Avoid tubeless disasters

There is high demand among mountain bikers for tubeless tires on their bikes, and for good reason! Anyone who has ever ridden a bicycle has experienced a mid-ride flat tire. Since these are relatively rare on pavement with a good quality tire and proper installation, I will leave road tubeless alone for now. I want to focus today on tubeless tire for off-road applications where riders are concerned with thorns punctures and pinch flats.

The beauty of a tubeless system on a mountain bike is that the latex-based sealants available will seal up most punctures caused by the local vegetation, and eliminating the tube means there is no tube to pinch in a hard impact. This means riders can ride worry-free through over-grown trails and run much lower pressures to increase traction on the trail. Many who are used to pumping their tires to 35-40 psi to avoid pinch flats can enjoy a grippier, softer ride at pressures below 25. The feeling is liberating and many bike shop customers will ask their local shop if a) the new bike they are eyeing is "tubeless ready" or b) if the shop can convert their existing wheels and tires to tubeless.

As I have seen, many bicycle mechanics are all to eager to please and are willing to "convert" a rim and tire combination to a tubeless kludge. Consider the results of a badly done tubeless conversion: your customer happily starts riding after you return the freshly converted bike. He or she drops the tire pressure to 24 PSI and decides to test the system on the local trails. As the rider gains some confidence and rails a tight turn, the tire slips off the rim. If the rider (and the mechanic responsible) is lucky, the tire merely "burps" some air and the rider has to top off the pressure at the next stop. Otherwise, the rider could crash, causing bodily harm and damage to the bike. The shop that did the work could get negative reviews or face a lawsuit. This is a lose-lose for mechanics and customers.

The other reason to refuse to do questionable conversions is productivity. Anyone who as attempted more than a few conversions knows that some take longer than others. A conversion should take no longer than the time it takes to wrap the rim in tape, install a valve, mount a tire, squirt some sealant, and inflate the tire. You should not have to struggle to get a tire to inflate and seal. Inflating the tire should take no more than one minute- if it takes longer, the tire and rim combination is somehow sub-optimal and will likely not stay sealed and inflated.

Basically, inflating a tubeless tire needs to result in a tight fit on the "shelf" of the rim. If the rim is not designed to form a tight enough seal or the rim is fitted with a strip that sufficiently seals it, the movement that results tire failure what could be catastrophic. Stan's has an excellent article on the topic here.

To minimize the chances of a tire failure, let's first lay out what NOT to use in a tubeless conversion:

• "Cheap" tires- in a professional setting, I would not attempt a tubeless conversion on any tire that has a wire bead, or any tire that is not somehow identified by the manufacturer as "sealant compatible" or "tubeless ready," or at least otherwise known to be a good quality tire with strong casing. Some tires are known to break down chemically with some sealants, which is why Kenda identifies some of their tires at SCT.
• Rims that are not designated as "tubeless ready" by the manufacturer, unless used with an appropriately chosen and installed tubeless rims strip, such as Stan's strips.
• Tire/ rim combinations that are known to be problematic. You will need to do some research on this, but if the mounted tire is impossibly tight or incredibly loose, the end result will be bad.

Manufacturers have developed several options and "standards" for tubeless tires and rims, and not all of them are compatible with one another. I will not go into very disputed merits of each system, as I am primarily concerned with compatibility. The most common tubeless interfaces you will find are:

• UST- Universal System for Tubeless. This system requires rims and tire casing and bead to be manufactured with narrow specifications to be considered UST.
• BST is Stan's NoTubes design is intended to allow riders to use "regular" tires in a tubeless system. It is found on their ZTR rims, and on a few licensed products, notably Sun-Ringle (click "Features"). Stan's rim strips can also create a BST-type interface when done correctly.
• "Tubeless ready" is a bit murkier. Most "tubeless ready" tires have a bead similar to UST specifications but without the airtight casing and therefore require sealant to work. Wilderness Trail Bikes' TCS and Bontrager TLR designs might fit under this category.
• "Ghetto tubeless" is a DIY kludge involving the use of a split inner tube, various tapes, home-brewed latex sealant, and other methods. Some of these methods work wonderfully for riders, but should never be done in a bicycle shop.

The final but equally important issue to consider is how well any particular tubeless-specific tire will fit and seal on any particular tubeless-specific or converted rim. I have found that BST rims and Stan's rim strip conversions do not play well with UST, TCS, or several other "tubeless ready" bead tires. I witnessed the anguish of a friend trying to fit some WTB TCS tires on his Stan's rims recently, breaking several tire levers and very nearly breaking some fingers in the process. The bead on most rims with a bead based on the UST design is simply too tight to fit reasonably on BST rims (Stan's agrees with me here), so I don't recommend trying those.

If you are ever uncertain about what kind of materials are needed to successfully convert a rim to tubeless, ask the manufacturer directly. If it causes your customer to wait an extra day to get wheels back, it will be worth it to both parties to do it right rather tan compromising in the name of expediency. For example, I just noticed that Alex manufactures several rims (MD21, for example) with their Tubeless Ready System or TRS, which they describe as "Tubeless Ready System = Universal Valve + Rim Tape + Sealant," but they fail to specify what tape and valves are to be used. That kind of specificity may seem absurdly fastidious to some, but a good bicycle mechanic makes or breaks a career on that fastidiousness. [I will follow up with Alex on this topic.]

Whatever you do, make certain that you understand how tubeless systems work, what combinations and techniques work the best. Set standards for your shop so that everyone on staff is on-board with using the same techniques so there is continuity from the sales floor to the service writer to the mechanic and back to the customer. Your shop and your customers will be happy.

addendum 5 July, 2018: I recently had my Schwalbe mountain bike tires leaking a lot of air in spite of a proper tubeless rim, tape, valves, and sealant. I sprayed soapy water on the tire and rim to locate the leaks and noticed fine bubbles all around the sidewalls of the tires. I pulled the tires off the rim and discovered that the Truckerco sealant I have been using had not reached the inside of the tires' sidewall at all, but had concentrated on the middle of the tire tread.

Suffice it to say that the "tubeless dance" you're supposed to do it important! when installing new tires, turn the wheel sideways in your hand so the rim is parallel to the ground. Roll, swish, shake, dance a little gig to slosh the sealant all over the inside of the tire. Schwalbe sidewalls are notoriously thin, so really coating the inside of tires like this is especially important. I have not tried "painting" the inside of the tire with sealant, but I might try that with an actual paintbrush in the future.

The other bit of advice is to avoid tires with very thin sidewalls. As nice as lightweight tires feel, tires that hold air consistently are preferable.

cyclocross on singletrack

Much has been said lately of riding mountain bike trails on bikes designed with racing through muddy grass and hopping over barriers in mind, but not carving a ribbon of hard-packed dirt and rocky ledges. The allure of beating yourself up on such terrain caught my attention too, so I tried it a few months ago.

Unfortunately, my Salsa Vaya was fitted with 42mm knobby Continental Speed Ride tires at the time and it did not take long before the rocky crust of central Texas claimed one inner tube. By that, I mean I was on the trail for less than 15 minutes before a rock killed my tube. I patched it and kept riding, but the experience was somehow stilted from that point forward. I became paranoid that another misstep was going to bring my fun to a grinding halt. I put roadie tires back on that bike after that and kept it on the pavement, leaving my mountain bike for those off-road adventures.

Vaya- great stable bike for long rides on road and gravel

After some more months on that bike, I decided that the Vaya was probably a terrific touring bike, but I was not touring anywhere loaded with camping gear; just zipping around the city and riding as much dirt and gravel as I could find along the way. After a lot of over-analyzing with spreadsheets, in-depth interviews with fellow riders (forums, that is), and the discovery and subsequent obsession over bikegeo.net, I decided to get a Soma Double Cross Disc.

Double Cross Disc- a subtly but noticeably different bike!

This frame would easily accept all the part from my previous build with little drama and featured angles and features I thought would make it better suited for road and trail riding. It does all those things well and Soma makes a great product. For a long time, it served primarily as a commuter and road bike with skinny slick tires, fenders, and sometimes a rear rack. Something in me still wanted to beat myself up on singletrack with it though, but the thought of pinch-flatting myself out of the fun was holding me back.

The impetus for finding a tubeless solution came while riding my mountain bike. I lost all pressure in my air sprung fork and even blew the seal off the fork during a ride. I guess I should have paid closer attention to that service interval schedule.

oops

I did not want to take up precious riding time rebuilding a fork, so I got a hold of some WTB Cross Boss tires. I picked these after hearing a lot of reports of how incredibly tight-fitting the WTB TCS bead tires are on Stan's rim. One rider I know spent several hours and shattered a tire lever or two trying to fit some WTB tires on he Stan's rims, so I knew they would likely be a sufficiently tight fit on my non-tubeless rims (DT Swiss x430). Sure enough, a layer or two of 1" Gorilla Tape, some Velocity tubeless valves, and some home-made latex sealant got these to grab the rim and not let go.

patented skull valve cap

these fit surpisingly well on my rims

just enough tread for singletrack, smooth enough for pavement

On my first ride on these, I could not help myself. I rode about 40 miles of (mostly) singletrack on the local urban trail system, complete with rocks, ledges, and loose gravel. Riding a bike like this on rugged terrain is certainly different! It is not for people with bad backs and poor bike handling skills. You have to pick your lines carefully. A mishandled ledge can buck your off the bike pretty easily. The tires don't grab the dirt like you are used to. Bumps that come faster than you can soak them up with your arms and legs, usually the job of a suspension fork, build up and force you back on the brakes. If the gnar gets too gnarly, you have to get off and walk, which is part of the cyclocross experience.

On the other hand, you can go much, much faster flat sections and non-technical climbs. I went for a second ride with two friends who were on rigid mountain bikes and I smoked them up a non-technical hill, only to realize at the top of the hill that I never bothered to shift out of my big (48 tooth) chainring! If your trail system includes sections of pavement between trail systems, the "boring" slogs feel like less of a drag and more of a go-fast interlude.

Will the 'cross bike replace my mountain bike? certainly not! Certain trails and types of dirty terrain are lots of fun on a bike with drop bars and skinny tires, but you have to know it's limits. There are parts of the trails that I ride that I would never ride on this bike, and this is one of them:

I did that once trail and will probably not do it again for a while, until I get the urge to beat myself up again.

Results? Riding my mountain bike after this ordeal was a bit strange. The handlebar felt very high, the front steering a bit vague, even though it was just above the saddle height. I have since lowered my handlebar a bit and it feels a lot better- closer to the stability of the 'cross bike but with the advantage of fat rubber and a suspended fork.

Logs are there for a reason- trail leads to the left

Inspection- save time and make money!

It is rare, but I have been in several situations where I have made some, if not a lot, of progress on a bicycle job, only to find that the work will be fruitless due to a fatal issue with the bike. After working on hundreds of bicycles, it's easy to become complacent with the assumption that most bikes are structurally sound. As with the often ignored rim wear issue, it is easy to miss or over-look a cracked or damaged frame.

A few embarrassing examples:

1. A customer dropped off his son's entry-level mountain bike for a tune up. Try as I might, I could not get the linear-pull brakes to center on the rim. The rim was true and had been "dished" correctly. The pads were spaced correctly. The spring tension was balanced. Finally, it struck me for the first time- the frame! I placed our trusty Frame Alignment Gauge (a surprisingly cheap tool), on the frame and discovered that it was twisted. Oddly, the customer was incredulous that it could have been damaged, "My son just got home from his freshmen year at college where he was just riding that bike to class..."
2. I performed a fairly detailed tune on an older aluminum road bike, only to discover that they NDS chainstay was cracked cleanly in half right at the dropout weld. The customer got some sort of warranty reimbursement, which he hopefully put toward a new bike from my store, but I wasted about two hours of labor on the bike because I did not check the frame for cracks first.
3. My store ordered a whole new drivetrain and other components for a customer's beloved old touring bike. After the magical box appeared, I got to work, eager to see this bike reborn. Sadly, I found a small crack in the chainstay behind the bottom bracket. The frame was toast and the shop had to send all the part back to the distro at our expense.

cracked frame is cracked

This is all to say: inspect all bikes thoroughly before making grand claims about how awesome the bike is going to be when you are done with it. To be clear: it is in the shop's best interest to refuse to do any work on a bike with a cracked or compromised frame. Use your judgement, and don't put yourself in a situation of liability when a bike shatters under a customer, causing injury or death, because your expert opinion neglected a compromised frame.

Rim wear- a frequently missed opportunity

I frequently encounter bikes with neglected rim braking surfaces. Rim brake surfaces are a “wear item” that typically take many years to use up. Years of riding and dragging brake pads across a rim’s surface take their toll on the rim. Of course, the pad is softer and wears down faster, but pads wear down the rim as well, and the process goes faster when you add dirt and grime to the mix. I explain to my customers that riding a bike with dirty rims is like dragging sandpaper across the rim every time you brake. Unfortunately, it is often too late for an older bike with a lot of (dirty) miles and the rim must be replaced

If you have ever seen a rim crack in this way, you know how ugly it can be. Rims are under a lot of pressure from the inside as the tube tries to force the rim’s vertical walls apart. If the side of the rim is compromised, that wheel is a ticking time bomb. It could crack slowly and gently, or explode catastrophically and hurt the rider. That makes for a very unhappy customer if you were the last person to put a wrench to that bike and sign your name to the work. Even worse, it could be a liability to your shop if someone is injured and they feel you are responsible through negligence. I have refused to work on some bikes because of worn rims. I make it clear to the customer that I will not work on the bike unless they replace the rim (or more likely, the whole wheel). When explained rationally and with great care, the situation can benefit the shop and the customer.

For example, a few weeks ago a customer came in from out of town with their teenager’s bike, presumably to drop the kid off in town for college. The bike had recently been worked on by another shop in their home down and was still having problems. I investigated a problem that was unrelated to the front wheel, but noticed some major issues with it as I pursued my habit of inspecting every bike I touch.

I found that everything about the front wheel was in trouble: the tire had a wear line that ran around the sidewall from a misaligned brake pad rubbing it thin, the hub lock nuts were loose so that the hub came out of adjustment in my hands, and the rim surface was worn so thin that tiny cracks were forming in it. The worst part about it was that the hub bearings has clearly been recently overhauled and packed with fresh grease. This indicates that a professional bicycle mechanic had done a poor job adjusting a hub on a wheel with a compromised tire, cracked rim, and left it in that shape without a word.

why bother repacking a hub that is laced to a dead rim?

tiny cracks in side of rim- this is a ticking timebomb

a customer's bike should never have left a shop with a tire looking like this

Now a word about critiquing other shops’ work: this is a situation to be handled carefully. It is certain that your own hands make mistakes from time to time and others notice. Maybe it was a customer, maybe it was another mechanic. Customers’ perception of one mechanic’s work affects their perception of bicycle mechanics in general, just like any bad behavior in any other profession tarnish the image of everyone in that profession.

So take care not to throw the other shop under the bus. I often find it tempting to do so, hoping that customers will avoid the offending shop in the future and boost my perceived expertise in the process. The reality is that harshly criticising another professional’s work is unprofessional in itself and it drags the name of all bicycle mechanics through the mud. A sense of solidarity within the profession must prevail, but only insofar as you can honor this and still give the customer a good value for services for which they are paying.

I explained to this customer that the tire had been compromised, the rim was worn out and likely to crack, and that the hub needed further adjustment anyway, a fact eclipsed by the fact that the rim was rolling on borrowed time. I sold the customer a new tire, rim, rim strip, and applicable service charges associated with that. The customer was happy with my thoroughness and honesty, but I somehow felt like I lost in the end.

The delicate balance I was obligated to honor (and hopefully succeeded) was that of giving the customer at least what they need, if not what they want, while building, or at least not damaging, the reputation of my colleagues, and by extension, my own professional career.

The indespesensible test ride

A bike that has been worked on but not test-ridden is not worthy of compensation. Sometimes the bike is too big for you to ride comfortably, sometimes it's hot or cold outside, sometimes the bike is a polished turd that you just spent more than an hour transforming into a convincing BSO (bicycle shaped object). It does not matter: if you cannot ride the bike with confidence that it rolls, shifts, and stops, you have no business charging customer for your work.

About a year ago, I applied for a wrenching job at a local bike shop, one that happens to sell a lot of high-end bikes to performance-driven customers. They had me take it outdoors to splash it down with de-greaser and hose it down to make it somewhat "clean." When I pointed out that someone had at some point, before reaching the shop, forced the right pedal into the (left-hand threaded) left crank arm and left it sticking out crooked from that arm, and then apparently stripped out the other arm trying to do the opposite arm with the wrong pedal, they said to due the "tune up" anyways. This bike was DOA, as replacing the cranks and pedals would have cost more than the bike itself. It should never, in my opinion, been left at the shop at all. When I asked how I was supposed to test-ride this bike when it was "done," they looked at me as if I was asking them how to fly it to the Moon.

This shop's mechanics and I were mutually perplexed by one another's perspectives on what constitutes good mechanical work.

I admit that my perspective was an idealistic one: make every bike as close to perfect as possible and charge the customer for only that work that achieves this.

Their perspective appeared to me a more pragmatic one: do the work requested regardless of the outcome, charge the customer for the work done, not necessarily the value received.

This shop was populated by deluded would-be sorcerers. They had no clear protocol for dealing with DOA bikes, no pride in doing good work behind which they can stand, and no sense of propriety regarding results of their work. In other words, they seemed to have no qualms about taking money from people without delivering the goods. They were working on pricey, high-end bicycles using folk wisdom and old wive's tales without knowledge of technical specifications, proper tools, and confidence in their work. Instead, they seemed to be standing in a structure composed of termites holding hands: the "cool" image of the shop as a place where Lycra-clad racers hang out.

Unfortunately, this is the case with a lot of bicycle shops. I cannot say how many, or where they are concentrated, but my experiences have informed me that, at least in some places, a shop does not need to have a well-equipped service area staffed with confident, well-trained mechanics. It only needs to have the appearance of having such a facility. Some of the best mechanics may, in fact, be working in unknown places where they are under-paid and under-utilized, but satisfied in the knowledge that they are doing their customers right.

Tangent/rant over. My point is: every bike needs a test ride. If it does not pass a test ride, the customer should not pay for it until it's done right.

clean bikes, clean shop

Imagine eating at a restaurant where the food is served on soiled plates, the silverware has caked-on bits of food from previous diners’ meals, and the dish room is visible from your table as you eat food that was cooked using pots and pans that never get cleaned. Of course, you would run from a place like this and any modern country’s health department would shut down such an establishment before someone gets sick.

With a bicycle shop, no one need worry that a dirty shop is going to make them ill, but a clean, organized, well-lit bicycle shop fills them with confidence. Everything from floor to the work tables to the tools to the mechanics themselves should be kept relatively tidy. bicycle mechanics should look and work like technicians, not greasy shop rats. Think of your service area as an operating room: stuff comes in dirty and in need of repair and comes out as good as new.

Tools should be easily accessible, either on a peg board system or a chest of drawers. Each tool should be in it’s right place, clean, and in good working order. Ask yourself the following:

1. When were your torque wrenches last calibrated? A precision tool such as this is of no use if it’s been used hundreds of times, dropped a few times, and left wound-up for days or longer and you are not certain it is going to give you an accurate, consistent amount of torque.
2. Do any of your hand tools have blunt edges when they should be sharp, or un-precise flats on your spanners that will slip on precision flat edges? Worn-out bottom bracket cup tools will tear up a BB in seconds. Blunt philips heads and allen keys slip inside bolts and strip the heads. Blown-out cone wrenches make precision adjustments on cup-and-cone hubs impossible.
3. Do battery powered tools have fresh batteries, backups, and a reliable way to recharge them? Cordless drills for removing seized bolts and spinning hones are great, but if you have to wait for a battery to charge, you are wasting time and money.
4. How many workstations do you have? What tools should every mechanic have readily available and what can be shared? Do other people borrow a mechanic’s tools, and how likely is each mechanic to gouge out the eyeballs of anyone who removes something from that work area?

I will be the first to admit that I am horrible about cluttering my work area with tools as I work, so do as I say and not as I do. Every work area should have a sign that reads, “use a tool, put it back.” Do not let anyone to allow tools and parts to pile up on a work table, on the floor, in apron pockets, in trays, etc. The work area quickly goes from being an operating room to a battlefield triage tent, complete with blood and screaming, when tools aggregate in inappropriate places a work area rather than in their designated places. If you see tools piling up, say something. If they are your tools, stop at convenient moments in your work to put all of your tools in their right places. If you are the boss, make your employees do push-ups every time they are caught with more than three tools on their table. Find creative ways to keep everyone accountable for cleanliness.

When walking into a bike shop, no one wants to see other peoples’ used, dirty bicycles on the sales floor. Think of these as your dirty dishes. No one wants to see, hear, or smell the dish room while they peruse the menu. Customers who have dropped off their bikes with you also don’t want other people pawing at their bikes while they are in your care, so put them away somewhere safe and forgotten until they are ready for pick-up.

Don’t lean a bike against a wall, counter, or any other solid object. It’s likely to fall over and, just your luck, clip something on it’s way down and scuff the paint, nick a saddle, or trip someone. When you are not working on a bike it should be hung from a hook, wedged into a bike storage apparatus, or suspended in a work stand. Don’t give the shop graemlins a chance to knock your customers’ bikes over.

Likewise, clutter and misplaced products make a shop look like grandpa’s tool shed rather than a professional place where highly-trained technicians work on bicycles. If you have products for sale in the shop area, merchandise them as such. Tubes, cables, brake pads, ferrules, brake fluid, bearings, spokes… hide those in a cabinet or around a corner where the only people who see them are those who are using them. For all the general public needs to know, mechanics make those things appear from a Star Fleet Replicator.

Finally, when a customer picks up a bike that has been worked on, the first thing they will notice is what the bike looks like. When it rolls back to their loving arms, they won’t be able to tell if it shifts, suspends, and stops better than when they dropped it off, but they will likely notice a lack of grime on the rims, shiny fork stanchions, a clean chain, or a candy-coated appearance of a clean, polished frame. You can’t get every bike looking like a beauty contestant, but you can make it look better than it came in. Include a quick wipe-down of the frame and fork with even the most basic service. If cleaning is part of a tune-up service, get the bike spotless! They will take notice and perhaps take better care of their bikes in the future, or just bring it back to you more often for that new-bike look they miss.

New bike assembly

Whether you are working in a shop unboxing and assembling bicycles all day, or assembling a bike you just bought from an online retailer, a lot goes unsaid about proper bicycle assembly. It is a bit more complex than most bicycle customers realize and most shops do not take the time to assemble a new bicycle in such a way as to ensure the machine will perform and last to its potential.

I recently watched a video made by an online bicycle retailer illustrating how to assemble one of their bikes into a rideable condition: remove parts from box, attach handlebar to stem, screw in pedals, attach front wheel, raise seatpost, and TA-DA, your bike is dialed in and ready to shred!

Not so fast! I do not know about this particular manufacturer’s factories, but, of the dozens of mass-produced bicycles that I have assembled and sold, none of them are even 50% ready to go after that hasty kind of job. If you are lucky, this will set a bike up for one or two rides before problems set it. This is why some bike shops sell bikes that come back to them all the time, and others don’t see a bike again until the customer has worn through a part in an expected way, such as a chain or brake pads.

Regarding bicycle assembly- there is a wide range of definitions of what a properly assembled bike is. It usually takes me the better part of an hour to assemble an adult bicycle with derailleurs, including a test ride. That's quite a bit longer than other bike shops where I have worked, but it pays off to be really, really thorough on the build so the bike does not come back with problems soon after. It takes me about half that to assemble a kid's bike, and most of that time is spent getting the loathsome one-piece cranks to spin smoothly.

Department stores seem to only care that the bike is all in one piece and rolls. We have all heard the horror stories. If that is your highest aspiration, don't knock yourself out trying to make the bikes actually work. Your employer doesn't care and customers with lowered expectations on a $150 bike won't care either. It just has to roll. If you want to “wow” someone with a smooth-running, reliable bike, especially those who are skeptical of a $600 bike when they think they can get the same thing for $200 at a department store, make it worth their while to pay more for a quality product and quality technical work.

I have found a pattern that works for me when assembling a new bike: unpack everything, wheels, bottom bracket, brakes, shifting, contact points. Your mileage may vary, so do these things in whatever order fits you.

Unpacking is simple. Take all the now-useless crap off the bike. Recycle as much of it as possible; there is a lot of plastic and cardboard in there that can go in the recycle bin rather than the trash. Remove all the silly inspection stickers. Remove the R and L stickers from the pedals, as “left” and “right” will need no explanation once your customer sits on the bike.

Wheels:  A wheel that is properly prepped for riding will stay true longer, ride better, and be more durable, which will make your customers happy so they will buy more stuff from you and you can continue to put food in your belly. My experience has been that machine-built wheels on new bikes are often noodle-ish right out of the box. This is where a tension meter such as the one made by Wheelsmith or the Park TM-1 are essential. Wheel building sage Jobst Brand asserts that “Failure to stress relieve is the most common cause of spoke failure in an apparently sound wheel.” If you ever hear a wheel pinging and popping during its first ride, that’s a sign that the spokes have not been relieved and this will spell bad news for your customer down the road (or singletrack, or cobbles, or muddy grass track, as the case may be.)

Hubs, especially those with cup-and-cone bearings, are almost often "adjusted" too tight on a new bike. For quick-release hubs, JA Stein makes a hub axle vice which makes this adjustment a breeze. If you don’t have one, study up on other ways to adjust these hubs and use them. Hubs, even “cheap” ones, will spin better and longer if adjusted properly in the first place.

Bottom brackets of the threaded variety are rarely installed with durability in mind before they arrive in a bike shop. Cups that seize into the frame, or back out of the frame on their own, are headaches you want to avoid at all costs! The cups on new bikes are often over-tightened into the frame and sometimes barely tight at all. I am not certain which has worse result, but the only way to be certain they are not going to be a future migraine is to check them before they get to that point. I pull all threaded bottom brackets from new bikes, wipe the pitiful amount of sticky grease from the threads, reinstall using a thread locker, grease, or anti-seize, depending on the application, and torque the cups to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Install crank arms correctly and torque those bolts.

I work on brakes next so that I can stop the wheel while adjusting shifting after that without mangling fingers. I find that many suspension fork and frame disc brake posts have excess paint on them, making caliper alignment impossible; so be ready to perform a tab facing if needed. Adjusting brakes and shifting needs no further explanation if you already know what you’re doing. Suffice it to say that I usually have to completely reset everything about brakes and shifting from the factory’s settings, so assume nothing about their work and get comfortable with that.

Contact points: this is the point at which I torque the pedals in to the cranks (a crow’s foot on a torque wrench will accomplish this), and take the bike out of the stand to make final adjustments. So far, the bike has been suspended in the stand this whole time, so now it’s time to adjust the headset and set the initial position of the saddle and hand controls. Consistency is more important than specific settings- make sure that every bike on the floor has roughly the same initial control set up so that customers who ride several bikes can compare apples to apples. My practice is to put a spirit level on the saddle so that it is dead-on level, raise the stem to the highest position, flat bar controls pointed down at 45 degrees, and a consistent space between grips and brake lever clamps on hydraulic systems so riders can maximize lever efficiency. Of course all of these these things can and will be adjusted for each individual customer, but it’s best to have everything set to a common base setting for all bikes to start with. It looks better to have a line of bikes with uniform settings to boot.

Finally, test ride every bike within reason (this will probably exclude small kid’s bikes) before putting it on the sales floor. Even better, have someone else test ride it for you so you can get an unbiased opinion of your work. If you assemble a lot of bikes in a short amount of time, you’re bound to forget something and have a maladjusted bike leave your stand. Better that you notice this rather than a customer find out about it the hard way! This test gives me an opportunity to burn/ bed/ break in new disc brakes so they are close to maximum stopping power right away, along with a chance to load the wheels, test the brakes and shifting, and generally feel for odd noises and mis-operating functions so the bike is perfect before anyone else touches it.

I have left out a few obvious things: checking all fasteners with a torque wrench, greasing the seatpost and quill stem, pumping up the tires, et cetera, but those should not need much extra instruction. What else do you routinely do on a new bike build?

Why do crank arms just fall off?

There are few things more terrifying to a mechanic than the sight of a returning, scowling customer whose bike was recently serviced in your shop. If they are in because the bike was recently serviced somewhere else, there is a brief moment of relief, followed by the realization of how that injury to your trade’s reputation is also keeping your paycheck down. Bicycles may suffer from any number of maladies that result of normal wear-and-tear, crashes, manufacturer defects, and poor mechanical work. You, as a bicycle mechanic, have little control over those first few problems, but the last is finally in all of our collective hands.

Does your bike shop have a selection of crank arms in various configurations, colors, and lengths to sell to customers at the apparently inevitable moment that the tapered interface inside the arm rounds out? Most shops seem to have this. Why do taper-fit spindles wear out and go wobbly? Most of the time, the responsibility lies with the last person to put a wrench on that bike.

Cranks with any sort of tapered interface at the spindle (I am talking about any square taper, Octalink, Powerspline, Isis, et cetera) require quite a bit of force to press them together enough to keep them in place. Bike gurus disagree about whether to grease or not grease the spindle/arm interface, If you chose to grease, it does not take much. Don’t paste the spindle like your are icing a cake. Install dry or just smear a thin film on there.

Now, torque. As I said the other day, working on bicycles is a technique, not finger-painting. Engineers designed these- people who probably have a much better understanding the physical properties of the materials you are handling know exactly how crank arms and spindles fit together in such a way as to maximize the effectiveness and life of that unit. Better yet, just like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, it’s written down somewhere in precise, painstaking detail! I have found it handy to research and compile my own list of common torque specs for references and you should too. Square interfaces are usually in the neighborhood of 30 foot-pounds and splined ones are little higher than that. Make your own list, tape it to the wall near your work station or keep it in a handy binder.

Using a the right tool for the job, like I said the other day, is what separates bicycle technicians from sorcerers. This is why a good, calibrated torque wrench is an essential with which no compromise can be made. No one can consistently gauge proper torque on any fitting using their wrist alone. You need a scientific tool to verify that you reached that value, not above, and not below. If you think you can hit the right torque consistently with your wrist, you are mistaken and you are gambling with other people’s bike’s and their safety, not to mention the reputation of your shop and your industry and trade in general. You are effectively sabotaging that bike. Your customers will sense this when their bike fails and they remember whose hands and tools were on it last.

Remember that box of crank arms in your shop? Its presence is a sign that someone is not doing their job right. It is possible that replacement crank arms are needed when a bicycle is ridden for thousands of miles and the materials just fatigue, or the crankset was just poorly made, but those are rare occurrences. Let’s address the ones we can affect.

The failure can most likely be traced back to the assembler at the department store who is paid to crank bikes onto the sales floor as fast as possible, or the bike shop mechanic who touched the bike last before selling it to a customer, or the bike shop mechanic who installed a replacement crank arm on it, or the home mechanic who at least has an excuse not to pay attention to torque specs because he/she is not being paid to do so. The component didn't fail, the installer did. Regardless, almost every time I see a loose, damaged crank arm, it is because someone failed to correctly install it in the first place.

Sure, the shop makes a few bucks selling someone a crank arm and installing a new one, assuming you can convince the customer that the damage was not your shop’s fault (which you might believe, although it’s probably not true). But the value of installing a part like a crank arm is multifaceted:

• Riders whose crank arms don’t fall off are probably going to enjoy cycling, ride more, and buy more parts and services from you.

• Riders whose crank arms do fall off have learned not to trust bicycle mechanics, and by extension, you.
• Correct installation of parts protects your shop, to some degree, against liability. If you can guarantee that your torque wrench was recently calibrated and that you actually use it, problems like a crank arm falling off is the fault of manufacturer or the rider.

Most importantly, the long-term value of a customer’s trust is absolutely priceless. You can’t win them all, but the harder we all work to raise the standards for our trade, the more we can effectively serve customers who value and trust our services.

So make that pile of crank arms a thing of the past. You should not need them. With proper tools and techniques and getting your staff on board with using them like proud technicians will ensure that everyone trusts that you did the best job possible to keep everyone spinning confidently.

Enjoy your ride.

technicians and sorcerers

This is not finger painting, this is bicycle maintenance. There are Rules.

As bicycle mechanics, we have a variety of ways to view our trade/ craft/ art/ skill and it’s value to society. That perspective is influenced by personal background, the shop environment in which we work, the training we receive, and how we are viewed and compensated by our clients and employers. Mechanics who perform sub-par work might be paid well and regularly receive beer tips from customers, while some of the most meticulous mechanics are stuck in work environments where their abilities are under-used and under-appreciated. Regardless of their situation, the choice to be an excellent bicycle technician is ultimately a personal one.

I intentionally use the word technician in hopes of evoking the appropriate mental archetype to make this discussion fruitful. Merriam-Webster defines technician [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technician] as “a person whose job relates to the practical use of machines or science in industry, medicine, etc. Someone who has mastered the basic techniques or skills in a sport, an art, etc.” If a bicycle mechanic is a technician, he or she must start by acknowledging that the job at hand is always based on the objective science of machines. Mechanics who ignore industrial applications of torque, the chemical properties of metals and composites, and the mathematical precision of geometry employed in design are not good mechanics. They are lazy artists at best, and deluded would-be sorcerers at worst.

Every part of a bicycle was designed by an engineer to perform a specific function under specific conditions. Failing the follow instructions for the installation and adjustment of these products, the mechanic does the paying customer a disservice that, at the very least, discredits his/her abilities and, by extension, the abilities of other mechanics. It also opens the shop to liability when something goes wrong and the last person to put a wrench to the bike is assigned blame. You have a tremendous responsibility to satisfy your customer with your services, but you also have responsibility for their safety.

How many times have you heard from another rider about the spontaneous JRA (Just Riding Along) mechanical failure that resulted in a ruined ride, being stranded, or an injury? Whoever put a wrench to that bike last is most likely responsible, but many riders just accept random mechanical failures are par for the course. Or they blame the mechanic and write it off as typical of technicians in the trade to be negligent and inept. This is part of the reason why pay is so low for bicycle mechanics: the cycle of customers’ low expectations allowing mechanics to produce shoddy work reinforces customers’ low expectations, which gives mechanics no outside motivation to perfect their technique.

How often does a bicycle come back to your shop after your built it new, or serviced it? Did you fail to tighten a bolt correctly, fail to diagnose a mechanical problem, or perhaps use the wrong replacement part? The far scarier question is: how many times has a bike left your shop with a problem your failed to address, only to have the customer write a bad online review about your services, tell their friends about your mistake, and take the bike to another shop? You may never know, or you might find out the hard way. Your course of action is to apply all of your mind and your heart to your work, arming yourself with tried and true techniques and information so that every bike that leaves your shop is flawless.

To be successful in your business and to raise the standards of the industry, we need to approach the trade with a different attitude: we are technicians who use scientific techniques to service engineered products for peak performance. Making your own rules for how these products work and interact is tantamount to professional suicide. No matter your level of experience wrenching on bicycles, every mechanic can benefit from learning exactly what the engineers had  mind when designing a bicycle product, and learn procedures and techniques from the true masters of the craft. Consult authoritative sources such as the Barnett’s DX Manual, the manufacturer’s instructions, or helpful sites such as Park Tool’s “Calvin’s Corner” and take your technical skills to a higher standard.