Clean & Lube Your Brake and Derailleur Cables

Kena heavy rain or have you recently ‘hose down’ your bike? Better lube the cables to ensure we continue to enjoy smooth shifting and braking.

Derailleur (Shifting) Cables

1. With bike on a stand, shift the chain to the ‘biggy’ rear and  ‘biggy’ front ring.

2. Without pedaling, shift rear gear and front gear down to their smallest. The derailleurs and chain should remain where they are, but your cables should now have some slack.

3. Pull the cable housing out from the cable stops.

4. Slide cable housing and wipe off any water on the cable with a clean rag.

   

5. Lube derailleur cables with light oil.

6. Put the cable housing back into the cable stops and carefully turn the pedals forward.

Brake Cables

1. Squeeze your brake levers so that the pads are touching the rim.

2. Hold the brake pads against the rim with one hand.

3. Pop the cable housing out from the cable stops.

4. Slide cable housing and wipe off any water on the cables with a clean rag.

5. Lube brake cables with oil (heavy oil recommended).

6. Slide housing back, squeeze the brakes again and put the housing back in the cable stops.

7. Test your brakes to make sure they're safe.

Cleaning SPD Cleats

When was the last time you remove your cleats for cleaning? I didn't want to mess with mine cos it took me many rides to get to this sweat spot.

But hands was too itchy .. so ‘tiak la’… wow, look at those dirt/sand!!!

Remember to trace out cleat position first with a white marker before removal. Also take note of the plate with 2 holes … its lateral position before removing screws.

Clean-Dry-Spray GT85. Remember to lightly grease screw threads before assembly.

Cleaning Hub

 

Just some old photo … Clean axle, cone, fasteners, bearing races & steel balls then pack grease generously. Wipe away excess that ooze out after tightening.

         

Bottom Bracket Removal

Hands itchy again. This time ‘tiak’ BB. Similar to pedal, remember there’s the left and right hand thread for loosening and tightening. Tip: To loosen the right and left pedal, the wrench is turned towards the back of the bike

My ‘dinosaur’ square-taper cartridge bottom bracket

Cleaning gone Ultrasonic

So from just wiping down with a cloth, to soaking in diesel & violent shaking in a bottle …. what’s next? No more violence now … using ultra sound. I use this ultrasonic cleaner to clean my skate bearings too.

Read how it works at wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic_cleaning.

 

UltraSonic Cleaner

Dismantle Freehub

Did this sometime back.

Freewheel or Freehub? See picture. Left is the traditional screw or thread-on Freewheel and the one on the right is the newer Freehub/Cassette configuration. 

Picture from Sheldon Brown

Typical Freehub

Hand itchy, this time tiak Freehub. I think this is the one Sultan last time said noisy. Anyway, after tiak liao machiam a ‘black box’, nothing much to play with. Just remove the rubber seal/washer, flush with degreaser and relube.

I use a 11mm hex wrench to loosen the freehub holding bolt. Sizes may differs. eg typical Shimano hub is 10mm, others may be 12mm etc

 

  Can see the steel balls after removing rubber seal.

Spin it in Diesel. Then shake it violently similar to cleaning chain :)

Spin & shake to remove as much trap degreaser as you can. (lazy to use dryer). Then inject lots of oil (I use Engine Oil) into the exposed bearings. Spin it and continue to inject oil until excess oil//trap degreaser flows from the underside.

Remember to grease both the pawls and holding bolt before assembly.

Freewheel/Cassette cleaning-the lazy way

  
I use WD40 or RP7 spray and a tooth brush to remove stubborn dirt.

Spraying can get messy if you’re not careful. Make sure to keep the the spray tip close to the cassette else you’ll find your spokes and tyre also kena degreased. To be kiasu, one can remove the rear wheel or use old newspaper to cover the tyre/spoke & other areas but that’s for those who are not lazy! I just placed a  recycled detergent container below to catch the dripping lubricant.

Lastly, use a cloth to wipe off excess lubricant between sprockets, derailleur, jockey wheels and other affected areas.