Stupid LBS tricks

[* * Chas]

"Dion Dock" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> "David L. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> > When I had my frame cold set to 130mm, I also took in my rear wheels
to
> > have them re-dished and to put 8-speed freewheels on them. They
returned
> > my old 5-speed freewheels in a bag, since they had no idea how to
remove
> > them. They had taken the freewheels apart and chocked the inner
core in a
> > vice.
> >
> > Last time I took anything to them, clearly.
>
>
> Do you still use 5-speed freewheels? If they were so important, why
did you
> switch to 8-speed?
>
> -Dion
>

That's beside the point. David took his wheel into a LBS and they
trashed his freewheel because perhaps the mechanic (?) didn't know what
he was doing and wasn't bright enough to ask for help.

On the other hand, maybe the shop didn't have the correct freewheel tool
or the freewheel was damaged and couldn't be removed any other way.

Either way, they should have explained what happened!

Without knowing the details, I wouldn't feel comfortable having that
shop cold set my frame.

and.... I still have wheels that I ride with 5 speed freewheels. There
was life before 6, 7 and 8 speed freewheels!

Chas.
Retro Grouch

 

[David L. Johnson]

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 19:47:51 -0700, * * Chas wrote:

>> > Last time I took anything to them, clearly.
>>
>>
>> Do you still use 5-speed freewheels? If they were so important, why
> did you
>> switch to 8-speed?
>>
>> -Dion
>>
>
> That's beside the point. David took his wheel into a LBS and they
> trashed his freewheel because perhaps the mechanic (?) didn't know what
> he was doing and wasn't bright enough to ask for help.

Sure, the old freewheels were not important, but the kid told me that the
tool would not stay in the slots. He did not know how to use a
quick-release to hold the tool to the freewheel. Clearly, he had never
done this before, and no one at the shop could help.

>
> On the other hand, maybe the shop didn't have the correct freewheel tool
> or the freewheel was damaged and couldn't be removed any other way.
>
There were two of them. I might imagine one could have been damaged, but
both?

> Without knowing the details, I wouldn't feel comfortable having that
> shop cold set my frame.

Yeah, well that was done before the bag of pieces showed up.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | What is objectionable, and what is dangerous about extremists is
_`\(,_ | not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant.
(_)/ (_) | --Robert F. Kennedy

 

[* * Chas]

"David L. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 19:47:51 -0700, * * Chas wrote:
>
> >> > Last time I took anything to them, clearly.
> >>
> >>
> >> Do you still use 5-speed freewheels? If they were so important,
why
> > did you
> >> switch to 8-speed?
> >>
> >> -Dion
> >>
> >
> > That's beside the point. David took his wheel into a LBS and they
> > trashed his freewheel because perhaps the mechanic (?) didn't know
what
> > he was doing and wasn't bright enough to ask for help.
>
> Sure, the old freewheels were not important, but the kid told me that
the
> tool would not stay in the slots. He did not know how to use a
> quick-release to hold the tool to the freewheel. Clearly, he had
never
> done this before, and no one at the shop could help.
>
> >
> > On the other hand, maybe the shop didn't have the correct freewheel
tool
> > or the freewheel was damaged and couldn't be removed any other way.
> >
> There were two of them. I might imagine one could have been damaged,
but
> both?
>
> > Without knowing the details, I wouldn't feel comfortable having that
> > shop cold set my frame.
>
> Yeah, well that was done before the bag of pieces showed up.
>
> --
>
> David L. Johnson
>
You might want to check to make sure that rear triangle is correctly
aligned. It's easy to do with a piece of string or thin flexible wire.

Tie one end to one of the dropouts in the opening where it's brazed to
the seat stay. Wrap the string or wire around the head tube just above
the bottom headset cup so that it can't slide down any further and
tightly tie the loose end to the opposite dropout.

Check to make sure that the line is centered in the dropouts. Measure
the distance from the string or wire to the seat tube on both sides. The
distances should be within several millimeters of each other. If the
distance is greater, the shop may have just pulled out one chain stay to
get the 130mm wheel to fit or it could have come that way from the
factory.

I recently got a really good deal on a used 1990's Colnago Technos
frame. I was getting ready to install the bottom bracket and decided to
check out the rear triangle first because it looked a little off. It
came from the factory with an 11.5mm offset to the right side. So much
for Colnago quality.

If your chainstays are reasonably centered you can check to see that the
dropouts are aligned. This is best done with a set of dropout tools but
you can do a visual check as you slide in the rear wheel.

Make sure that they are aligned with the flange nuts on both sides of
the rear axle. The wheel should be centered between the chainstays and
the center of the rear brake caliper.

The rear derailleur cage should also be parallel to the plane of the
rear wheel.

If the dropouts are off you should have someone with dropout tools
adjust them.

Good luck....

Chas.

 

[[email protected]]

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:

>
> Er, gee, why are you yelling at me? Having said that, it's probably stupid
> of me to ask what heating an ice pack or freezing hot cross buns has to do
> with applying some grease to metal parts that have to move against each
> other? If they were highly machined parts, sure, maybe they wouldn't need
> grease. Maybe. But I think you might be getting too hung up on a term that
> didn't exist when those levers were made. I seriously doubt we ever called
> them "friction" shifters back then. Probably just "shifters" or maybe
> "downtube shifters."
>
As someone who was working on them way back when they were all that
was available ..
I remember shifters.. shift levers.. down tube shifters .. bar end
shifters.. stem shifters ...levers was always an accepable substitution
for shifters. IIRC, and I'm old but not all that old, "friction" only
showed up when we needed to diferentiate between "click shifters" or
"index shifters".

The Dura-Ace and ultegra "indexed" down-tube shifters on my wife and my
road bikes hav a friction setting... as do my XT thumb shifters and the
suntour xc-pro thumb shifters I'm still looking for as NOS. It is a
descriptor not a definition.

Yes I lube the down-tube shifters and would lube the XC-Pro shifters ..
the fact that I can't lube the XT shifters is why I want the XC-Pros..

 

[Marian]

David L. Johnson wrote:

> Explain to me again the advantage of going to a shop to maintain the bike?

How else am I going to flirt with the bike shop manager if I don't go
to the shop to maintain my bike?

-M

 

[David L. Johnson]

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:38:51 -0700, Marian wrote:

> David L. Johnson wrote:
>
>> Explain to me again the advantage of going to a shop to maintain the bike?
>
> How else am I going to flirt with the bike shop manager if I don't go
> to the shop to maintain my bike?

Go to the shop and buy stuff. Perhaps tight-fitting jerseys will help.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | And what if you track down these men and kill them, what if you
_`\(,_ | killed all of us? From every corner of Europe, hundreds,
(_)/ (_) | thousands would rise up to take our places. Even Nazis can't
kill that fast. -- Paul Henreid (Casablanca).

 

[[email protected]]

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
> > greasing by itself, may not be tyour problem. Hopefully when he
> > reassembled them, he put all the stuff back in, in the proper order. Is
> > the bolt unscrewing? A wee bit of blue octite on the threads. BTW-I
> > lube my Campag C-Record retro friction shifters and they don't move..
>
> Sorry, has to be 1014 or older to be truly retro. Heck, C-Record levers can
> probably be used with a triple without doing a complete 360. Faux retro in
> my book.
>

There is a difference between "retro" Campy fiction levers and Campy
C-Record "retro-friction" levers. I had a pair of the latter, purchased
new, in the early 1990s.

Hint: think "Simplex".

(Or were you just making a joke?) ;-)

 

[Mike Jacoubowsky]

> There is a difference between "retro" Campy fiction levers and Campy
> C-Record "retro-friction" levers. I had a pair of the latter, purchased
> new, in the early 1990s.
>
> Hint: think "Simplex".
>
> (Or were you just making a joke?) ;-)

The latter.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
>> > greasing by itself, may not be tyour problem. Hopefully when he
>> > reassembled them, he put all the stuff back in, in the proper order. Is
>> > the bolt unscrewing? A wee bit of blue octite on the threads. BTW-I
>> > lube my Campag C-Record retro friction shifters and they don't move..
>>
>> Sorry, has to be 1014 or older to be truly retro. Heck, C-Record levers
>> can
>> probably be used with a triple without doing a complete 360. Faux retro
>> in
>> my book.
>>
>
> There is a difference between "retro" Campy fiction levers and Campy
> C-Record "retro-friction" levers. I had a pair of the latter, purchased
> new, in the early 1990s.
>
> Hint: think "Simplex".
>
> (Or were you just making a joke?) ;-)
>

 

[* * Chas]

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
> > > greasing by itself, may not be tyour problem. Hopefully when he
> > > reassembled them, he put all the stuff back in, in the proper
order. Is
> > > the bolt unscrewing? A wee bit of blue octite on the threads.
BTW-I
> > > lube my Campag C-Record retro friction shifters and they don't
move..
> >
> > Sorry, has to be 1014 or older to be truly retro. Heck, C-Record
levers can
> > probably be used with a triple without doing a complete 360. Faux
retro in
> > my book.
> >
>
> There is a difference between "retro" Campy fiction levers and Campy
> C-Record "retro-friction" levers. I had a pair of the latter,
purchased
> new, in the early 1990s.
>
> Hint: think "Simplex".
>

I have Simplex Super LJ shift levers on 3 of my bikes. They feel like
they have a spring loaded friction mechanism similar to old Suntour
levers from the early 70's. I've never had to do anything to them in
20-30 years of occasional usage so I don't know what's inside.

Chas.

 

[Qui si parla Campagnolo]

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
> > greasing by itself, may not be tyour problem. Hopefully when he
> > reassembled them, he put all the stuff back in, in the proper order. Is
> > the bolt unscrewing? A wee bit of blue octite on the threads. BTW-I
> > lube my Campag C-Record retro friction shifters and they don't move..
>
> Sorry, has to be 1014 or older to be truly retro. Heck, C-Record levers can
> probably be used with a triple without doing a complete 360. Faux retro in
> my book.

Yer aunt matilda's mustache...anything less than 8s and no stoopid,
nancy click shifting is retro...1014 levers cvan handle triples as
well, as Gran Sport was triple compatible 4 decades ago.
>
> --Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
> www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
>
>
> "Qui si parla Campagnolo" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >
> > Blair P. Houghton wrote:
> >> A couple of weeks ago I left my bike at an LBS for a teardown and lube
> >> (it's cheap, it's quick, and they don't have to keep going back to the
> >> LBS for parts).
> >>
> >> The dufus who finally did the work seems to have greased my shifters.
> >>
> >> My /friction/ shifters.
> >>
> >> Now every time I get out of the saddle and hammer, the varying pull on
> >> the front der cable (because of the flex in my steel frame) tugs the
> >> lever to a slacker position, dropping the der halfway to shifting off
> >> the big ring, so every time I sit down I have to readjust the lever.
> >>
> >> The tension screw is plenty tight, in case you're wondering. I should
> >> get in there with some solvent sometime soon.
> >>
> >> Mommas don't let your babies grow up to be wrenches.
> >
> > greasing by itself, may not be tyour problem. Hopefully when he
> > reassembled them, he put all the stuff back in, in the proper order. Is
> > the bolt unscrewing? A wee bit of blue octite on the threads. BTW-I
> > lube my Campag C-Record retro friction shifters and they don't move..
> >>
> >> --Blair
> >

 

[Mike Jacoubowsky]

>> Sorry, has to be 1014 or older to be truly retro. Heck, C-Record levers
>> can
>> probably be used with a triple without doing a complete 360. Faux retro
>> in
>> my book.
>
> Yer aunt matilda's mustache...anything less than 8s and no stoopid,
> nancy click shifting is retro...1014 levers cvan handle triples as
> well, as Gran Sport was triple compatible 4 decades ago.

Yeah right. Like I don't remember small-barrel shift levers from days of
yore. To be truthful, the Campy's weren't all that bad, much better than
Simplex. But it took Suntour to increase the barrel diameter such that a
triple didn't have to have the lever swing all the way back, almost parallel
to the downtube in some cases.

You gonna be at Interbike?

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


"Qui si parla Campagnolo" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
>> > greasing by itself, may not be tyour problem. Hopefully when he
>> > reassembled them, he put all the stuff back in, in the proper order. Is
>> > the bolt unscrewing? A wee bit of blue octite on the threads. BTW-I
>> > lube my Campag C-Record retro friction shifters and they don't move..
>>
>> Sorry, has to be 1014 or older to be truly retro. Heck, C-Record levers
>> can
>> probably be used with a triple without doing a complete 360. Faux retro
>> in
>> my book.
>
> Yer aunt matilda's mustache...anything less than 8s and no stoopid,
> nancy click shifting is retro...1014 levers cvan handle triples as
> well, as Gran Sport was triple compatible 4 decades ago.
>>
>> --Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
>> www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
>>
>>
>> "Qui si parla Campagnolo" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>> >
>> > Blair P. Houghton wrote:
>> >> A couple of weeks ago I left my bike at an LBS for a teardown and lube
>> >> (it's cheap, it's quick, and they don't have to keep going back to the
>> >> LBS for parts).
>> >>
>> >> The dufus who finally did the work seems to have greased my shifters.
>> >>
>> >> My /friction/ shifters.
>> >>
>> >> Now every time I get out of the saddle and hammer, the varying pull on
>> >> the front der cable (because of the flex in my steel frame) tugs the
>> >> lever to a slacker position, dropping the der halfway to shifting off
>> >> the big ring, so every time I sit down I have to readjust the lever.
>> >>
>> >> The tension screw is plenty tight, in case you're wondering. I should
>> >> get in there with some solvent sometime soon.
>> >>
>> >> Mommas don't let your babies grow up to be wrenches.
>> >
>> > greasing by itself, may not be tyour problem. Hopefully when he
>> > reassembled them, he put all the stuff back in, in the proper order. Is
>> > the bolt unscrewing? A wee bit of blue octite on the threads. BTW-I
>> > lube my Campag C-Record retro friction shifters and they don't move..
>> >>
>> >> --Blair
>> >
>