Wear Opinions (Pics included)

Dizeee

Hi all. After opinions on wear of the pictured components. Reason being I have been quoted just short of £600 for a service. Basically, I have been told everything needs replacing. New set of wheels as the indicators are worn ( they are only just under 1 year old ), new chainset, bottom bracket, crank, cassette, chain, derailleur, brake pads, cables, pretty much everything other than the headset. However, I had a new chain and cassette in May / June this year which was done elsewhere, and the previous ones were on the bike for 2 years and covered around 6000+ miles. The derailleur jockey wheels were also replaced elsewhere only a few months ago, yet this has been flagged up today.

The bike rides fine, other than being heavy compared to my carbon. I only wanted a gears and brake service.I keep getting ridiculous quotes from various bike shops over maintenance issues, however I am surprised by this one today. The bike cost £999 new.


Cheers

slowbike

Did you take it into the bike shop like that to be serviced?
Not surprised they want to replace just about everything - it looks like you can't be arsed to keep on top of it.

Clean it up first...

Other than that it looks like you might need new back brake blocks although the pic is a bit fuzzy ... can't tell anything else from that - other than it's filthy!

Ber Nard

In terms of wear everything looks OK to me. The poor thing is in desperate need of a good clean, though.

Without wanting to sound patronising, servicing the gears and brakes should be something you can do at home.

danlikesbikes

Couple of points your asking so will try my hardest to answer most or all the obvious ones I can

Wheels do look worn however can't see from your pics the wear all that well. Look at it another way is the rim down to its wear indicator? If yes then you know it's time to consider replacing (some will tell you they change others will say run it till it breaks).

As for your other parts they do look worn & not in a clean state so hard to tell from your pics if it's heavily worn or partly worn and covering in road grime. But if your been to several shops and they are all/mostly telling you to replace parts then you can (a) listen to your LBS and replace or (b) make your own choice and ask them to do the work you want and not repace the other parts and you will run them till they die.

Only thing I would say is your right to expect parts to last longer (as your last ones did) & if you bikes clean and lubed them wear is going to be less then a bike that's not cleaned and running with grim & grit on moving parts. But only you know what's happened with the bike this year.

Perhaps ask the bike shop to show you on the chain wear indicator themselves, but if its worn see above.

crikey

Never mind all that 'Oooohhh you must clean it all, all the time' nonsense.

Buy some new brake blocks, buy some dry lube and keep riding it. When it starts to shift erratically, change the cables and keep riding it.

Bicycles are tools, not ornaments. They are designed to be ridden, not polished. The experience is all about the rides that you do, not what you do it on, or what colour it is, or what groupset you did it with.

Dizeee

Thx for the replies. Yes the components are pretty mucky. Because I have no idea how to remove and clean the components, I never clean them. I keep the rest of the bike in immaculate condition however the chainset does get like this very quickly as I am doing around 120 - 200 miles per week. I know the answer is to learn how to do it, however, I am not mechanically minded at all, anything I try fails and I gave up long ago trying to faff about with components, cocking up my bike and having to be bailed out by a LBS.

Out of interest, is there a method of cleaning the chainset on the bike? I have a wire brush but not sure what I could use to degrease the chainset on the bike.

I am shocked though that a wheelset has lasted less than a year. It will have done around 5000 miles in total all be it some of that was last winter and riding through floods.

Bozman

Take it as an expensive lesson, learn to look after your bike and service it yourself, You Tube and Park Tools are your friends, use them and learn.

navrig2

Components will wear more quickly if you don't clean them from time to time. Try polishing a candle with some sandpaper - it will disappear. That is what you are doing to your bike.

In terms of learning - have a search on Youtube and you will find loads of videos which will show you how to the most basic things (like cleaning your bike) to the most complex. Even buying a chain wear tool for £6 will allow you to know when to replace your chain.

If you are indeed doing the mileage you quote then it's in your best interest to learn the basics at least.

desweller

Derailleurs are fine; they last for ages.

Chainrings also normally last for a long time but yours look worn.

Chainrings and cassette sprockets wear when the chain is allowed to wear. At your weekly mileage I would be cleaning and re-oiling the chain minimum of once/week, twice if it rains.

Don't you have a bike-savvy mate who can walk you through some maintenance basics?

slowbike

Cleaning a chain in situ isn't difficult - old cloth, denim is good, some cleaner and hold it around the chain whilst you back pedal ... Not perfect but gets a lot of cack off it ...
Cassette - use a toothbrush..
I tend to use a flat bladed screwdriver to scrape the worst off the chain rings and other cogs.

Brake blocks can be simple to replace.

g00se

You could certainly go through a set of rims in 5000 miles, especially riding in all weather and if you don't clean the rims. Depends on the rims and the blocks you use

--Darren--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ak4AzlU ... H_GAztWt0Q

crankycrank

Can't say for sure about all your parts being worn but as far as the chain, cassette and chainrings you may as well keep riding as is until the shifting stops working properly. The reason for replacing chains early is that when they get beyond a certain amount of wear they tend to rapidly wear out the cogs and chainrings so it's more economical to replace several chains to extend the life of the (more expensive) gears. Chains will have to have massive miles on them before they are at a risk of coming apart but shifting starts to deteriorate when cogs/rings and chains are worn and the reason most of us keep them fresh. If you don't want to spend the money just yet keep using the same parts together as yours are all worn and will all need replacement at the same time. Just wait till you decide that the shifting quality is unacceptable to you. Cleaning and lubing your chain doesn't have to be an ordeal. Just some solvent (White Spirit, WD-40, etc.) on a rag with a quick wipedown and apply your favourite lube. This will extend the life of all the parts. As a very general rule if you replace your chain before it becomes too worn you should be able to go through 3 chains before replacing a cassette and 6+ chains for the rings.

cycleclinic

Bike part are fully exposed to the elements and they wear quickly. If you had steel chainrings they would wear more slowly, similarly an internal gear hub lasts. There are ways to reduce your maintance bill but you want a race bike so you get race bike maintance, hardly surprising is it. Keeping a bike clean does not necessarily mean longer service life from components,but cleaning does mean you can touch the bike without turning your hands black.

Chains last 1500 to 2000 miles normally. I replace mine at 0.75% elongation less on a campagnolo chain as they don't stretch much and my campagnolo cassettes are too expensive to take risks with.

Rims don't last forever. I have had as little as 3000 miles out of a front rim. Simply bikes are not free. It may only cost £800 to buy but the maintance bills can be 50% of that if leave everything until it worn out. Replaceing bit by bit does not make it cheaper either it just makes the visits to the LBS more regular. Cleaning your rim after every ride may improve rim life a bit but it won't double it. The rim will get pretty dirty again quite quickly.

I never clean my chains. I use rock n roll lube on them it does the clean for me which I like. My last record 10 speed chain did 2000 miles before it reached the wear limit suggested by campagnolo, I could have run it longer but when I am using a £300 RRP full ti cassette (O.K I pay less but it is still very expensive) it does not make sense trying to get a few more miles from the chain. The same logic does apply to cheaper cassettes too as you prolong the life of the chainrings which if let those wear quickly it does get very expensive. Get a wear indicator and change the chain at 0.75% (I know it include rollerwear but it seems to work at preserving cassettes and extending the life of chainrings). Use wax based lubricant liek the rock n roll (there are others) but not a stickly lube like 3n1 and your need to clean the chain will be reduced/removed. If you like cleaning chains then use 3n1 or finsih line which is very sticky. Also go with a cheap chains (KMC 10-93 for a 10 speed chain or the 9-73 for a 9 speed) to keep the costs down.

rolf_f

thecycleclinic wrote:

Rims don't last forever. I have had as little as 3000 miles out of a front rim. Simply bikes are not free. It may only cost £800 to buy but the maintance bills can be 50% of that if leave everything until it worn out. Replaceing bit by bit does not make it cheaper either it just makes the visits to the LBS more regular. Cleaning your rim after every ride may improve rim life a bit but it won't double it. The rim will get pretty dirty again quite quickly.

There's got to be some specific reason you only got 3000 miles out of a front rim. I clean my rims fairly frequently, ride every day in any weather and probably have harder braking to do than you (West Yorks being hillier than Suffolk) - I've currently got 15000 miles plus out of a front Khamsin. Folk on here who fail to distinguish between concavity due to the brake pad wearing the braking surface (perfectly normal and inevitable after relatively few miles) and concavity caused by the outer lip of the rim bowing out due to the rim wall being too thin would have probably binned it ages ago. I go on the internal width rather than the appearance of the rim (aside from that the wear indicator is still just about visible!) and that is spot on manufacturers spec so the wheel keeps turning!

JayKosta

To clean the 'lumpy bits of dirt' from the chain, derailleurs, rings, cassette, etc., buy several inexpensive 'chip brushes' from a hardware or paint store. Get narrow ones for getting into the various parts. The brushes have fairly stiff bristles and work well to remove the big bits of dirt, grease, etc. Also toothbrushes work well - especially ones that are narrow.
These brushes aren't meant for actual painting - they are used like small brooms to whisk away chips and dirt.

I just use spray-on wet lube (no degreaser or cleaner).
After cleaning the parts on the bike - no disassembling - with the brushes, use a paper towel to wipe off most of the old oil and dirt.
Then spray the chain with the lube and let it set for a few minutes - use newspaper to protect the tires, wheels, frame, etc. from the spray.
Then use more towels to wipe it dry - the lube creeps to the inside of the chain where it is needed. The outside of the chain should be wiped so it is no longer too wet with lube.

You can also use bamboo skewers to remove the gunk between cassette gears, etc.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

cycleclinic

yeah there are good reason, I rode them in some really nasty conditions alot. If I rode them on nicer days I would have got longer life. 15,000 miles from khamisin is possible but not if all you use them for is wet filthy rides in the winter.

Where I live is very up and down so while I may not have the longer down hills you may have rolf, there is alot of braking to be done, particualrly in group riding.

I retire rims when they get to 1mm wall thickness

rolf_f

thecycleclinic wrote:

yeah there are good reason, I rode them in some really nasty conditions alot. If I rode them on nicer days I would have got longer life. 15,000 miles from khamisin is possible but not if all you use them for is wet filthy rides in the winter.

Where I live is very up and down so while I may not have the longer down hills you may have rolf, there is alot of braking to be done, particualrly in group riding.

I retire rims when they get to 1mm wall thickness

Point taken re group riding. The Khamsins are used all year round so they get summer mileage as well. I do clean them each day they get dirty though. The grey grime is basically grinding paste so it seems mad to leave it on - it gets expensive in brake pads as well.

Dizeee

Well I have just bought a set of Shimano R501's online for £75 to replace the Fulcrums. I am going to have a go at swapping the cassette over and borrow a friends chain whip and cassette tool. That way I can just ask the LBS to change the bottom bracket and brakes / cables and be able to reduce my costs considerably. I suspect my attempt to swap the cassette will result in total fail but I have nothing to lose.

ai_1

Dizeee wrote:

Well I have just bought a set of Shimano R501's online for £75 to replace the Fulcrums. I am going to have a go at swapping the cassette over and borrow a friends chain whip and cassette tool. That way I can just ask the LBS to change the bottom bracket and brakes / cables and be able to reduce my costs considerably. I suspect my attempt to swap the cassette will result in total fail but I have nothing to lose.

Swapping a cassette is pretty trivial. The only tricky bit is loosening a stuck lockring without hitting your knuckles on the spokes when it comes free.

For occassional chain cleaning, I use foaming degreaser. Spray it on the cassette and chain. Give the cassette, chain and chainrings a scrub with an old nail brush (a washing up brush, toothbrush or purpose designed brushes will all do the same job - as mentioned earlier, a narrow prush to get between the sprockets will allow you sweep away any clumps of debris in there). Then rinse the degreaser off along with all the grime. If you're not satisfied you can do it again. If you're satisfied give it a wipe to remove excess moisture, let it sit to dry for a couple of hours and then re-lube and wipe off any excess. This only takes 5 to 10 minutes and I only do it very occasionally. I don't care if my chain and gears ain't shiny. I do like them to run and change smoothly though.

DeVlaeminck

thecycleclinic wrote:

Rims don't last forever. I have had as little as 3000 miles out of a front rim. Simply bikes are not free. It may only cost £800 to buy but the maintance bills can be 50% of that if leave everything until it worn out. Replaceing bit by bit does not make it cheaper either it just makes the visits to the LBS more regular. Cleaning your rim after every ride may improve rim life a bit but it won't double it. The rim will get pretty dirty again quite quickly.

.

3000 miles for a rim - does seem exceptionally light mileage even for a set of Winter wheels.