M
Martin Wilson
Guest
On my commute home this morning from my nightshift I could hear a
slight clicking noise coming from my pedals/bb that only occured once
per rotation and only when peddling. It got a little worse near the
end of the journey.
As I'm sure some will remember I only ride a cheap £60 mountain bike
and started riding this bike at 26 stone. I.e. its not had an easy
life as bikes go.
Anyway when I got home I stripped the BB and with the various
component parts I could see the bearings were contaminated with little
bits of metal (tiny bits) but the bearings themselves looked fine. The
people at the factory in taiwan/china hadn't been particularly
generous with the grease thats for sure and what was there was
contiaminated with the bits of metal. Anyway I took the two bearings
assemblies and dipped them in white spirit to clean them and then
examined them to see if any of the bearings were damaged, scraped or
faulty but they all looked fine. When I originally took off the crank
arms I noticed that as well as being a bit rough going round it was
extremely hard to rotate without the crankarms attached. Is it normal
to be tightened up this much?
Anyway I cleaned up the inside, applied generous amounts of grease to
the bearings assemblies and axle and didn't tighten up the main screw
in end as much as previously. Then put back the little locking ring
and finally the crank arms making sure these were extra tight.
Is there anything else I should have done?
One note about the grease. I used industrial/engineering grease as I
use at work for servicing 'Itaya' machines.
This type of thing;
http://www.itaya.co.jp/product/mcsg/index.htm
We basically use the same sort of grease on loads of hardware. Its
pretty good stuff and gets used on some very fast and demanding
equipment. However I realise there may be some sort of extra
protection offered by proper cycle grease in that it copes with the
outdoor elements.
Any useful pointers or cheap sources of high quality cycle grease
would be appreciatted.
slight clicking noise coming from my pedals/bb that only occured once
per rotation and only when peddling. It got a little worse near the
end of the journey.
As I'm sure some will remember I only ride a cheap £60 mountain bike
and started riding this bike at 26 stone. I.e. its not had an easy
life as bikes go.
Anyway when I got home I stripped the BB and with the various
component parts I could see the bearings were contaminated with little
bits of metal (tiny bits) but the bearings themselves looked fine. The
people at the factory in taiwan/china hadn't been particularly
generous with the grease thats for sure and what was there was
contiaminated with the bits of metal. Anyway I took the two bearings
assemblies and dipped them in white spirit to clean them and then
examined them to see if any of the bearings were damaged, scraped or
faulty but they all looked fine. When I originally took off the crank
arms I noticed that as well as being a bit rough going round it was
extremely hard to rotate without the crankarms attached. Is it normal
to be tightened up this much?
Anyway I cleaned up the inside, applied generous amounts of grease to
the bearings assemblies and axle and didn't tighten up the main screw
in end as much as previously. Then put back the little locking ring
and finally the crank arms making sure these were extra tight.
Is there anything else I should have done?
One note about the grease. I used industrial/engineering grease as I
use at work for servicing 'Itaya' machines.
This type of thing;
http://www.itaya.co.jp/product/mcsg/index.htm
We basically use the same sort of grease on loads of hardware. Its
pretty good stuff and gets used on some very fast and demanding
equipment. However I realise there may be some sort of extra
protection offered by proper cycle grease in that it copes with the
outdoor elements.
Any useful pointers or cheap sources of high quality cycle grease
would be appreciatted.