My winter bike doesn't like the cold

_Brun_

This is pathetic, stupid and also annoying. I've determined over the last few days that my crappy weather bike (rigid forked and skinny tyred hybrid - cough) really doesn't like cold weather, certainly not like what we've had recently.

Problem started a week or so before Xmas when my chain started occasionally slipping. Since the chain and cassette were both over 12 months old I replaced them, being the ususal suspects n'all that.

So back at work this week, and not fancying the road bike mostly out of fear of losing it on some ice and breaking it, I took the hybrid only to find that the chain was still slipping. Inspected the big chainring (use it almost exclusively) at home that evening and decided it was looking a bit worn. Yesterday morning I set off on the relatively unused middle ring only to find that was even bloody worse. Didn't get more than a couple of hundred yards up the road before turning round to go get the bike that worked.

Took the now rather out of favour hybrid to 5-a-side last night, and despite making sure I wasn't putting too much pressure through the pedals, it seemed much better. Noticing the temperature was a bit milder than that morning, I left it indoors overnight (it's usually outiside) to see if that helped, and on the way to work today it behaved itself perfectly. No problems on the way home after being left indoors all day either.

I've got both aerosol and squeezy varieties of Finish Line Dry Lube, but neither have any mention of low or high temperature limits. I've also never read about anything like this, and neither of my two most bike-knowlegable colleagues seemed to think low temperatures should be such problems. Seeing as one of them is from Ayrshire I'm inclined to believe him.

Unfortunately keeping it in the flat overnight is impractical due to lack of space, and lugging it up four floors at work ain't much fun either. If anyone could shed some light on what might be going on here it'd be much appreciated!

Cheers

AndyOgy

No proper set up should require that you 'don't put too much pressure on the pedals'. It should take a hell of a lot of pressure to make the chain jump under normal conditions.

What kind of bike is it and what brand/range of components does it have?

How is the spring in the chain tensioning part of the rear mech?

Is it changing gear ok?

Have you checked the chain for 'stiff links'? It's a messy job but can often lead to the diagnosis of such a problem.

I'm guessing that the chainrings are also around 12 months old? Even so, they should last longer that that. I've just had my old Trek 6000 rebuilt to use as a commuter but it still has the original chainrings, despite being on it's 3rd rear casette.

_Brun_

2008 Scott Sportster P4. Componentry is all Shimano stuff, MTB rather than road.

Bike's around 20 months old now, but chain and cassette had been replaced once already. I originally suspected wear could be a problem on the big ring becuase as I said, I've hardly used either of the others. However the fact that a) the middle ring was worse and b) the big ring seems ok if it's not left outside in freezing temperature has me thinking wear's not the problem.

Gears shift as well as low end Shimano kit can be expected to, front mech doesn't make any unwanted contact with the chain and everything's ok at the rear. Checked the chain for stiff links the other night and found nowt.

Only thing you mention which I didn't check is the rear mech's spring tension. There definitely is some, but what's the best way to determine the state of it?

AndyOgy

If you've checked all that other stuff then you'd probably have noticed if the spring in the rear mech was loose enough to cause problems.

I've been racking my brains to think of any problems that could be caused by cold weather and the only thing I can think of is that dew or condensation is collecting on your chain/chainrings and actually freezing or becoming frost. The chain then being more likely to jump on the middle ring due to having the load spread over fewer teeth.

Have you tried giving the chain a really good clean? Ideally with a chain cleaning tool and some Muc Off, or with white spirit and an old toothbrush. If not, give the chain a really good clean, the chainrings too. Rinse it off and, when it's completely dry, spray a water displacing product like 'Bike Spray' or GT85 all over the chainrings and lube the chain with Finish Line Wet Lube. Leave the lube for about half an hour to properly sink into all the links and then wipe off the excess.

Hope this helps.

_Brun_

Many thanks for the suggestions. Should get chance to give it a thorough going over at the weekend, will let you know how I get on.

robbarker

Probably sticky pawls in your freehub caused by old cruddy and cold grease.

Remove your cassette and whip off your freehub for which you need a 10mm allen key, leave it on a radiator in a bowl , after a couple of hours flush through with thinnish oil - wet chain lube will do. Best way to do this is to place it flat big cog up and keep putting the oil onto the gap between the innards and the outer housing, it should let the oil in. If you can gently prise off the dustcover then so much the better, but some are tricky to get off without causing damage.

If that doesn't work you can flush through with GT85 etc but you'll have to then oil it very thoroughly afterwards.

_Brun_

Well I didn't get round to looking into this any further at the weekend, but the cold snap and problem seem to have both gone away. For the time being at least.

However, I was on my decent bike this morning to find that had started slipping too. Thinking there's either something very wrong with my pedalling technique or I'm just cursed, I tried limping to work and made it half way there (it's only 4 miles total) when the chain snapped. Quite happy that for once the problem had diagnosed itself in a very obvious manner, fixed it at the road side and was on me way again within five mins.