Question - What kind of mechanical issues are common? | Squat the Planet

Question What kind of mechanical issues are common?

Section8

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I'm putting together a bike touring setup with an old mountain bike and probably a cheap amazon bike trailer.

For those that've done a lot of touring, what kind of issues do you commonly run into? Other than flat tires of course.

I'm trying to gauge what's really necessary in terms of a repair kit and spare parts.
 
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ali

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I think it depends a bit on what condition your bike started in, where you are cycling and also maybe just a bit of luck.

Flat tires happen, but in my experience not as often as i thought they would. I ended up cycling the whole tire bald before getting a flat in most cases, so be prepared to buy entire new tires every couple months, especially on the back if that's where most of the weight it is. I also lost a shit-ton of spokes and had to replace my whole wheel several times and just an individual spoke once or twice. But other riders on StP said they never had a broken spoke ever, so YMMV.

Bring oil for your chain, it will get rusty and squeaky very quickly if you don't oil it regularly. The chain itself will eventually stretch and it won't sit nice any more, changing gears will get slippery or stop working. Fortunately that's a pretty cheap replacement, just brand new chain and off you go.

The other thing that will eventually happen is worn/broken cables (gears or brakes), which is also a cheap fix.

Aside from flat tire, you can still ride with a broken spoke, a loose chain or a busted cable. In all of those cases you want to make it to the nearest town with a bicycle shop to get it fixed before things get worse. If you are way out in the sticks then it might take a few days to get to the nearest bicycle shop, but if you're near a college town or in the city, you should be able to get in and out same day. Most bike shops will take pity on you and do a fix on the spot if you're obviously touring. Personally I wouldn't bother bringing all the repair stuff with you on the bike unless you are already proficient at fixing bikes. Otherwise you will just be sitting out on the side of the road with a bunch of tools you don't know how to use. As long as you can change a punctured tube, that should be enough to get you to the nearest shop, in a pinch.
 

Section8

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I think it depends a bit on what condition your bike started in, where you are cycling and also maybe just a bit of luck.

Flat tires happen, but in my experience not as often as i thought they would. I ended up cycling the whole tire bald before getting a flat in most cases, so be prepared to buy entire new tires every couple months, especially on the back if that's where most of the weight it is. I also lost a shit-ton of spokes and had to replace my whole wheel several times and just an individual spoke once or twice. But other riders on StP said they never had a broken spoke ever, so YMMV.

Bring oil for your chain, it will get rusty and squeaky very quickly if you don't oil it regularly. The chain itself will eventually stretch and it won't sit nice any more, changing gears will get slippery or stop working. Fortunately that's a pretty cheap replacement, just brand new chain and off you go.

The other thing that will eventually happen is worn/broken cables (gears or brakes), which is also a cheap fix.

Aside from flat tire, you can still ride with a broken spoke, a loose chain or a busted cable. In all of those cases you want to make it to the nearest town with a bicycle shop to get it fixed before things get worse. If you are way out in the sticks then it might take a few days to get to the nearest bicycle shop, but if you're near a college town or in the city, you should be able to get in and out same day. Most bike shops will take pity on you and do a fix on the spot if you're obviously touring. Personally I wouldn't bother bringing all the repair stuff with you on the bike unless you are already proficient at fixing bikes. Otherwise you will just be sitting out on the side of the road with a bunch of tools you don't know how to use. As long as you can change a punctured tube, that should be enough to get you to the nearest shop, in a pinch.

Thanks for all the info. Yeah, spokes are hit an miss eh. I knew someone who had done +10,000 km's and not one broken spoke. But met other people who lost 2 or more in 500km's.

I think I'll buy a spare tube and patch kit. Chain lube, a few spokes and a multi tool.

After more consideration from @The Toecutter 's post, I'm going to go full on repair kit and supplies. The area I intend to go has no bike repair shops, so I gotta be my own mechanic.
 
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The Toecutter

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Broken/frayed cables have been my most common failure. But when I ride, I carry all of my tools with me, enough to rebuild the bike if it came to it. I carry spare "missing links" for my chain, oil, innertubes, shift/brake cables, cable housing lubricant, along with my tools(Philips and flathead screwdrivers, hex key set, socket set, cable cutters, needle-nosed pliers, ratchet drive, bottom bracket install/removal tool, crank puller, tire spoons, crescent wrench, air pump, chain break tool, ect.). But as a poster mentioned above, the tools aren't worth having unless you know how to use them. I've used each of my tools at the side of the road at least once, and they saved me from being stranded.
 

The Toecutter

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You had to use a crank puller while touring? What was the issue?

A pedal unthreaded itself because the threading inside became damaged over time. It refused to thread back into the crank. I had to pull the crank in order to be able to diagnose this problem. Then I realized that I had to replace the crank because the threading inside would not accept my pedal, but because the new crank was built for a different bottom bracket spindle length, I also had to replace the bottom bracket too. I did this outside of a bike shop and saved myself hundreds of dollars by doing the work myself.

My bike is rather unique in the fact that it is built more like a car than a bicycle, and accessing some of the components can be difficult. You sit in it, rather than on it, in a reclined position, and the body is designed to cover the rider and for reduced aerodynamic drag. Its performance is more comparable to a car than a bicycle.
 

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laughingman

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A good choice on an old mountain bike. If you get your hands on a steel frame from the 80s or 90s with a nice simple 3 by 6 or 7 drive train and no suspension you are in very good shape. Not a lot to go wrong on those bikes. That being said if your going to the back and beyond and bringing tools. Take your bike apart. Clean and oil the bits. Put it all back together again. Doing this will expose any problems long before they are problems. Rusty cables or chain? Replace it. Drive train acting up? Derailleur and Derailleur hanger adjustment. Check your bearing surfaces. The headset should move smoothly. But not rattle around. If it grinds and clunks when you turn your bars take it apart, replace the bearings and check the bearing races for rust and dirt, grease it heavily, then reassemble. Check your bottom bracket. When you turn your pedal there should be no side to side play from the bracket of the pedal. If there is take it apart. Lube what you can and put it back together to the correct torque. If there is still a problem replace it. Wheels are tricky. But there are all sorts of youtube videos that will show you how to make sure there working. Same with your brakes. Do all this upfront. At that point you know more about your bike and how it works then just about anyone in the world. Now you can carry all those tools with the confidence that if your riding along and something goes wrong you know what it is and how to fix it.

Also I should probably put regular maintenance in here someplace. All the components on your bikes drive train will last longer if your running a clean chain. Your brakes will stop you faster if your brake pads are adjusted correctly and your cable tension is correct. I know a hand full of old school bike nerds running 30 or 40 year old stuff. Most of it will run just about forever if you take care of it.
 

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A pedal unthreaded itself because the threading inside became damaged over time. It refused to thread back into the crank. I had to pull the crank in order to be able to diagnose this problem. Then I realized that I had to replace the crank because the threading inside would not accept my pedal, but because the new crank was built for a different bottom bracket spindle length, I also had to replace the bottom bracket too. I did this outside of a bike shop and saved myself hundreds of dollars by doing the work myself.

My bike is rather unique in the fact that it is built more like a car than a bicycle, and accessing some of the components can be difficult. You sit in it, rather than on it, in a reclined position, and the body is designed to cover the rider and for reduced aerodynamic drag. Its performance is more comparable to a car than a bicycle.

Almost this same thing happened to me. My failure was at other end of the crank. I was still a dumb kid at the time so I naturaly just kept rideing it as it got loser and loser. Then one day while I was rideing down a hill the whole right crank arm just fell off. And then I very nearly ran off the road. The threading in the pedals and bottom bracket can come lose over time. There not supposed to but it happens. Checking the bottom bracket and pedals for play fairly regularly can prevent this. Tightening lose components will keep it from shaking around which will damage the threading and destroy it. That being said. Not all components work. Some cranks will just never hold a pedal. Even from good manufacturers. Even right out of the box. Ive opened at least two sets of cranks, one shimano and one campi I think, that just didn't work and had to be sent back.
 
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The Toecutter

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It's easy to damage the internal threading that the pedals thread into, and relatively difficult to manufacture the cranks properly to where this error doesn't exist. I've had better luck with steel cranks that don't fatigue, than with aluminum ones that do. Using steel pedals with an aluminum crank is probably greatly increasing the risk of such a failure occurring.

Not only has this issue occurred on my custom-built electric velomobile, but it has also occurred in my Milan SL velomobile. My custom build, I designed with a removable nose piece, which allowed easy access to the cranks. But the Milan has no easy way to access the crank, and to get the pedal to thread back into the crank took about 2 hours of struggling with the bike laying on its side and bending at odd angles in a gas station parking lot in 20F degree weather before it would cooperate and thread back in. I had to clean aluminum shavings out of the crank. It was not fun.

I always grease the threads inside before installing the pedals in order to help prevent this, but it only does so much.

Luckily, since I use recumbent trikes with bodies on them, if the pedal falls off, I'm not going to get injured because there's a floor.

That Milan SL is a real pain in the ass to work on though. A rear wheel innertube replacement is a 2 hour ordeal. On a normal bike, I can do it in under 10 minutes. This is why my custom build is getting solar car tires. Not only do I not want to have to worry about it, but at the speeds I ride(car speeds, not bicycle speeds), a rear wheel blowout could cause me to lose control and veer into a pole or even oncoming traffic. Plus the custom build is going to soon have enough power to accelerate faster than most cars and top 100 mph, and bicycle parts are NOT up to the task. I'm using a mix of ebike parts, motorcycle parts, and ATV parts, with a bicycle drivetrain for pedaling. I'll be able to use all the same tools to service it should something go wrong.

Legally, with both vehicles, state highways are fair game, and I sometimes cruise 45 mph in the custom build on state highways, but I won't be able to use the interstate highways even after I make the upgrades to allow 70 mph cruising, because legally, it's still a "bicycle". With the Milan, I have to be very picky where I ride it because of ground clearance issues and the fact that it has no motor, making very steep uphill climbs a walking-pace slog(NOT good when the automobile traffic is doing 45 mph), but the custom build having a motor makes hills no problem at all. The reactions from police, which frequently pull me over in both vehicles, are mixed.

In the long term, transportation on a per mile basis doesn't get any cheaper or simpler than trying to build cars out of bicycles. The components that compose my bikes are mostly protected from the elements, and I can get over 15,000 miles out of a chain before it is stretched to 0.75%. As mentioned earlier, cables are my most frequent replacement item. Per mile, tires are the largest component of recurring maintenance, at $0.01/mile, followed by chain at $0.004/mile. The custom build uses so little electricity that is is one of the cheapest components of its operating cost, as I get 150-200 miles on 1.5 kWh. The worst aspects are getting messed with by cops and every random idiot with a phone recording me. Just be aware of the local laws, and whenever observed by police, maintain the appearance of following them, and one should do okay operating such a vehicle. When I take the custom build into Illinois, I have to limit it to 750W/28 mph to be "street legal", but when I'm out in the country and no one is looking, I turn the limiter off and cruise at 45 mph. The Milan, being unmotorized, I go as fast as I can pedal it, but without a motor, it is slower up steep hills than a normal bicycle would be, even though I can reach 50 mph on flat ground in it during a full effort sprint, which takes about 2 miles of uninterrupted hard pedaling, there are hills where I do 3 mph climbing for the same effort it takes to maintain 30 mph on flat ground.

Both vehicles have space for my tool bag, food, water, intoxicants, and camping gear. Both vehicles can also fit through a doorway, perfect for camping in abandoned buildings, or in the case of the custom build, hiding it from police if it ever gets involved in a chase.

Almost this same thing happened to me. My failure was at other end of the crank. I was still a dumb kid at the time so I naturaly just kept rideing it as it got loser and loser. Then one day while I was rideing down a hill the whole right crank arm just fell off. And then I very nearly ran off the road. The threading in the pedals and bottom bracket can come lose over time. There not supposed to but it happens. Checking the bottom bracket and pedals for play fairly regularly can prevent this. Tightening lose components will keep it from shaking around which will damage the threading and destroy it. That being said. Not all components work. Some cranks will just never hold a pedal. Even from good manufacturers. Even right out of the box. Ive opened at least two sets of cranks, one shimano and one campi I think, that just didn't work and had to be sent back.
 
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