Frozen bike!

[diff_lock2]

As i get on my (seat lowered, for a lower CG) bike,

first thing i notice, brake lever is frozen SOLID,

then i "shake" is loose and apply the the brake,

and it locks up, so now my front brake is locked.

As I'm rubbing my brake cable (front) a friend is "shaking" the calipers (?) (the parts that have the shoes on them and are attached to the fork).
I get everything loose, but i still cant use the front break.

Then i check my 4 speed revo shifter, rock solid...

how do you guys keep these parts, NOT FROZEN SOLID?

I'm thinking of de-iceing my bike with a hair dryer (inside) and then letting it dry over night inside, see if they freeze up again.


Temps are around 16F (-9C)

oh and its snowing

[Shiznaz]

Warming up the bike followed by WD 40 sprayed liberally on the inside of the cable housing should force the water out. I had this problem with leaving my bike in a shed that had a drier vent in it (really really retarded land lord. We re-routed it to the outside and he actually came re-re-routed it back into the shed), so if anyone did laundry the shed would fill with steam and condense on the inside of the brake and shifter cables, and then freeze. I was riding a bike without any cables so it wasn't a big deal for me, but my roommate needed to bring his bike insde periodically to warm up and then spray wd40 in the cables (As many will tell you the 'WD' stands for 'Water Displacement"

[Machka]

I'll second the WD40 recommendation.

[diff_lock2]

next chance i get ill get a can of wd40 (or tis X4 stuff, same sh!t)...

Well i put in the warm bike room we have for bikes around my area, 3 min, and the cables were all perfect but i noticed one thing, my plastic mud guards were all cracked... damn.

and i just got a studded (Nokian) tire for the front (slick/ wet tire on the rear),

i tested it out, ITS SO FREKIN GOOD. i might think of getting a rear, but i hate taking the rear wheel off.

Can't wait to put that tire to the test tomorrow on my now 20-30min commute, in the sumer i was pushing 10min, and its all up hill. short, but up hill.

I had a winter bike build SS 26" but i lost contact with the lbs for a free wheel... Once i get a hold of that guy, ill be running a great snow bike.

found a name for my tire (http://www.suomityres.fi/w106.html), Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106

[Hezz]

There are a lot of ideas to deal with a frozen bike but the best is just to wash your bike off with a hose after a ride and then bring it in a heated place were it can dry out. Since garages aren't usually heated the basement or furnace room is a good choice. Especially if there is a drain. Once the bike is dry it can go outside or in the cold garage and if there isn't any moisture on it the cold won't freeze things up too much.

I sometimes spray off my bike when it's really cold and the flowing water helps clean it off even below freezing. Of course this won't work for really absurd cold. I then sometimes bring the bike in the kitchen since it has a tile floor for an hour and once it's dry I take it outside in the cold non heated shed.

[PaulH]

I have my cables and cable housings replaced every two years. Since I started doing this, there have been no freeze-ips.

Paul

[diff_lock2]

I have my cables and cable housings replaced every two years. Since I started doing this, there have been no freeze-ips.

Paul

the brake cable i have is new (this summer), so its not that, and the shifter and shifter and shifter cable housing are no more than a month old. so what ever is helping you isn't happening with my setup. but i did notice after leaving it in our heated bike garage that the shifter and cable were not frozen today (like after 8 hours in the cold) the brake was but not solid, maybe its just warmer today... looks like it hit +1C today hmmmm (http://www.mtv3.fi/saa2006/fetusivu.shtml?mode=country&continent=Europe&country=FI&dd=data35vrk) but it was dryer too... no snow fall