Okay, so they aren’t dedicated bike tools like Park. I wanted some tools to fill gaps in what I currently own. I needed a cable cutter. There were also a few other tools I wanted. So I headed off to Harbor Freight Tools.
They had a couple different cable cutters. A 9″ aviation cable cutter, and a 10″ cable cutter. The aviation cable cutter had a mechanism for better leverage, and I ended buying that one. I hoped to use it for cutting brake & shifter cable housings.
I wanted a metric sized hex bit socket set. They had one on sale for $6.99, and another one for $9.99. The one for $9.99 was a 6 piece ball head set with 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, 5.5mm, 6mm and 10mm sockets. The one for $6.99 was also 6 piece, instead of the 3mm and the 5.5mm sockets, they had a couple larger sizes. They also weren’t ball head. I bought the one for $9.99.
I looked at buying some open end wrenches with the idea of grinding the ends down to 2mm thick to use as cone wrenches. But the sale priced set lacked the 15mm size wrench.
I also bought a 4 piece ratcheting wrench set in metric sizes as well. It was on sale also.
The cable cutter worked okay on the brake cable. It didn’t work on the compressionless shifter cable at all. The ball tip hex bit sockets worked great! I haven’t used the ratcheting wrenches yet.
I got up at 6am this morning, and had an hour before I needed to start getting ready for work. I decided to work on my wife’s bike. I got the front brakes working smoothly and evenly. But the back brakes weren’t releasing smoothly. The one side barely moved when the the brake lever was released. I had replaced the brake cable, and most of the brake cable housing. There was once small piece back by the brake itself that hadn’t been replaced. I decided to replace that. I had bought some cable housing for both brakes, and shifters. I grabbed the cable housings and tried to figure out which was which. The brake cable seems to be larger diameter than the shifter cable, so I tried poking the cable into the housing, and it went easily into the one. So I used that. I had pulled off the short section of brake cable housing that I was going to replace. I held it against the new stuff, and then tried to cut the new stuff to that length. I was using my wire cutters, but they just wouldn’t go through the cable housing! I rotated the housing 90 degrees, and tried cutting again. I couldn’t get through it! It is normally not easy, but it is not usually this hard. This cable housing had stranded wire instead of the spiral metal interior that I am used to. I tried different cutters. No luck. And I think I trashed the cutters on my wire strippers. I even tried bolt cutters, but they just squished the cable housing. Using the big wire cutters I got through, but the end was a mess. I cleaned it up on my grinder. I went to shove the cable through, but it wouldn’t go through. Apparently using the grinder melted the plastic lining of the cable housing! LOL! By trying to push the cable through, is start pushing the lining out of the housing.
With effort I cut another piece of housing. The was munched, but I cleaned it up with the wire cutters. I installed it on the bike. The brakes seem to work a little better.
But now reading, I found that the stranded wire in the housing means the housing is designed for shifters, not brakes! I need to pull that part off the bike, and start over. I am going to try to hit Harbor Freight and pick up some actual cable cutters after work.
When I bought the Trek 700 bike with the women’s style frame for my wife, I never really considered the problem of mounting it on the bike rack. Even mounting it on my bike repair stand has been a pain. It doesn’t have a horizontal top tube.
I started searching for a solution and found that they make some called a bike frame adapter. It looks like it connects from the handlebar stem, and to the seat post. It basic creates a temporary top tube that will give you something to hang on the bike rack.
Well, find that something exists is half the battle. I started searching around. I found a couple on Amazon. It looks like the average price for these frame adapters is about $20-$25. I found one made by Saris, and another made by Thule. I ended up ordering the Thule 982 Bicycle Frame Adapter. It cost a few bucks more than the Saris, but since it cost $25 or more (it cost $25 even), I can get free shipping. There were some other frame adapters as well, but by companies I have never heard of. I have heard of Thule, and they make quality bike racks. So I figure their frame adaptor is probably solid too. I sure don’t want a bike falling of a bike rack while cruising down the road!
After overhauling the front and rear hubs, and the bottom bracket, I roughly assembled my wifes bike. She didn’t like the handlebars that came with the women’s Trek 700. The handlebars weren’t like mountain bike type handle bars, but more like comfort bike type bars. So I swapped them for the handle bars that had come on my men’s Trek 700 which are more like mountain bike style. This involved removing the brakes and shifters, and moving them over to the new bars.
After getting all that done, I took a closer look at the cables. The cables were in bad shape. The front deraileur wasn’t even connected. And since the front brakes had been missing, there was no cable there. I bought new brake & shifter cables yesterday, along with some brake cable housing (and some of those little end pieces). I roughly installed the brake cables, but the brakes aren’t moving evenly. So I will pull the brakes off, lube em up, put em back on, and get em all adjusted.
I started to install the shifter cables this morning. But I noticed the shifter cable housings are not in good shape. They are kinked in spots. So I am going to stop by the local bike shop to pick up some new shifter cable housing, and maybe finish getting them hooked up tonight.
After I finished overhauling the front and rear hubs, I still have some time. I decided to overhaul the bottom bracket. I removed the cranks using my Park crank puller tool. They were really on tight! I am kind over doubting they have ever been removed before. I removed the lock ring using my Park lockring tool. It seems like there has to be something better. It is hard keeping the lock ring tool from slipping off the lock ring. After getting the lock ring off, I got my bottom bracket tool to remove the adjustable cup. It was on pretty tight. It was tough keeping the tool from slipping out when trying to turn it. After getting the adjustable cup off, I went to remove the spindle, but it was being held in place pretty firmly by the shield. I decided to remove the fixed cup. I knew the fixed cup was going to be really tight! There was no way that I would be able to keep the tool engaged while turning it by hand. So I got a big C-clamp, and had it placed over the back of my ratchet wrend hold it on the cup. I slipped a cheater bar over teh end of the wrench, and cranked it. I quickly got the cup loose. Keep in mind that the fixed cup is removed by turning it clockwise, otherwise you will have an even harder time removing it! I removed the C-clamp and easily removed the fixed cup. The spindle was still not wanting to come out, adn I didn’t want to remove the shield, so I lef the spindle in place. I soaked the parts in mineral spirits to clean off the old grease. I re-greased the parts and reassembled the bottom bracket starting on the fixed cup side. The adjustable cup side took a little bit of work to get the cup adjusted, and then to get the lock ring locked in place. I am goin gto find a better lock ring tool. I think I have seen one that is like a pair of needle nose pliers.