Remember to look for the simple things first!

I rode the bike to my brother’s house yesterday and because we are both a little deaf, I wore my hearing aids.  This resulted in me discovering the bike was making several alarming noises.  A horrible rattle from the front; creaking from the motor and clunking from the rear geared hub.

The bike will need to be in good condition for my planned seven week cycling holiday in Europe in a few months so these issues need to be resolved.  I tend to ‘think of the worse and pray for the best’.   Look for the simple things first!

The metallic rattle from the front of the bike had me checking the security of the front carrier, the panniers and the connection between the fork and frame.  Everything appeared to be secure.  Rather than commencing to disassemble everything I reviewed the situation.  That was when I realised I had the bag containing the tent poles and pegs strapped underneath the handlebar.

The bag now resting loose on top of the handlebar

The cause of the rattle were the metal tent pegs vibrating against the poles in the bag.   Some elastic bands will solve that issue.  “Look for the simple things first”

The creaking and groaning sound from the motor when pedalling had me worried.  Could a component inside the motor be failing?  The sound was coming from the vicinity of the bottom bracket and could only be heard when pedalling.  The bearings in the motor might be the issue.   They aren’t expensive but I would need to remove the motor from the bike and disassemble it.   Before starting that I decided to check the bolts that secure the crank arms to the bottom bracket.  “Look for the simple things first”   They were both slightly loose!   A simple task to tighten them.

The clicking and clunking sound from the internally geared rear hub was concerning.  I only consistently had gears 1 to 8.   Gears 9 to 11 either didn’t engage or intermittently did with a grind and clunk.  If the motor failed I could still ride the bike without it.  However if the hub failed I’d be in serious trouble.

It seemed an opportune time to strip, clean and relubricate the hub.  This would also enable me to inspect it for any damage.

After removing the gear mechanism from the hub I placed it into a container of petrol which was then placed into the ultrasonic cleaner for 20 minutes.   The clean gears look to be in good condition.

I let the petrol in the container settle to see what impurities had been extracted during the ultrasonic cleaning

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Some muck had been remove.   Was any of it metallic?

I used a small magnet on a wire to probe the bottom of the container.   The “black stuff” stuck to the magnet.

Afterwards

Next, the magnet was cleaned to reveal a very fine metallic paste,

Unfortunately the cleaning of the hub didn’t identify the problem.  Eventually I discovered the problem was a combination of the gear shifter on the handlebar and the gear cable that connects the shifter to the hub (it had stretched).  That was a relief as the cost of replacing cable and shifter is significantly lower than a replacement hub. 

These bike issues have been a distraction from the house skirting board project.  Everything is installed and prepared for painting.   I’m just trying to find the enthusiasm to do the painting.  Have I previously mentioned “I hate painting!”