Bought a used bike - a few Q's on brakes and 1x10...

nozzac

I've recently bought a used mountain bike for my son's Xmas present. it's in pretty good nick but I want to make sure it's working as perfectly as possible before giving it to him.

The brakes are Hayes Stroker Carbon. The front one squeaks badly and its lever requires quite a lot more movement before it bites. Does that suggest it needs new pads, more fluid, bleeding or something else?

The bike came as a 1x10 gear setup. The front sprocket is narrow/wide. It seems to work OK riding it around the street. The angle from the front sproket is steeper than I'm used to seeing and it's more noisy than mine. Is that normal for 1x10? Should I bother trying to fit a chain device?

Thanks

cooldad

Possibly more fluid, but a bleed is probably worth it anyway. Epic Bleed Kits do cheap, easy to use kits.

I would replace the pads and clean the rotors with isopropyl alcohol.

As for chain line, was presumably converted from 2x10 or 3x10. If 3 make sure the ring is where the middle ring would be.
If 2 you can only try both and see which is best.

nozzac

cooldad wrote:

Possibly more fluid, but a bleed is probably worth it anyway. Epic Bleed Kits do cheap, easy to use kits.

I would replace the pads and clean the rotors with isopropyl alcohol.

As for chain line, was presumably converted from 2x10 or 3x10. If 3 make sure the ring is where the middle ring would be.
If 2 you can only try both and see which is best.

OK that all sounds sensible.

Re: the chain line - it was a standard 3x10. How do I check if the ring is where the middle ring would be?

Also a couple more Qs - it's got RockShox Reba forks. I don't fancy paying the £100 the LBS wants for servicing them. Is it worth worrying about this or just wait until something goes wrong. I'm not even sure how to spot problems in forks other than something very obvious.

I've also noticed a couple of small dents in the rim of the rear wheel. Is it worth trying to bend them out?

Cheers

cooldad

Put the ring on the inside of the spider. Outside woiuld be where the big ring was.

A lower leg service - new foam rings, wiper seals and oil is pretty simple and will probably cost about £20.
there are tech docs on the Sram website but it's a bit messy. This is useful for oil volumes. Plenty of how to vids on Youtube.

https://biketechtools.com/forks/oil-vol ... elect-fork

Rockshox stuff here if you hunt. You need to know model and year, which you can get off the serial number on the bridge.

https://www.sram.com/service/rockshox/a ... f9kglckd09

The Rookie

A basic lowers oil and seal service isn't at all hard (messy though) and if the seals and foam rings are on their limit then the first sign it needed servicing is once irreparable damage has been done.

Sounds like a pretty well specced bike, lucky lad!

nozzac

The Rookie wrote:

A basic lowers oil and seal service isn't at all hard (messy though) and if the seals and foam rings are on their limit then the first sign it needed servicing is once irreparable damage has been done.

Sounds like a pretty well specced bike, lucky lad!

I'll give it a shot, doesn't look too hard in the videos (famous last words)

Yeah the bike's much better than mine. It's old but well specced - a Kona Kula Deluxe with scandium alloy frame, Reba twin air forks, XT mech, 1x10 chainset, some OK wheels. It's too good for him to be honest given he'll probably forget he's left it somewhere a week after he's got it, but he's paying half and it's only the same £ as a bog standard one from Halfords or Decathlon so kind of makes sense, although not quite as much sense as buying one of those second hand for even less!

cooldad

Nice bike, but I'm a bit biased. We have six Konas in the house. Including a Four Deluxe with a scandium frame. Tough and light.

nozzac

cooldad wrote:

Nice bike, but I'm a bit biased. We have six Konas in the house. Including a Four Deluxe with a scandium frame. Tough and light.

Nice. This will be our only non-Decathlon bike!

That Four Deluxe looks nice. There's one here on ebay for £400: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kona-Four-De ... SwJoNZ1IlG

I'm sorely tempted.

cooldad

Nice XC bike, perfect for twisty singletrack, which is my favourite riding, bit old skool for when things get really steep, but they ride nicely. Mainly used by my girlfriend these days.

That one has some non original bits, brakes were originally Hayes Stroker Trail and they've changed the seatpost and the wheels.

Saying that my brakes died and got replaced with Deore and the wheels pretzelled and got replaced, so I suppose it's reasonable.

Mine, with singlespeeded Kona caldera that my son was using that day. He's young and fit. I prefer gears.