lazyslacker

First of all I'd like to say hi to the forum. Also I would like to say that I'm a total bicycle newbie and I know nothing about bikes, but have been moderately interested in them for a while.

I just got an old 10-speed bike (like 25 years old) from my friend's grandfather. It seems to ride pretty nicely and until I got to it, it shifted fairly well. Well, I decided it would be a good idea to spray WD-40 on the chain since it seemed to need to be lubricated (I'm not sure how I came to this conclusion). After I did that, I rode it around and it seemed to ride a little better, but now I cannot keep the left-hand shifter in the "tight" position. It just falls back down to one set of gears. It did not have this problem before I decided to use WD-40 on it. So basically now I have a 5-speed bike. the right-hand shifters still work fine. Obviously, I'm going to assume the problem lies with the WD-40 being some place that it shouldn't be.

Could somebody give me some advice on this? I know mineral spirits will remove WD-40, but I don't know exactly which part to apply that to or if thats even a good idea to use on a bike. Will it have any adverse effect? Anything else you can suggest? thanks for any help.

lazyslacker

hey I fixed my problem, it turns out there was just this little knob that I could turn to increase the friction of the shifter so it would hold in place.

Seggybop

in before "WD-40 is not a lubricant!!"
You should use some kind of oil on your chain. It won't work well for long in its current state.

mcoomer

What he said. Go to a bike shop and pick up some chain lube.

lazyslacker

thanks I'll do that