Table Of ContentEssential
Bicycle
Maintenance
& Repair
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Essential
Bicycle
Maintenance
& Repair
Daimeon Shanks
Human Kinetics
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shanks, Daimeon, 1980-
Essential bicycle maintenance & repair / Daimeon Shanks.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4504-0707-6 (soft cover) -- ISBN 1-4504-0707-2 (soft cover)
1. Bicycles--Maintenance and repair--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I.
Title.
TL430.S48 2012
629.28'772--dc23
2012004823
ISBN-10: 1-4504-0707-2 (print)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4504-0707-6 (print)
Copyright © 2012 by Daimeon Shanks
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E5443
Contents
Foreword ix ■ Acknowledgments xi ■ Preface xiii
1
The Modern Road Bike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..1
Understanding Your Bike and How It Works .................................. 2
Building Your Home Tool Kit............................................... 7
Setting Up Your Home Workshop ......................................... 14
2
Basic Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..15
Preride Checks ....................................................... 16
Postride Checks....................................................... 17
Tune-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
3
Frame and Fork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..23
Installing a Headset.................................................... 24
Installing a Fork ....................................................... 32
Repairing a Frame..................................................... 34
4
Handlebars and Stem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..39
Installing and Adjusting Stems and Handlebars.............................. 40
Wrapping the Handlebars............................................... 43
Installing Grips........................................................ 45
Working With Special Styles of Bars ....................................... 45
5
Saddles and Seatposts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..53
Installing a Seatpost ................................................... 54
Installing a Saddle..................................................... 55
Adjusting an Integrated Seat Mast ........................................ 59
6
Wheels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..65
Adjusting Skewers..................................................... 66
Truing a Wheel........................................................ 68
Replacing Spokes and Nipples........................................... 75
Adjusting Hubs ....................................................... 79
Making Special Wheel Repairs ........................................... 82
v
vi Contents
7
Tires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..95
Installing Clincher Tires................................................. 96
Repairing a Flat Clincher Tire ............................................ 98
Installing a Tubeless Tire............................................... 101
Repairing a Tubeless Tire .............................................. 102
Installing a Tubular Tire ................................................ 104
Repairing a Tubular Flat................................................ 106
8
Brakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..109
Installing a Brake Lever................................................ 110
Installing Brakes .....................................................111
Installing and Adjusting Brake Pads ...................................... 112
Installing a Brake Cable and Housing..................................... 113
Installing and Adjusting Special Brakes ................................... 115
9
Cranks and Chainrings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..125
Installing Cartridge and External Bottom Brackets........................... 126
Installing Adjustable Bottom Brackets..................................... 127
Installing BB30 Bottom Brackets......................................... 129
Installing BB90 and Other Press-Fit Bottom Brackets......................... 131
Installing Shimano and SRAM External Bottom Brackets and BB30 Cranks ....... 133
Installing Campagnolo Ultra-Torque Cranks ................................ 135
Installing and Replacing Chainrings ...................................... 136
10
Shifters and Derailleurs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..141
Installing Shifters ..................................................... 142
Installing Cable and Housing ........................................... 143
Installing and Adjusting the Rear Derailleur ................................ 146
Installing and Adjusting the Front Derailleur ................................ 148
Troubleshooting Shifting ............................................... 151
Installing and Adjusting Special Shifters and Derailleurs ...................... 152
11
Chains and Cogsets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..163
Installing Chains ..................................................... 164
Installing a Freewheel ................................................. 169
Installing a Cassette .................................................. 170
Maintaining and Repairing Chains and Cassettes ........................... 172
12
Pedals and Cleats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..175
Installing Pedals...................................................... 176
Installing Cleats on Shoes.............................................. 177
Maintaining Pedals and Cleats .......................................... 182
Contents vii
13
Achieving the Perfect Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..189
Frame Fit ........................................................... 190
Saddle Height ....................................................... 192
Crank Length........................................................ 193
Saddle and Cleat Position.............................................. 194
Handlebar Width and Height............................................ 196
Stem Length......................................................... 196
Special Fit Cases..................................................... 197
Appendix: Choosing and Working With a Bike Shop 199
Glossary 201
About the Author 207
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Foreword
T
he world of professional cycling is a tense one. Inside the peloton a mistake
of 1 inch can mean many trips to the hospital. A fractional error in tactics can
mean the loss of the most important of races. A minute mistake in management can
mean the loss of a multimillion-dollar sponsor. Most of this high-stakes tension plays
out in the press and on TV screens across the world for all viewers to pontificate
on. However, the one element that causes more tension inside a team, behind the
curtains, and outside public view is the mechanical side of cycling.
Cycling, by nature, is a unique combination of human and machine. If the human
breaks, no race can be won. However, the same is true for the machine. Much is
spent on perfecting training, nutrition, and physical therapy techniques to keep the
human engine from breaking. But unbeknownst to most, just as much effort is spent
on ensuring the machines don’t break. Mechanics for professional cycling teams
must be absolutely precise in their work, because any flaw could mean a loss of
millions of dollars for the sponsor and team. Even the small mistake could cause a
failure leading to a crash, injuries, and even death. To say their work inside a team
is important is an enormous understatement.
The riders at the professional level put the bike through stresses most do not, all
the while demanding the lightest equipment—which sometimes makes it fragile and
prone to breakage. The riders must trust the work that’s been done on their bikes,
beyond a doubt, so they can get on with their high-speed work. It’s a tightrope, and
few mechanics can take the pressure of walking it—all this while being asked to
live in hotels year round and improvise when proper replacement equipment can’t
be found on the never-ending road. The pressure the mechanic crews live under
is every bit as intense as that of the riders, and they take their work every bit as
seriously. You may not get to see them on TV, but no team is ever a winning team
without a top wrench.
Daimeon Shanks came to my professional team while it was still a growing and
blossoming dream. We were far from the best, the largest, or the best funded back
then. As with any small start-up, the hurdles were numerous and the hours were very
long. Despite still being a scrappy start-up, mainly based on hope rather than results
or real organization, we were given an invitation to the inaugural Tour of California
in 2006. However, unlike the largest pro teams, we were low on the sponsorship
totem pole when it came to delivery times for our equipment. We had received our
shipment of new bikes and parts just a few days before the biggest event of this
small team’s brief history. Our sponsors demanded that we use the new equipment,
and not any from the year before, so we were faced with the task of building all the
bikes up for an entire team in such a short time. And my other mechanic had just
quit in frustration. I had one person to rely on: Daimeon Shanks.
“Daimo,” as we all knew him, was an angst-filled young wrench with a lot of ambi-
tion and drive. That much was obvious to me, right from the start. Whether or not his
unique energy could be precise enough for the high-stakes game of professional
cycling remained to be seen, but he was all I had in that moment. Over the next few
ix
x Foreword
days, he worked 24 hours a day, literally, building and tuning every one of our bikes. His bloodshot
eyes still smiled because he was doing what he loved, and the challenge of doing something no other
mechanics could do in the pro peloton appealed to him in some sort of sadistic way. By the start of
the race, all the bikes were built.
Now, it’s one thing to have put all these bikes together in such short time; it’s quite another to have
them actually work. No mechanic I’d ever met (or met since) could accomplish this as a solo act. My
assumption was that the first day of the race would be riddled with shifting problems, bolts coming
loose, and maybe even a rolled tire. So, with crossed fingers of both hands on the steering wheel, I
drove behind stage 1 of the Tour of California, waiting for disaster. Twenty miles passed with no prob-
lem, then thirty, then halfway. . . . We made it to the end of stage one without even a complaint from a
single rider. I was amazed and forever indebted to Daimo.
—Jonathan Vaughters
Former racer and current manager of the Garmin-Barracuda professional team
