servicing

jacktheoc

i am going to dalby next weekend i am just wanting to service my norco a-line, does anyone have any tips on what to do and also my a-line is supposed to have 9 gears but it only lets me have 8 is this just the screws on the rear mech need adjusting.
also what are the main things to service.

Big Red S

I'm not meaning to sound condescending, but given your second question, I'm not sure it's worth me answering the first and last.

What I would suggest you do, before you service your bike, is get hold of a good book on bike maintenance (Park and Haynes both come reccomended) and have a read of that.
If you know what you are doing when it comes to servicing your bike, what you actually check is easily apparent - everything you can fix.

For a quick checkover of your bike, you want to make sure that:
- There's no play in the hubs. Wiggle the wheel from side to side. If there's a knocking, you want to adjust the cones or service the hub.
- There's no play in the headset. Hold the front brake and rock the bars forwards and back. If there's a knocking, you want to tighten or service the headset. This can also be cause by worn bushings in suspension forks, though. So press your thumb against where the inner leg goes into the outer while rocking the bike, and see if you can feel movement.
- Thre's no play in the BB. Hold a crank and wiggle it from side to side. If there's play, something's wrong. If the other crank also moves when you wiggle the first, your BB's worn. If the other crank doesn't, then that crank's worn.
- There's no play in your shock bushihngs. Hold the bike by the saddle, and rock it up and down. If there's a knocking, either your shock mounting (or pivot) bolts are loose, or the shock bushings (or pivot bearings) are shot.
- You've got brake pads left and working brakes.
- Your gears work.
- Your tyres are inflated.
- Your wheels are true.

graciejiujitsu

could be as simple as resetting your mech,but without seeing any obvious damage to mech or hanger its just your view to go on.
GORDON RAMSEY STYLE.rear mech-put it in smallest cog....undo cable clamp...look directly behind mech and cassette....turn (h) screw untill small cog and top jockey wheel align....pedal and push(by hand)mech until its on biggest cog....if u can get it past cog adjust (l) screw.

while cable is still loose,,undo the adjuster barrel at least 2 turns.
pull cable tight and re-clamp cable.
now for indexing...shift into 2nd smallest cog...keep pedalling...turn barrell anti clock wise until you get "chain rattle"then turn it back in until it just goes.
check for rattle through the range of gears until you are happy.

graciejiujitsu

as for the rest,as red s says.
check all bolts,nuts.
i recommend park big blue book.

jacktheoc

thanks for that i will have to check it over on monday, my front and back wheel are a bit buckled from downhill is it easy to true wheels.

Big Red S

It's not particularly hard to true wheels, but it's very easy to make them worse than they already are.

The basic theory is that to move the rim to the right you tighten the spokes on the right, and to pull it to the left you tighten the spokes to the left. A lot of people damage the first wheel they try to true by overtightening the spokes. It's really very little movement at the nipple. And not using a proper spoke key makes everything harder.