Bike Maintainance of DT FS

[amitkulz]

Hello all,

I am mechanically inclined, just finishing the process of dumping my car and getting fully into bikes. My other bike is a Kawasaki Ninja 250 for commuting. I have changed all fluids in my car: oil, transmission, PS, brake, and of course gas! And done some other minor work, nothing heavy.

That said, I want to fix my own bike, it is so much simple to understand than cars! Planning to own Merc/DT Mini sometime by end of this year/beginning of next year, and way further in the future something like a BF or a Moulton. So this is training on handling and maintaining bikes before buying the BMW's of bikes.

What do I need to Lube BB, headsets, chain etc? Where can I get a cheap bike maint stand, and what tools I need? No mods yet, and probably won't do any till I feel comfortable. I have been reading about Park tool website.

How do I do those things? i.e lubing BB by taking it out, taking out headsets and packing with grease?

I have Amsoil Moly grease (Synthetic GL Series Multi-Purpose EP Grease, NLGI #2) lying around from my carfaring days. Is it suitable to use?

Thanks in advance for your help

[hbob]

I was new too and I did just about everything you can to my DT except build a wheel. I bought a used bike stand on eBay (ESSENTIAL!) and was judicious on tools. Nashbar has some lesser pricedhouse brand good tools that are needed for the proprietary parts of a bike. I used their knockoff of
the Park bottom bracket wrench for shimano and Sheldon Brown's website had a homemade tool to pull
bottom bracket cups that was pretty much free. His site is the most important place to go
for do-it -yourself work. Park Tool's site also helps. I bought a old used book on bike maintenance.
White lithium grease from auto parts store is fine for headset. I took my headset apart
with regular crecent wrenches, but a set of headset wrenches (they are thinner than auto wrenches)
are the cheapest tools. Besides the headset, your bottom bracket is the other spot you are going to
want to lube, but it is the same work as replacing it. Expect to find little lube anywhere on the
stock bike and what is there is more of a tar than a lube.
Replacing housing and cable is easy but don't buy the kits of precut housing as they are too short
for a folding bike. Buy cut to order for you bike shop or online. If your bikeshop cuts the housing
for you based on your old housing you save $29 on a cable housing cutter.
AND,,, if you are a good customer of Yan's he may ship you some of the tools if you pay round trip shipping.

Hbob

[amitkulz]

I was new too and I did just about everything you can to my DT except build a wheel. I bought a used bike stand on eBay (ESSENTIAL!) and was judicious on tools. Nashbar has some lesser pricedhouse brand good tools that are needed for the proprietary parts of a bike. I used their knockoff of
the Park bottom bracket wrench for shimano and Sheldon Brown's website had a homemade tool to pull
bottom bracket cups that was pretty much free. His site is the most important place to go
for do-it -yourself work. Park Tool's site also helps. I bought a old used book on bike maintenance.
White lithium grease from auto parts store is fine for headset. I took my headset apart
with regular crecent wrenches, but a set of headset wrenches (they are thinner than auto wrenches)
are the cheapest tools. Besides the headset, your bottom bracket is the other spot you are going to
want to lube, but it is the same work as replacing it. Expect to find little lube anywhere on the
stock bike and what is there is more of a tar than a lube.
Replacing housing and cable is easy but don't buy the kits of precut housing as they are too short
for a folding bike. Buy cut to order for you bike shop or online. If your bikeshop cuts the housing
for you based on your old housing you save $29 on a cable housing cutter.
AND,,, if you are a good customer of Yan's he may ship you some of the tools if you pay round trip shipping.

Hbob

hbob,
What type of bike stand is good investment? A 3 leg type which attaches to BB, front fork etc? Do I really need to replace the stock BB now with the sealed Shimano one?

Cable lubes may have to wait for next month. I have been reading your posts on your mods. Excellent ones! I am going thru a painful cash phase what with the almost total breakdown of my car ($$$ gone down the drain), and my mods will haev to wait.

Thanks

[Trocadile]

If you want to get some cheap tools for a variety of work on your bike, I recommend the Nashbar "Big Tool Kit 2."

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=99&subcategory=1232&brand=&sku=3521&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

With the usual 10% off coupon you can find for Nashbar, these are $36 before shipping and I've used them on my DT. So far, they've worked great for crank-pulling, taking out the old BB, installing a new sealed cartridge, overhauling the headset, etc. If I was working on bikes every day I might spend more for the Park tools, but if you just have a few bikes to maintain this set has everything you need (except maybe a rubber mallet) to get started and has worked without a hitch for me.

[hbob]

I bought a Blackburn stand that clamps onto the seatpost for $50.00 on eBay (local pickup).
If you are not a pro, any Park Stand for under $100 would be fine. I got lucky to find the one
I did.
On the BB.... you don't have to buy one till the one you have goes bad. If nothing else, pull the left side
and get some grease in there. A good alloy BB from Nashbar is under $20. I bought my Shimano
on eBay for under $20.

[james_swift]

Don't forget that daily to semi-daily required maintenance will revolve around (no pun) the most vulnerable-to-dirt-n-grime part on the bike: the drive chain. I say, start with tools/cleaners/solvents/lube for the chain.

[amitkulz]

Thanks everyone for the help!

hbob and Trocadile,
I will buy the Nashbar Toolkit and cheap Park Tool stand. I will get the sealed Shimano BB because I don't want to lube the BB every so often. Next few weekends is when I will do the work.

James, I lube the chain with ProGold MFR lube. The extra dirt around the cassette/rear hanger is also taken care of. The same MFR lube is used for lubing my Ninja's chain. I religiously lube it when I get out in the rain or every 2 weeks.

My stock DT brakes seem to have lost their stopping power, not as good as before. The brake pads are worn a bit but not much, anybody have any idea why?

Thanks

[james_swift]

Thanks everyone for the help!
My stock DT brakes seem to have lost their stopping power, not as good as before. The brake pads are worn a bit but not much, anybody have any idea why?

Thanks

Check the pads to make sure they haven't developed a glaze. If so, pull the pads and rub them down on some sand paper, then reinstall (don't forget to set the toe-in). You can also resurface the braking area of your rims. Give 'em a good scrubbing-down under the faucet (brake-contact area only) with a ScotchBrite steel wool pad (the one with soap), let dry, then polish with a fine-grade sandpaper followed by a wipe-down with alcohol.

[hbob]

My experience with the stock pads is that they turned to a black liquid when wet which causes them to glaze up and soil the rim as well. If they are worn, replace with Kool Stop pads, curved to fit
rim (MTB or BMX model pads).

[amitkulz]

My experience with the stock pads is that they turned to a black liquid when wet which causes them to glaze up and soil the rim as well. If they are worn, replace with Kool Stop pads, curved to fit
rim (MTB or BMX model pads).

Thanks, I will get the Kool Stop pads. This is the #1 item on the list!