The Quick & Dirty Technique Thread
 

Working on a trash-picked rustbucket yesterday (as usual), I started thinking that this forum could use a thread dedicated to good-enough techniques for good-enough bikes.

So, what's your trick when it's not worth a lot of time (or any money)?

A few of mine, to get started:

Rust on painted surfaces: scrub with bronze wool, wipe clean with WD40, and polish with shoe polish.

Rusted-out chain -- sure, chains are cheap, but if you don't even want to put $5 into a bike: soak in white vinegar for a few days, brush off the loosened rust really quickly with a bronze-wire brush on an electric drill, put it in a plastic container with a screw-on lid (big peanut-butter jars are good), cover with mineral spirits, shake it up, and leave it in overnight. Shake again, wipe with a rag, install, and oil. Pour the solvent through a couple of paper coffee filters into a glass jar and save for re-use.

Rim strips: cut out of old inner tubes.

Missing fender stays: Galvanized wire from old tomato cages. Chrome paint, if desired.

Sticky headsets and pedals: flip upside down and squirt WD40 into the races, followed by plenty of motor oil. Do not disassemble. I personally wouldn't do this with hubs or bottom brackets, though I've heard of people just dumping oil down the seat tube.

And I'm pretty sure everybody knows that crunched-up aluminum foil (with WD40, if you like) does wonders on chrome.

Tell us your short-cuts!

I like the headset trick. I'll do that for a Varsity I want to sell. The headset is gawdawful sluggish but probably undamaged.

I have a hundred similar tricks. I'll try to remember them. They say that as we get older, the memory is the second thing to go...

First, let me reply about the chains.
Rusted chains break!
I can find KMC chains here in town for 10 or 11 dollars, and also get decent used chains from the shop's bin for free.
WalMart sells the so-so TaYa chains for the same 10-11 dollars.

I typically keep a TriFlo bottle full of motor oil diluted with 25% mineral spirits for use with your headset trick, and will douse all of an old bike's fasteners, pulleys, freewheel and bearings with this a day before I start working on it.

For cotter pins, with no press, I'll drill them out to 3/16" from the blunt end, then they hammer out easily.
Putting the cotters back in, I hammer them in alternating with bolt tightening. After 30 or so strikes and re-torqueing, the cotters are well-settled.

I use the trueing stand to remove outward bulges in the braking surface, first tightening both indicator knobs to detect the "wide spots", then using big plumber's pliers with a thick leather pad to squeeze the rim to the proper width.

I'll take broken rubber rim strips and glue the ends down, to either side of the valve stem hole.
This also gets the rim strip out of the way of the valve hole, making tire repairs easier.

I've had good luck freeing a stuck spoke nipple with a 5-second blast of the torch. Saves time and spokes.

I save moderately worn freewheels that won't hold after a new chain has been installed.
By grinding off 1mm from [[the driven-side corner]] of the teeth, a new chain can fall into mesh under power without the rollers catching on the protruding corner.
The corner protrudes because of pocket wear near the base of the tooth, which allows the chain to move to a more-advanced position on the sprocket. Then a new chain's rollers hang on the tooth's corner instead of falling in between the teeth, causing abrupt slippage.

A stripped hole in a derailer cage plate can be peened down to a re-tappable diameter, using hammer and punch.

Certain French derailers with inside bolt can save a stripped derailer hanger hole.

Older tires can often be safely used at lower pressures.

Discarded handlebar wrap can be machine-laundered, but not agitated too long as it can get tangled under the agitator.

Damaged/frayed cables can be trimmed and put into inventory for use in a shorter application.
Lined housings can be scrubbed out with a length of bent/kinked cable wire. A little spray lube inside followed by scrubbing and a blast of air from a presta head can make for almost-new smoothness.

A couple of wraps of clear Scotch tape can salvage a torn hood almost invisibly, and can last many many miles.

I have often encountered problems with any flipping-over of freewheel and crank sprockets, so I don't do this.
It may work, but these sprockets aren't really symmetrical so may cause shifting or other problems.

I've booted many severely damaged tires with an "X" of rim tape on the inside that wraps around the bead and so gets pinched in place by rim and bead. The excess length gets cut off flush (careful with that knife) after inflation.
Sometimes this causes a low spot where the tire casing doesn't quite inflate to the normal width/height.

What was the other thing? I forget.

[Edit... I do remember something]

Removing freewheels : Use the "Drive the Bus Technique". If you have a well-connected bench vise, put the freewheel tool into the freewheel. Flip upside down and insert into your bench vise. Make sure you tighten securely... very securely.

Then turn left at the next intersection.

And if it's a really tight freewheel or a bmx style 4 prong it's not a bad idea to use the Q/R or axle nut to hold the tool to the wheel to keep the freewheel from slipping off the tool.

I better not but....
I flip a LOT of citybikes in the summer and if I can get them sold shiny-well I dont care if they get rusty.
Finns are anal about even a spek of rust on a bolt...its like the bike is doomed to fall in half;Black Anodized rusted hardware
scuff pad and a black felt tip marker will do wonders.

Pretzelogic Rims
youths get bored and like to destroy bike rims by bouncing on them-the owners normally abandon the bikes when this is done......
Well I have streightened many a pretzel- you start by jumping on them and then continue forcing them back into true- it can be done-it takes time but it does work!

rusty chrome
chrome bars,rims etc.

most parts you can clean off the pits with a razor blade-go over them with wd40.
cheap bikes use sh ite thin chrome and it just dont last, i strip out the bars ,seatpost tubes and hit them with silver and clear.

Attaching the freewheel remover with the QR skewer is never a bad idea. Before you do it, loads and loads of penetrating fluid will help too.

Damaged tyres can also be cut up and used as boots. Even stronger then the dollar bill trick. Vulcanizing glue for a permanent fix.

Stuck pedals? Remove the crank and bathe the pedal end in kerosene. Kero is an excellent penetrating fluid.

My cost saving tricks are to source materials cheaply. The Niagara shop on Amazon has good prices on tires, etc. I will clean chains but I used to get them for $6 each - which seems a lot easier than the methods described. New cables, in bulk are about $3 per brake/derailleur set. Advertising a bike with new cables, brake pads, and possibly tires brings in a better price.
I do use freeshipping dot com to get rebates on shipping at Amazon, Ebay, Nashbar, etc. Some bikes are worth more sold off as cheap frames and wheel sets. They can also be donors for repairs to other bikes.

I have soaked rusted parts in oxalic acid bath with good results. That's better than buying replacement parts.

I hit up my LBS for the stickers they often get with parts. It can be a lot easier to cover a paint scuff or scratch with one of these than to try to get touch-up paint to match. I use odor free mineral spirits for soaking parts rather than kerosine or turpintine. I hate the smell of that stuff.

"The Niagara shop on Amazon has good prices on tires, etc."

I have not had much luck getting free shipping via Niagara/Amazon on most items, including tires.

I have placed large orders from them where everything ships in one big box.

And virtually every single item includes it's own $4.50 shipping charge. That's $45 on ten tires, and it's the same even on each of many small items!
$4.50 X (# of items).

In the end, this has turned out to be one of the more, if not most, expensive online retailers around.

And finding a new Campagnolo crankset flopping around with freewheels, tires and bottom brackets, getting scratched up in that big box after having come out of it's own box, I returned the crankset but was refunded none of the shipping fee charged for that item. This for an item that was incorrectly shipped (wrong model in this case).

I really like the idea of using stickers to cover paint blems.
Also can use them to protect good paint on vurnerable spots.
One I used that looked good while covering major scratches was a full length of the glossy Cinelli handlebar finishing tape (logo tape), applied to each side of the top tube:

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2410/1...802_z.jpg?zz=1

^^ Is this "old tricks" or "point-counterpoint?" ^^

I have one that I've used on a car-trunk bike rack that is 25 years old:

Whenever I removed padded wrap, I wrap a part of the bike rack with it. The rack is old, and beat-up, but never causes even a rub mark on my bikes. Of course, it looks better with black wrap....

I slice old tennis balls to cover the pedals when I pair bikes on a trunk rack.

I keep a length of see-through cable housing for internal routing of TT brake cables... I slip it over the free cable end and "follow" the old housing with it as I pull it out. Once it's all the way through, I pull the cable out.

Not an old trick, but a third hand tool saves a lot of time aligning calipers and pads.... Mine is 30 years old, from REI.

Colored electrcial tape makes good finish tape on many bar treatments.

Sharpie paint pens, in both fine point and medium point, make good touchups.

Is this thread where we learn how to become DKOers?

For me, it makes no difference. I do the job correctly or I don't do it! Remember, somebody will be riding that bike that is, perhaps, full of quick and dirty fixes. Would you, or any of you, want your kids or grand kids riding a quick and dirty bike?

Perhaps I am over reacting to the thread focus but I have absolutely no use for shoddy work of any kind!

Partial cans of carb cleaner are good for a quick derailer hose-off. I have a flat sealed tin with WD-40 in it for soaking bike chains or rusty parts.

+10

I'm all for saving a buck here and there whenever possible, but some of the "fixes" are a joke right?

If its not worth doing right, it's not worth doing at all.

+1,487,629 I manage the purchase price on parts, and back the truck up when I catch a good sale, like the $4 aero levers Nashbar had on sale two years ago. I bought a pile of them (should have bought more).

Sick of paying shipping on internet bike parts? Two solutions: 1) price match with Jensen, they give free shipping on $50 orders or higher. 2) Contact the internet seller privately, and ask for a concession. I did it with one common supplier, they give me free shipping on large orders, and an additional discount for real large orders. More and more, I am buying from Jensen.

Another trick I have used on parts is buying them from shops that are closing. Seems like around here, every three or four months, a shop closes. I go and make them an offer on left over parts. Got a couple of boxes of stainless cables from one, tubes, tires, chain, whatever. Oh yeah, and lots of tools. I am always up front with the shop. I tell them what I do, and am willing to buy left over stuff. I also buy used parts from them (they often have a stash in the back, wheels, bars, stems, seat posts, etc).

Chain: about $4.50 at Niagara, not worth messing around with old worn chains. Jensen will price match. I loaded up on chain about a month ago from Jensen.

I also use donor parts: pedals, saddles, etc.

A bike not worth decent parts or time, gets donated either to my favorite thrift store or the local co-op. I am not going to slap together a bike with questionable parts.

+1 Small chrome parts: cable clamps, etc., get the OA treatment. I just treated a pair of pedal cages. I tend to keep a small container of OA going all the time. Any misc steel part with rust goes in immediately, comes out the next day, and either into my stash, or back on the original bike.

Well, I do -- or rather, I've got a definite use for good, rather than excellent, work. It's a total waste of time to do top-quality work on a bike that will A) never run particularly well anyway and B) never interest anyone who's interested in a top-quality bike.

I suspect, Randy, that I work on a lot of bikes that you wouldn't even bother to pull out of that magical Thunder Bay landfill. I don't even sell most of them -- I give them away. But I do think it's a good idea to get those homely bikes SAFE and back on the road. In North America we need a return to the idea that a bike doesn't have to be the object of hobbyist obsession (though I'm certainly OK with that -- I mean, I'm here, right?). A bike doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be safe and appealing, and a lot of people around here actually prefer a bike that doesn't look shiny and expensive. They're students, and they're going to leave it locked outside in the rain in a high-theft area anyway. I didn't say anything about scrimping on safety, and I wouldn't -- I definitely don't think there's such a thing as "quick and dirty" brake work, for instance, and I would never leave a cracked crank on a bike -- but where it makes no difference to safety (say, headset and pedal bearings), I don't have a problem skipping labor that nobody would notice or appreciate anyway. As for chains, I should qualify -- yeah, a rusty chain may break on a derailleur bike, but I don't work on many of those, and I have yet to see one fail on a 3-speed or cruiser. Not to say it couldn't happen, but it seems unlikely.

Otherwise, I'm digging all these suggestions -- and dddd, your idea of a bike that's not worth serious effort is definitely different than mine! That Miyata is sweet.

+1. I'm all for efficiency and useful tips, but I also believe a job worth doing is worth doing right. It would bother my conscience worrying how the "quick & dirty" flip was holding up and whether the buyer felt he got a lemon or had to take it in to the shop a month later for service. For example, I'd think a headset with dried out grease and a squirt of WD40 will soon start to feel like a headset with dried out grease again. I don't sell bikes all that frequently, but I make a point to completely strip & rebuild all of the bikes I sell.

Hit it with a hammer. This fixes everything.

I like that!

Kingsford lighter fluid is my latest go-to solvent. Works GREAT and the price sure is right. I use Tri-flow as a light lube and Phil grease in the tube for a heavy lube. I install a different cap, though, a long tapered cap I originally got from a tube of outboard motor lower-unit oil. Lets me put just enough right where I need it. And of course wood coffee stirrers make excellent applicators.

Buy parts in bulk whenever possible; establish a relationship with your LBS and maybe they'll let you buy bulk housing and cable for cost plus 10%. It's certainly worth a try.

For cottered cranks, hit it with the hotwrench and get it good and warm before the penetrating oil. Hit it with the heat, oil, let cool; repeat; repeat again. In two years of professional wrenching I never had this fail me. When you use a hammer, use enough gun and don't dither. Move with purpose.

Think. Use your head. It's free.

I like this stuff when I don't want to take apart a bearing to lube it, or in places like cheap non servicable pedals. Goes in liquid and sets up as a gel.
http://www.northwoodstm.com/resource...el%20E-Lit.pdf

"-- and dddd, your idea of a bike that's not worth serious effort is definitely different than mine! That Miyata is sweet."
I just showed the Miyata for those stickers on the top tube. I actually have rebuilt the bb twice I think, re-geared the drivetrain and keep the wheels accurately tensioned, but the still-smooth headset just gets a yearly shot of oil (it's pretty dry here). I've also broken and replaced the usual one or two rear axles by now.
I found the Miyata at Goodwill for 24.95 about 6-7 years ago. I used it for everything the first few years, including a cyclocross race and an inordinate amount (hundreds of hours) of singletrack mountain biking. These bikes are tough, actually this one is my second, the first one was retired (donated) before failure after some years of gnarly (if not fast) off-roading.
These touring bikes were a dime a dozen ten years ago, and one came into one of our 2 local thrift stores almost weekly. I never saw one costing more than $60 or $80, and some were really un-used. Mine showed 2600 miles on that Huret mechanical Cyclometer, now at 8.7k.

"Would you, or any of you, want your kids or grand kids riding a quick and dirty bike?"

I do a lot of mileage riding on the quick 'n dirty road bikes, that's how I can have a clean conscience when I sell one.
Thorough testing shows me that a very reasonable amount of service can be extracted from the quick 'n dirty sleds.
Re-oiling dried grease seems to work for thousands of miles, and since I'm an experienced wheel tech I know when a damaged and re-tensioned wheel is strong enough for hard service. I think that over-tightened bearings typically fail much sooner than re-oiled ones.
Re-grinding worn sprockets is more than recycling or cheapskating. Some specific sprockets are now virtually unobtanium.
I do my own frame and fork aligning, but would not try to repair a buckled fork tube or weld an aluminum frame.
Something seemingly minor like a protruding cotter that tries to snag a pants leg is fixed before I sell any bike, and cables have to work properly in a high-performing manner. Some of the repairs are done one by one while I'm putting a bike thru it's paces over a month's time of serious use.

It may make only limited sense replacing tires that are visibly past due. The new owner may have their own preferences for tires, tubes and puncture protection. I keep new and used tires and tubes handy for any purchaser to select from.

One thing that grates against my conscience is selling a rim-braked bike with chrome rims.
I ask whether it is enough to warn the user that chromed rims lose braking effectiveness in the rain.
I myself sometimes ride on shiny rims, and I've momentarily forgotten what happens to the brakes in the rain.

If a bike is worth getting back in the road, it is worth doing it right. Every bike I've ever flipped (with a VERY few notable exceptions) has been torn down to the frame-set and rebuilt. It is the only way to make an old, neglected bike safe to ride.

I would not give away or sell any bike that has not been properly overhauled.

I can't even remember the first thing to go...

"Every bike I've ever flipped (with a VERY few notable exceptions) has been torn down to the frame-set and rebuilt. It is the only way to make an old, neglected bike safe to ride."

So, as an example, if the bike has canti brakes, you're saying to un-screw all 4 brake arms from the frame?

I never do this since oil applied under the bolt washers goes straight into the pivot sleeve. Removing those threadlocked bolts takes much time and effort, but what is gained?

Likewise, I usually don't remove functioning derailers.

I usually pull off friction or index shifters for lubing with oil, and pulleys get flooded from one side with motor oil.
I can see greasing everything if the bike will be used (or left sitting) out in the rain.

short cut? what's a short cut?