Paragon Maintenance

I've had the Paragon out of play for several weeks.  First, the headset had been creaking and driving me nuts.  Upon disassembly I found the lower bearing was pretty cruddy.  I had already disassembled this cartridge bearing and repacked it once, so this time I ordered a new one.

Ellen and her kittly slippers help with

headset bearing replacement.

Next up, my SRAM type 2 rear derailleur is one of the first ones made.  It was actually back ordered when I first tried to purchase.  Over recent months I've noticed it simply has way too much tension on the chain, making shift to larger cogs really chunky sounding.

I talked to the SRAM rep at Manatoc and he said there is a known issue with early production models.  Thanks to SRAM's excellent customer service they sent me new one.  Actually they did one better and sent me an X0 rear derailleur to replace my X9.  Upgrade!

 New rear derailleur installed.

In the process of working on the above mentioned items I thought about my tubeless wheels.  I'd never topped off the Stans sealant since first going tubeless. When I shook the wheels I could no longer hear it sloshing around.  Yep, time to top off.  I made a bit of a mess but it's all good.

The syringe should make it easier, now that

I know the technique to avoid a mess.

It has been quite fun riding the Karate Monkey while the Paragon has been in pieces.  Getting some front suspension again will be nice.  Interestingly, I've not missed gears too much.

 Ready to roll again.

Daniel's Wheel Work

For a little while now Daniel has been saying, "my bike wheels are scratchy!"  This would be in reference to his Strider bike and KT has been making the same mention regarding the sounds coming from the rear wheel.  Today Daniel and I made time to investigate.

Without assistance Daniel had both wheels

off his bike in about 3 minutes.

Working in the manly outfit of shorts only, Daniel removed both wheels from his bike and brought them to the work bench for further disassembly.  We discovered wasted caged bearings on both sides of the rear wheel and a dry bearing up front.  Actually, I'm trying to decide if these wheels came with dry bearings?  No matter as they are lubed up now.  I put the rear back together with loose balls and we'll see how long that lasts.

Getting into the hub.

No more scratchy sounds and he is rolling again.  Daniel can ride his pedal bike mostly unassisted but only when someone is with him in the street.  The Strider still sees plenty of action around the house, be it on the sidewalk, in the yard, or even inside the house.  Good fun.

Getting a boost.

Paragon Maintenance

My brand new Paragon needs some work... wait, how old is it?  Well thanks to my blogful ramblings, I see it's almost been a year and a half since I bought the bike.  I guess time flies when piloting a mountain bike.

Anyhow, I've noticed an increasing amount of oily crud accumulating on the fork stanchions after rides.  I've always been pretty diligent about wiping the stanchions and wiper seals down after rides, but I guess it's time to do some maintenance work.  Good news is I have the tools and know-how from the work with just did with Ryan's fork.  Now I need to get a seal kit and oil for my fork.

Fox F29 off the bike and on the bench.

In the process of removing the fork I had a look at the front brake and pads.  Whoa, pad life has been exhausted!  I thought it was getting close as I've been experiencing long brake lever throw the past couple rides, which makes sense now that I see how worn the pads are and how extended the pistons are.  Now I need to get some new brake pads.

Avid Elixir 5 front brake off the bike.

Alright, I have some pieces, parts, and supplies to procure.  The Karate Monkey is going to get some playing time until I get the work done.  I'm thankful to have two mountain bikes for my riding pleasure.

Ellen's Backseat Ride

KT requested a tuneup on her hybrid bike in hopes of taking Ellen out for her first ride in the bucket seat.  Each time I lift this ChroMo Jamis bike into the work stand it's a shock to the system.  I'm not sure how much it weighs, but it's a bragging point when my homemade workstand dutifully holds the bike without complaint.

Gunked up chain cleaned then lubed,

brakes and shift systems adjusted.

Ryan's Fork

Turning our attention to bike maintenance, Ryan and I did an overhaul on his mountain bike fork.   The fork is about six years old which was enough reason to strip it down and at least change the oil.  I do not believe he's had any problems with it other than thinking it felt soft of late.

 Into the work stand and off with the fork.

On my first motorcycle I did a fork seal and oil replacement job but never on a mountain bike. I've always wanted to get inside a suspension fork and see what's going on in there.  As it turns out there's a lot more going on in the bike fork than there was in my moto fork.

Getting inside a Rock Shox Reba Dual Air fork.

We tore it down, replaced the fork seals and wipers with new Enduro seals from Real World Cycling, and replaced some o-rings too.  The instructions from the SRAM web site were pretty thorough as well as the instructions from RWC.  Keeping the parts organized is an important part of this job. 

 Ellen was on hand for some help and QC inspection.

We reassembled the internals and proceeded with oil filling.  There was only one major spillage but we'll pretend that didn't happen.  However, the stain on my workbench may make it a tough cover up.

 Not the best angle for a picture, but i was supposed

to be holding the fork, not taking pictures.

With the fork back together and the air chambers pumped up we reinstalled the fork.  There was no trail testing today but as far as we could tell it was ready to go.  I think Ryan will have some playing to do with the rebound adjustment and maybe the positive and negative pressures, as we set it back to the default settings.  It was a good project and now I'm motivated to figure out what preventative maintenance I should be doing with my fork.

 While we were working on Ryan's fork

Daniel built "Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse".

Christmas Wheel Truing

Here's a project in the works, a wheel truing stand for Chris.  I found and purchased Roger Musson's wheelbuilding ebook (http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/) a while back for the build it yourself wheel truing stand plans as well as wheel building info.  It's a worthwhile book and the plans for the stand are good, but I had to add my own tweaks to the stand.

The lateral truing gage is shown in this picture.

I added a solid wood edge band to the base plate, curly maple on this one, and used a single knob in a slot for width adjustment.  A pin on the underside of each upright engages the slot to keep the uprights in alignment as they are slid side to side.  I also routed a pocket for the "jaws" to better attach and locate them.

The radial truing gage is shown in this picture.

Hopefully Chris gets some use out of this stand.  I will building a couple more in the near future.

MTB Maintenance

 Tonight I was cleaning my mountain bike to take to the shop for its complimentary tune-up.  As I walked past my bike in the workstand I reached out and spun a pedal... it screeched at me.  Wow, that sounds dry.  Come to think of it I had never disassembled and greased this pair of pedals before.

Image I posted on the mtbr.com forum on the topic of Carve pedals.

The pedals are an inexpensive pair of Performance brand SPD compatible pedals, the Forte Carve.  They have been pretty solid for the past couple years on my mountain bikes and the previous three or four years on my cross bike.  Upon disassemble I realized they only have one bearing, with a bushing taking up the main load bearing duty.  Note to self: grease more often.

After cleaning and greasing they seem ready to have some more pedaling fun!