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Minor victory
 

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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6884
Location: Maine

8/18/13 4:47 PM

Minor victory

Well I at least found this funny. My maintenance skills are all about 30 years old, I can handle old school cup and cone hubs and bbs fine, but never bothered to learn newer stuff, just taking the bike to the LBS once in awhile. Today I noticed that the hub on a new rear wheel I'm going to use in D2R2 next week, is a bit loose. I could move the wheel a bit in the frame. Don't know if it would make any difference, but I don't care for it. It is a new Campy hub and I have no idea how to adjust it. So I think maybe I'll just take into the LBS, but then I think I'll take a look at it first.

So I look at the hub and there is a plastic lockring with a 2.5mm Allen bolt, and I think, maybe you just loosen the bolt and tighten the ring. So I try that and it doesn't work. I look on the Internet, and a forum post says to do exactly what I did. So I try it again and it doesn't work again. I go on the net again, find the instructions on the Campy site, and it says do exactly what I did, but adds the step "tap the axle nut with the plastic handle of the allen wrench." I try again, add this step, and the adjustment is perfect.

Reminds me of the joke about the guy who bills $25,000 for "knowing where to tap." No one is paying me, but at least I didn't have to drive to Portland.

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dfcas
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 2815
Location: hillbilly heaven

8/18/13 5:49 PM

I'd probably destroy bike parts and buy new ones before giving in and taking it to a bike shop. I'm too stubborn, but that's how I've learned over the years. Can't remeber actually destroying anything, but its surely gonna happen.

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Dave B
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 4511
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

8/18/13 6:13 PM

Yep, the "tap" gets all of the clearance in the bearings on the side of the adjusting ring/cone where you can easily dial it out. It's a wonderful design since it lets you adjust the hub bearings for zero play but not excessively tight with the wheel firmly clamped in the dropouts. No need for the "Kentucky windage" axle play most other cup-and-cone hubs require.

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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC

8/18/13 7:16 PM


quote:
My maintenance skills are all about 30 years old, I can handle old school cup and cone hubs and bbs fine, but never bothered to learn newer stuff, just taking the bike to the LBS once in awhile.

With today's availability of internet instructions, there's no reason to shy away from doing the "new stuff".

The only reason I'd bring take the bike to an LBS is do things I don't have tools for.

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Matthew Currie
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 800
Location: Vermont

8/18/13 8:55 PM

Reminds me a bit of the old days of computers. I think it was the short-lived Apple III, which suffered from loose chips. The factory cure was to pick the machine up off the desk and drop it.

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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5096
Location: Nashua, NH

8/19/13 4:53 AM

My rule of thumb is...

...if the cost of the labor to fix something is nearly the cost of buying the necessary tools (or higher), I buy the tools and fix it myself. The cost threshold is lower for repairs or maintenance that needs to be done repeatedly.

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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC

8/19/13 8:40 AM

For anything that need to be done repeatedly (maintenance), I tend to do it myself, tools or not. I'm not near any shop, so having to bring to bike in more than once is more hassle than doing the work myself.

For things that only needs done once in a blue moon (repair), AND I don't have to the tools, I tend to give it to the shop. Unless the work itself is so quick that, even including the time to buy the tool, I'm still ahead time and money-wise (basically real simple repair). The reverse of that is also true that, if I need to buy the part and the shop installation is included, I buy it in the LBS instead of mail order even if it might cost slightly more.

Basically, I value my time more than anything else. My decision on doing the work vs going to the shop based mostly on that. Cost is a consideration only if time is similar or the cost difference is huge.

There was one exception to the above. I once repair something all the shops think was un-repairable! It involves using a garage workshop which a buddy from the club had. We had as much fun DOING the repair as my riding the result of the repair!

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