Crank, skipping a bit?

Superflygary

Hi all,

First of all I have to state that I have just began cycling so I'm not even sure the correct terminology to use to describe the minor issue I'm facing. So I'll start with the details and I hope that some will understand what the heck I'm taking about lol.

I bought my first road bike 2 months ago and have been absolutely loving my decision to get into this, I bought a 2012 specialized allez sport and i have probably put about 300 Km on it. I took it for its one month tune up a few weeks ago even thought it didn't seem to need it, and got it back feeling exactly as it was when I dropped it off, so I guess it was in pretty good shape still, chain has been oiled regularly, but other than that it's just been riden.

Ok that's the history, now the issue. I noticed yesterday when I was peddling under load that there seemed to be a section on the crank that when I was pushing down with my right leg that it seemed there was no resistance, like it has a centimeter or so where it just skipped or something. There is no clunk, or noise, it just seems to, well skip a bit. One of the first items I bought was Zinns repair manual, but I may as well be reading Latin as I don't have any idea if it's the, crank,pedals, or something else entirely that I should be looking at.

Can someone help narrow down what I should be looking at fixing? I'm new to road bikes, but not to fixing stuff once I know what I'm suppose to be fixing! It's really minor slipping/skipping, but figured it was better to nab it at the early stages lest it get worse.

Thanks for any and all advise,
Cheers
Gary

nicklouse

look at the casstte or the free hub. of just take it back to the shop and get thme to look at it.

keef66

Have a close look at your chain, make sure it's not about to part company. Run the pedals backwards and watch it as it goes round the jockey wheels in the rear mech. Any jumps or kinks that might suggest a stiff link?

Failing that, it sounds like it could be a faulty freehub. Not really something for a novice DIY job, and anyway the shop should sort it out for you under warranty.

keef66

Oh, and make sure the left hand crank is still firmly attached.

Superflygary

Thanks for your input, I'll check all those things to see if I can find anything, but I guess I'll have to take it back to the shop. Which is too bad because I really wanted to learn how to do my own repairs. Oh well, I don't want to make a small problem worse. Checking those items should at least be educational though.

Thanks again, I'll follow up if if I find anything before taking it to the shop.

farrina

Superflygary wrote:

Hi all,

I hope that some will understand what the heck I'm taking about

I am probably getting old and crankey, or it may be that my sight is not what it used to be, but please, please for future reference would you learn to use paragraphs. There is nothing worse than huge blocks of dense text, which rapidly moves me onto another thread to save me from further eyestrain.

Whinge over



Regards

Alan

Superflygary

Yea, I guess I did miss one paragraph between the history description and the problem.

Anyway just a follow up question before I take it I to the shop, I want to make sure that I am claiming the correct thing. An other indicator to further isolate the problem is that it always happens the same place when cranking, like right foot at around the two o'clock position on every stroke when under load, that would still indicate a fault free hub correct?

Being a newby, and my bike shop being, well kind of stuck up, I want to make sure I go in with an educated explaination. Everything else that was pointed out to check seems just fine.

Thanks again

keef66

Same point in each rotation of the cranks suggests a crank / chainring / BB problem; the freehub / cassette is unlikely to be at fault.