Downland Cycles advanced bike mechanic course, update 12/7/15

[jonnyboy666]

Re:

ok here's a couple of pics of a rockshox monarch rear shock in a few bits, childs play to service, again i will do some sort of "how to" when i get home.

it's simple really, let the air pressure out, remove valve cores for safety, then unscrew the main barrel, by hand, clean inside, replace seals and wipers if needed, put in some grease/oil in the right places, put shock body back on and screw it up hand tight, refit valves, re-inflate. so simple for basic maintenance to keep an eye on the wear and tear of your shock. it's also pretty much the same for a fox shock.


P1130391 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr


P1130392 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

 

[jonnyboy666]

Re:

ok, day . . . um . . . i'm lost, and i've had 3 beers.

we started the day thinking we were doing disc brakes today but it turned out it was mostly about all the various standards of the wonderful world that is the bike trade.

we have looked at all the newer bottom bracket designs, all the new headset sizes, bearing sizes, i have only been out of the trade 6 years and my god the changes and extra stuff is unbelievable!

we also looked at alot of the newer campagnolo parts and all the specific tools that are needed to work on various specific, then it was chains and all the pros and cons and legal aspects of for example using a power link from sram in a shimano chain.

we also went through sealed bearings, the sizing and identification, also what were best for what application etc, cost versus value versus performance, including ceramic bearings and which hubs will accept them without causing damage and then the correct greases to use, all super tech head stuff.

after this we also stripped and rebuilt pedals:-

shimano spd
look delta
look keo
speedplay
dmr v8
dmr v12

busy day!

after we finished for the day i went for a ride with Bryan, who was todays instructor (and owner of Downland Cycles) only a short blast but there are some great trails on the doorstep here, we are literally in the middle of nowhere in the valleys! no phone signal either. after the ride we all had dinner then set about answering more of the questions in our workbooks, some of which are pretty straight forward but some are pretty complicated and require particular language in the answers.

i freely admit the evening has been lubricated with 3 beers, but when the other 4 guys here are all military guys then that's to be expected! the banter is awesome, wrong, funny, not to mention constant and aimed squarely at anyone who does or says something stupid, which i have done several times, currently my nickname has been "Geekboy" or "Civvy", the others guys are "Army", "Navy" and "RAF", the other guy is Jason, he's been helping out as Caretaker here, he's recently ex-military aswel, all on the course but didn't know each other prior to being here (they are all near the end of their full 22years in and doing resettlement courses). i am actually glad aswel to be here with these guys, they are very routine orientated, clean and tidy, imagine what it could have been like if the other students were spotty 20 year old oiks from the local shops!

top bunch of guys.

 

[jonnyboy666]

Re:

day 5,

1st day of disc brakes, Bryan has gone through the various pros and cons of different types of oil for different systems, different brake pads and types of compounds, again the pros and cons of all.

we then moved on to shimano brakes, we were asked to fit a disc rotor to a wheel, torque the bolts as per instructions from the manufacturer then bolt it into a fork, we were told to find the correct bracket to fit the fork based on the rotor size and the brake, the idea being that we work out the correct bracket, we all were given different set ups so there is effectively no chance of looking at the next guys stuff to see if you are right! we then set up and align the caliper so there is no rubbing, mine did but that was because the rotor was bent in places (something we will be taught tomorrow to fix).

we then started bleeding the brake, the brake being an older shimano deore, the idea with doing this brake first is that it is bled the traditional way, top up the master cylinder and open/close the bleed nipple while pumping the lever, once mastered we then moved on to the second way of shimano bleeding on a generation 2 brake, this was bleed by pumping the fluid in at the caliper end which pushes the air up to the master cylinder, the third way was for the newer shimano brakes where you screw in a little fluid bucket to the master cylinder, push fluid up from the caliper until there is no air and a level in the bucket followed by then gravity bleeding the brake back down through the caliper. keeping up with that? so yes, that's 3 ways to bleed shimano brakes, each way is specific to a particular generation of brakes, some work on others but some don't! the idea being that you identify the brake then use the correct bleed technique.

once learned they do seem pretty straight forward though

tomorrow is a continuation of disc brakes, concentrating on Hope, Avid and i think Hayes.

one thing i have learnt here is that some products are not worth buying, for several reasons, not just a case of avoid the cheap stuff but also why some expensive stuff has design mistakes, dot 4 fluid in hayes mag(nesium) calipers for example, the fluid eats the magnesium which is far from ideal, 2 years down the line and your brakes are almost unserviceable.

hmm . . . . may have to buy some different brakes for my patriot now! Doh! :facepalm:

tonight is Bryan and Julies night off cooking so we are off to the local pub for food, when i return i may continue working on some forks and my fox shock.

 

[xerxes]

Re:

once learned they do seem pretty straight forward though

All three methods sound like a lot less faff than my Avid brakes where you have to mess about with two syringes. :?

 

[jonnyboy666]

Re:

i'll be learning about Avid brakes tomorrow, i'm dreading it to be honest as i have seen the issues people have with them, that said the guys here have made so much stuff seem simple it's unreal, most mistakes made are down to one thing though, lack of reading the instructions, Bryan and Martin have both made this very clear. i have bled 3 brakes today, brakes that i have previously never touched other than basic set up from brand new out of a box and frankly it was easy!

i'm hoping Avid will be the same!

 

[Woz]

Re: Downland Cycles advanced bike mechanic course

Good stuff!

 

[cchris2lou]

Re: Downland Cycles advanced bike mechanic course

Excellent .

 

[grahame]

Re: Re:

once learned they do seem pretty straight forward though

All three methods sound like a lot less faff than my Avid brakes where you have to mess about with two syringes. :?

All my Avid brakes are easy. None of them have ever needed bleeding. Maybe that's because they are all BB7s?

 

[xerxes]

Re:

Maybe that's because they are all BB7s?

Avid BB7s are literally impossible to bleed.

 

[Woz]

Re: Re:

Maybe that's because they are all BB7s?

Avid BB7s are literally impossible to bleed.

....but I have had one that seized. After some hammer time it worked again :facepalm: