is glamorous. This brings in a lot of people that think it is going to be a cool job. I assure you it is not. I don't do this job for the money or the women. I am broke and I already have the love of my life. I do it because i love bicycles and because I love helping others ride bicycles.

When looking for the right bike mechanic look for the guy that has passion and respects all forms of cycling. Remember not to judge a book by its cover. If you walked into my shop and saw me standing there with a long beard wearing shorts and flip flops you might think that I am some chump. I have dedicated my professional low paying career to being a great mechanic and learning all that I can to further help my customers. It also takes many years to get good at this. I have been in the industry for nine years and I would say I am still at the beginning stages of being a professional mechanic The industry changes so much that I have to constantly stay on my toes and learn new things. It will be many more years until I consider myself a master. Look for the guy with passion and a few years of experience under his belt.

Also, keep in mind that mechanics often work where they can and not necessarily in their dream shop. I have worked in many shops. Some good and some horrible. My point being that sometimes your fancy road or tri shop doesn't have as good of a mechanic as the family bike shop or the mountain bike shop. Visit all the shops in your local area and find the guy that is willing to give you the time of day.

When you find that special mechanic, take good care of him/her. Coffee beans and beer go a long way in making a bike mechanics day. Also tell the shop owner or manager how important they are to you.

Hope that helps.

Hi Dilbert,

3T makes a great product and I have had a good expereince with most stuff they make. I completely trust the one bolt system but the most important thing is torque.

A torque wrench is a worth while investment. Triathletes put a ton of leverage and pressure on their bars and stem. This will lead to loosening of hardware and hardware fatigue if not properly tightened. Either buy a torque wrench and check your bars once a month or take them to your mechanic and let them check it often. Stem and bar failure can lead to serious injury as well as destroy your hopes of finishing a race that you have trained a long time for.

Hope this helps.

Kurt
Carolina Pedal Works

Thanks. I indeed have a torque wrench, use it all the time, and even travel with it when travelling with the bike.

Didn't notice a single bolt until after I got home. It took me by surprise.

No problem IMkeywest.

The only other thing I can think of that is very unlikely is a short. If the rubber around a cable has warn away it could be making contact with a piece of metal (think water bottle cage bolt in seat tube) causing it to short and reduce the life of the charge. I have never actually experienced this but have spoke with other mechanics about the real possibility of it.

Next time you take your bike in for service, ask (and be willing to pay) to have your mechanic chase all the wires and make sure there are damaged wires.

Hope this helps.

Kurt
Carolina Pedal Works

Glad to hear it Dilbert.

A customer who is willing to listen to and use advice is my dream customer. Never let simple mechanical errors destroy a race.

Hope this helps.

Kurt
Carolina Pedal Works

RIP your inbox.

But seriously, kudos to you.

Simple test I would try: Fully charge your battery and then until your battery dies unplug the battery from the rest of the system every time you are not riding the bike. If the battery still dies in the same amount of time then you know that when in use the battery is being discharged faster than it should be. If it lasts much longer then you know that something is causing the battery to be used while the system should be sleeping/off.

Make sense?

Great suggestion rlh212.

If it is a internal Di2 battery it will be a little more difficult to unplug each time but it would be a great way to test if it is draining when not in use.


Kurt
Carolina Pedal Works

No joke Racehd. There are a lot of questions out there. Maybe I should start my own help line.

Kurt
Carolina Pedal Works

This.

Electronics and computers guy here. :) First thing one ought to do in that situation is determine if it's battery self discharging (need a new battery) or if it's circuit drawing unexpected current, in which case you need to troubleshoot the circuit. The sleep state complicates this, as it could be a firmware problem rather than a hard electrical fault....

You can also put a little carbon friction paste on your fork steerer where it meets the stem. This will give the stem a little more grip.

Welcome to ST Kurt!

Do you have a preferred brand PF30 BB and/or preferred installation method? I'm asking w/r to a carbon frame/BB shell installation.

After putting calipers on a few different brands of BB's I was surprised in the tolerance variation. The Praxis collet solution seems like a great idea except only one side of the BB has the expanding collet so this doesn't address loose tolerances on both side. And Praxis only allows for 24mm spindles unless using their crankset.

With the variance in bottom bracket tolerances I can see why some manufacturers went the direction of using Loctite bearing retainer fluids/primer for gap filling.

Thanks for any advice you can provide:)

Thanks for the warm welcome SummitAK.

This is a common problem with frame tolerances. I miss the days of threaded bottom brackets.

The Praxis is a great solution and even one expanding collet seems to work most of the time. It is my go to solution for 24mm and 22/24 mm spindled cranks.

My favorite solution for 30mm spindles is the PF30 Threaded BB by Wheels Manufacturing.
http://wheelsmfg.com/...abec-3-bb-black.html

The two cups thread together and Loctite in place. This has eliminated almost every creaking and noisy bottom bracket issue I have had over the past 2 years. It is made for 30mm crank spindles and you can use shims for 24mm or 22/24mm spindles. The bearings are also replaceable so you can keep the cups and make future bottom bracket replacement a bit cheaper.

It also comes in a angular contact version and ceramic version for slightly higher prices.

Hope this helps.

Kurt The Mechanic
Carolina Pedal Works

Here's a general question,

I'm comfortable working on my bikes for most projects. I will always prefer to take my nicer bikes into the mechanics I trust because I know they will do a better job than I. But for my commuter bikes, I really can't be bothered and so I do most everything on them myself. Except for bulding and maintaining the wheels. At that point, I've always drawn the linne

But I've always wanted to learn. To me it's always been a black art. I view it as a long term project so I've been taking my time. I've gradually acquired all the tools I need for the job. I read Brandt's book and Schraner's book. But I still don't feel ready for it.

How would you recommend I proceed? Is wheelbuilding mostly "read everything you can and then jump in"? That approach has served me well in the past but this seems different. Is there some professional class somewhere you might recommend. How did you get through your first wheel build? Did you have an experienced guy looking over your shoulder?

Disc brake question...my fattie has disc brakes and I've been struggling with rubbing. I watched several videos on You Tube and think I know how to set the brake up (loosen, squeeze brake to center on rotor, etc) but am still running into rubbing. I suspect the rotor is slightly warped as it is intermittent. I've played around with trying to bend the rotor but haven't had much luck. It's frustrating b/c it probably has less than 200 miles on it, all in the snow. I guess my questions for you are:

Is it possible to have disc brakes that have zero rub?

Does riding in the winter cause warping once they get cold and then warmup in my garage? Bolts are all rusted.

Should I just replace the rotors (SRAM RS brakes)

Thanks!

Is that the standard uniform? Beard, shorts and flip flops? Seems all the best bike mechanics are wearing this these days! :)

Hey JoeO.

Wheel building seems scary before you do it the first time but I assure you if I can do it than you can do it. My first wheel build was under the watchful eye of a experienced wheel builder. I later attended a class at United Bicycle Institute where i got a DT Swiss certification in wheel building. I do feel the class gave me a much better understanding about the difference between a good and a great wheel. However, a good wheel is still a good wheel and serves most people just fine 99% of the time.

Jump into it. Take a cheap set of wheels that you might already have laying around and brake them down and build them back up. I find the hardest part of wheel building is the lacing. For that I recommend Sheldon Brown's blog found here:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Once you have built a set, throw them on your commuter and ride them for a week. Did they stay tensioned? Did they stay true? I bet you will be pleasantly surprised at how well you do. Once you have ridden those for a few months and feel confident about them, buy all the necessary parts a build a new set from the ground up. But be careful....... as soon as your friends know that you can build wheels they wont leave you alone.

Hope this helps.

Kurt The Mechanic
Carolina Pedal Works