On 08/19/2014 09:49 AM, Allingham II, Thomas J wrote:
Steve (and all):
/"//And sometimes you really do have to know. For example, shift
cables fray and need periodic replacement. Even with bar end shifters
(which all those bikes have) where a fraying cable's stray ends will
poke you in the finger and alert you to impending failure before it
actually happens, unlike the case with Shimano STI, it's still awkward
and inconvenient if you find yourself on a hilly ride 50 miles from
the end of the ride reduced to two or three gears on the front, unable
to use your rear derailleur. For Shimano indexed bar end shifters,
that happens around 5,000 miles. Careful record-keeping would let you
change them out before they started to fray. (I hope to get there
some day...)//"/
It would never have occurred to me to change out a shift cable (until
it broke, I guess). There must be other maintenance items like that
which you keep track of -- how did you develop your list? How did you
determine replacement intervals for each maintenance item? Is there a
widely used list that I'm not aware of?
Shift cables are the main one you need to watch out for by mileage, and
that primarily because for the most common shifters (i.e., STI) the
signs of impending failure are not visible and the failure can be
catastrophic, with shards of broken cable wire hopelessly jamming the
complex innards of an STI unit, to the point of your having to purchase
a replacement unit. Less catastrophic failure mode for bar ends: the
frayed cable strands will poke you in the finger and alert you before
the cable actually breaks, but depending on the terrain it can be a huge
pain to be left with only two or three usable gears (i.e., up front
only) for the rest f the ride.
With pretty much everything else you can see or feel the signs of wear,
assuming you take the time to look. It's better to change tires before
they're down to the casing, but for some reason you occasionally see
people on the road with tires with large sections of tread that have
actually come loose. Normally a sudden surge in the number of flats
will indicate a tread that's gotten too thin, but sometimes random
chance will spare you until the tire is ready for a catastrophic
failure. Brake pad wear can be seen, too, if you but look; however I
still remember one time I let my rear pads get so worn on my commuter
that on a hard braking in a tricky traffic situation (when else would
you brake hard?) the pads slipped off the rims and down into the
spokes. On centerpulls, worn pads can end up with the pad rising above
the rim (rather than below it, as happens with cantilevers) and
contacting and destroying your tire's sidewall.
If you habitually test your headset by rocking the bike forward against
a fully applied front brake you won't be taken by surprise by a
loosening headset, and if you periodically check your chain with a ruler
or wear gauge you won't be taken by surprise by chain stretch.
And more broadly -- do folks on this list have a favorite little-known
or widely neglected maintenance item that can save us a lot of grief?
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