Originally Posted by b-dizzle
Hey everyone, I'm pretty much a complete n00b here, so pardon the... n00bness.
Anyway, I pulled out my dad's old road bike (It's a 1985 Corsaro Orion, looks kinda like
this but w/ drop bars, no rack, and original shifters and brake handles). It wasn't used a whole lot.
Cool! Never heard of this brand...
I'm gonna fix it up both to earn some dough and just learn some bike maintenance. This is my first time doing anything like this. Other than obviously replacing the split tire and leaky tubes, and de/regreasing everything, what sorts of things am I going to need to check for/replace/adjust? I told the guy at the bike store about it, and he suggested replacing what he called the "deathgrip brake handles". How would I go about doing that?
My suggestion of a repair book is
Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bike Maintenance and Repair. Only $12:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157...e=UTF8&s=books
In the meantime, Sheldon Brown's web site has an incredible depth of repair information. One of the harder repairs you will probably want to do is regreasing and possibly replacing the ball bearings in the hubs, headset, and bottom bracket. You can find info on this at Sheldon's site, or ask more specific questions on Bike Forums. It's an important part of maintenance, but messy and requires a few special tools. Another important thing to check is that the chain is worn out:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chains.html
Also, it's not very rusty, but how would you suggest getting rid of the rust that's there?
Surface rust can be ignored if it's only in small bits. In larger patches (say a quarter inch long or larger), use steel wool. It will remove rust cleanly without hardly touching the solid steel underneath.
Thanks in advance for the advice and for not tearing me apart.
Welcome to bikeforums!
UPDATE: I see you've already taken apart the hubs... sounds like you're learning fast. Have you managed to repack them and get the bearing adjusted so that it rolls smoothly but not loosely once you put everything back together? Learning to get the feel for a perfectly-adjusting cup and cone bearing was one of the harder things to learn for me.