Transporting disc equiped bike, Wheels off... Advice please.

phil-w

Hi,
New to this site so here goes....

Had a search but can't seem to find an answer to my question...

Just upgraded my old Marin Bobcat trail hard tail to a new, all shiney Decathlon Rockrider 9.1

(Don't laugh but it was was good value especially when i got 10% off due to a slight scuff mark on paint !)

Anyway, my question..

To transport in my car I need to take both wheels off. do i need to do anything with the brake mech's on the frame incase the levers get knocked or operated by accident when loading unloading etc...

Do you need to put anything to stop the brake pads moving together or will they stay put OK ??

As I say, new to all this technology. never had discs when i used to Time triial and road race when I was younger.. (the early 80's before anyone asks if there was a time before such things !)

Any advice appreciated...

Thanks.... Phil

nicklouse

you should have been provided with some pad spacers just for this.

next time you are at the shop ask for them.

in the mean time some cardboard will do/help stop the pads touching if the levers are pulled.

Frodo1095

I saw something the other day and it was a QR rod with a disk pad spacer attached by a short length of wire, so you could put the rod and lock it between the ends of your forks and then put the pad in between your brakes and because it was attached by wire you wont loose them (unless you lose the whole thing of course).

Will try to find it and post a link.

Andy525

Frodo,

You mean these?
http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_ ... cts_id=334

Phil,

Have a look in the bag of instructions that they gave you when you brought the bike the require parts may be hiding in there.

Andy

Anonymous

as long as you're careful about not squeezing the brake lever when there's no disc in the calliper, you should be fine. But as the others have said, the spacers are a good idea just in case you do it by accident.

Robowns

If my caliper compresses I just pry the pads apart with a thin flat key.

phil-w

Cheers for replies...

Nothing in the bag of words... I do like the idea of the combined Q/R fake hub and spacers with chain holder.

I think I will go for that option as i normally stick a bit of copper pipe between the frame to hold chain but as I'm still in NEW BIKE mode I will splash the cash...

At least i shouldn't loose the spacers..

Thanks again

jayson

The simplest and cheapest way to stop ur pistons being pushed out by accident is to use a 2p coint and tape it in place in the caliper whilst being transported, works a treat!!

FunBus

this ones got a chain brush on it as well.........

http://www.cyclelife.com/Product.aspx?p ... 94&pg=4248

GlastoMongrel

Looks like I got lucky, never gave this a thought yesterday when I picked up my bike. Similar situation but managed to get it in with just the front wheel off. Here's me thinking that the steepest learning curve would be that of learning to ride properly. Turns out it's getting to know the mechanics of the bike :shock:

Anonymous

Don't be a drama llama. I'm clumsy, so I lost the pad spacers immediately, but i've never had a problem throwing the bike in the back of the car with the wheels off.

bails87

Yeah, I used to use something to keep the pads apart. Now I don't bother. As long as you don't drive for 2 hours with the levers clamped down it should be fine.

Northwind

In my toolkit in the car there's an old Laser gasket scraper, which it turns out was rubbish at scraping gaskets but is completely awesomely brilliant at seperating pads which have squeezed together in transit. Better not to need it of course but if it's not my bike it might be a mate's.

UKPonchoMan

This is probably a very stupid question (but I'm new so please humour me!!) - why should I take the wheels off when the bike is in the car?

Chris

Northwind

Makes the bike smaller. Er, obviously Also helps keep muck off the upholstry if you're bothered about that. My car'll take 2 bikes whole in its tardis-boot but it's much easier to deal with them with the front wheels out so we tend to do that.

UKPonchoMan

Phew - I thought I was missing something important! It's not an issue for me - my Mazda6 estate is cavernous so don't have to worry about it!

Thanks for answering without making me sound like a complete pratt!

Chris

Anonymous

UKPonchoMan wrote:

This is probably a very stupid question (but I'm new so please humour me!!) - why should I take the wheels off when the bike is in the car?

Chris

I can't fit the bike(s) in my car with the wheels on, simple as that!