Preparing to move, I found this together with the papers I got when I bought my bike. But what is it? Is it important?    It is about 2cm long.  I have four of these... Maybe related to the disk brakes? I was hoping they could be pad spacers, but that might just be wishful thinking.
122797
I boughtt a Shimano SM-MA-R160 Disc Brake Mount Adaptor for my bike.  It came with these black plastic things in the lower right corner of the photo below. I have a bunch and don't know what are they used for:     What are those plastic thingies called? What are they used for? How are they applied? How important are they?
102044
I just bought a new bike (my first brand new one ever) a few months ago and a while ago I decided to give it a wash and after that my front hydraulic brake hasn't been working as strong as it used too. I used to be able to lock it up on gravel with two fingers, now I can't get them to lock up at all even with all my strength.  (This is my bike)
98067
so I am creating a few posts about bearings and wheels, (story so far):      I have now got the wheels, bearings and freehub working.  Started riding to work this morning and I almost couldn't stop at a junction.  Thankfully wasn't going too fast.  I physically can not get the wheel to lock.  I have to use both brakes at full force to get the bike to roll to a stop.  If I only use one brake I would not stop at any junction in time.  Could the cause be any of the following:   Over greased bearings? Over greased axle? not tightened cone hubs enough? not tighted axle enough?   I do not have any grease on the disk brakes them selves.  Rather nervous getting on the bike now.  Don't seem to be doing too well with this bike home fixing thing.  over greased bearings?  EDIT  Forgot to mention that it is hydraulic disk brakes.  EDIT 2  So in the end I took it to the LBS as I didn't have much confidence in my self at this point.  They had to replace the front pads but where able to clean the rear and cleaned the rotors.  (I had tried to clean the rotors but obviously not vigorously enough).  He said it was a bit of a pain to do.  All is working again.  They double checked my wheels and said I had put them back together correctly which is reassuring.  Thanks for all the help
76298
I have been working my way through issues with noisy front cantilever brakes. After running through many different ways to solve the issue including new pads (Kool Stop Dura2 Duel Compound), setting the toe in and cleaning the rims.  I now believe the noise is being generated by the play in the pivot point of the cantilever arm. It is not possible to tighten the bolt any further so there will need to be a washer or shim placed in here.   Has anyone had any success in removing the play from the pivot point?  The bike is a cyclocross Kona Jake 2012.
57810
I guess it is something simple which I'm not able to see. Any help would be much appreciated. Best, M.
123620
I've recently got a new bike with a . This comes with deep-drop calliper brakes (Shimano R451 Dual Pivot). The first time out I bumped one of the brakes and it twisted around the single attachment bolt and rubbed on the rim.  I managed to easily twist it back by hand and carry on, however I thought the bolt probably needs tightening. The question is: How tight can it be?  As the fork is part carbon I've so far only dared to take it up to 4Nm, but it still seems possible to twist the whole calliper around with a bump of the hand. Maybe that's normal? Perhaps it's easier to bump around because of the longer deep-drop lever. Should I be aiming to get it really secure?    I'm not sure whether the brake mount in the fork is all carbon, or some of it is alloy underneath, but either way I'd like to know what a sensible torque is. As far as I can see from the  there is no such specification. How can I find this out?
11481
I ride regularly in the city with my a few valuables with me. My purse, phone, keys, company ID card etc. I hate having a bag on me while ride so I am looking for a solution to have these few items in a bike bag, but also have them safe if I stop somewhere to run into  a shop or a cafe for 15 minutes.   My original idea was to look for a small saddle or top tube bag that is lockable and also safely locked to the frame, and I can simply leave it there. As it turns out there is no such thing! Or I just did not find it?  My second idea was to search for a similar bag, but which is easily detachable and I can take it with myself as a waist bag for example. Same story, I couldn't find anything like this on the market.  Do you know any bag that could work for me? Or do you have an alternate suggestion for my conundrum?   Thank you very much if you take the time to answer! Ride safe! János
22992
my bike is:  and everything I have came with the bike, only now the axle of the rear wheel bent and the skewer has lost its grooves.  and I would like to replace the rear wheel with the 12 x 142mm version of:   I want to reuse the old casettes and disc break. I was told to buy new rotor bolts, will these do?   Will I be able to migrate all my previous parts onto this new wheel and will the wheel fit onto my bike?  update: A replacement axle would be prefered. What axle would work for my bike?
61835
I bought and installed a set of pre-bled hydraulic brakes onto my bike to replace the mechanical discs that came with it. My future plan is to buy a new bike, transfer the brakes to my wife's bike and replace the old discs onto my bike and sell it.  In the meantime I have a very long rear line, about 30cm extra, that I'm struggling to manage. I've looped it and cable tied it on both sides of the loop, once back on itself and again to the front brake line. Unfortunately this solution slips a lot so I'm looking for a better one. At this stage performance of the brakes seems ok with this method.  Does anyone know of a better solution or is getting them shortened by my LBS the way to go?
53755
I rode my road bike on Friday and the tyres were at the correct pressure then, around 100psi.  On Tuesday, I jumped on without checking them and quickly realised something was wrong with the rear tyre.  It wasn't completely flat but was fairly soft.  I hadn't gone far so went home and took the car to work instead.  When I got home later, I was surprised to find the tyre, while still soft, hadn't lost all pressure by any means.  It was around 40psi and felt the same as when I left it in the morning.  I decided there must be a slow leak somewhere, but I couldn't find one anywhere, putting the inner under water and going around it methodically looking for bubbles.  I've never failed to find a leak before that way.  I've switched it out anyway because I don't want to mess around with my commute, but I'm curious ... is there another explanation for that amount of pressure loss?  Or must there have been a puncture somewhere that I missed somehow?  The tyres (whole bike) are pretty new and in excellent condition.
20650
I have a Lappierre Zesty 314  (2012). I'm running XT rear mech, an SLX front mech, my crank is XT, rear cassette is XT and XT chain. I went to the Forest of Dean and after the day was over I snapped my chain! I picked up a SRAM chain for my bike and now when I pedal hard it slips with a big bang. I have new Eastern Havens so my hub is fine. Can you help with any ideas to help me solve this? Shall I get a new rear cassette?
80437
I am replacing the chain on my road bike soon.  How do I know how many links to get?  Does it have to exactly 114 or 116.  Or is it not a big deal?  I ordered a 116 link chain.  Will I need to shorten it?  Thank you.
60680
When you look at the board, there is a weird part of the PCB right of the top left mounting hole. There is also another one above the top right mounting hole.    ****                            ↓ Here's one                                            **   This image is directly copied from .    What are these? Is this just created when this is manufactured (to grip to to move the board or to grip during solder mask creation), or does it serve a purpose (something to hook a multimeter to)?
38651
I have a 2013 Shimano XT rear derailleur. It is part of a 2x10 drivetrain. How can I find out if it is a medium or a long cage one? The picture below shows the derailleur.
62042
Really struggling with these brakes now. Just installed new pads, but pistons won't separate far enough to put the wheels back in. Tried pushing the piston in using a  plastic tyre remover, but no joy. It seems like one pad (hub side in both cases, front and back) is a lot further out that the other, which suggests sticky pads.  I'm also a bit confused as the pistons move (both pistons on both brakes) as soon as the actuator arm starts moving. I thought they were supposed to have a delay as a valve closed, so I'm wondering if they're actually properly set up at all. I can't see where the bleed valve is though, and if it's opening.  Any advice gratefully received!  Edit; I think there's three problems I'm working on here; i.) The pads are asymmetric; the outside pads are barely showing, the inside ones are protruding by about 2-3mm. ii.) Even with the cable detached and the arms locked out I can't push the protruding pad in. It moves slightly under extreme force, but moves back after the force is removed. iii.) The pads move as soon as the brake lever moves, which I don't think is right.  I'm going to try and clean the edges of the pistons I can get to, as following this you tube video                                and see if that helps at all, will report back.
57484
What is this large metal bar inside my DMMs? One of them labeled it ST. They appear to be connected to the COM port or fuse. Is this just a big jumper for the 10 A ammeter?
37388
somehow the alloy braking surface of my rear wheel's rim has got a series of quite shallow lacerations, less than a mil' deep bunched quite closely together (the effected area is no more than 1/8 of the rim).  When I brake (side pull road bike brakes) I can hear it making a different sound on each rotation has the damage goes past the pads.  The wheels are Reparto Corse's which came with my Bianchi, they are new and have less than 1k miles (probably way less). And they are fine in every other respect.  So I guess my options are:   Leave it and let it smooth out with use. May take some time and wear down brake pads faster. Lightly sand the worst offending parts with high grit abrasive paper. Fill the damage with expoxy (or similar) then sand. Replace the rim (would it worth the labour cost?)   So are any of these good options or do you have any idea what you may also do?  Thanks