Part II: Basic Bike Repairs in Visual Studio .NET

Creation Denso QR Bar Code in Visual Studio .NET Part II: Basic Bike Repairs

which are designed to absorb the impact of riding on a trail and other rough surfaces For touring, you ll want wheels with a greater number of spokes in order to support the weight of loaded pannier bags Talk to the staff at your local bike shop and let them know what kind of riding you re planning on doing They can match you up with the right wheels Many riders keep an extra pair of wheels in their garage for specific purposes If they re hitting the trail, they can take off and exchange their road wheels for a mountain-bike pair Wheel sets are one of the best ways to upgrade your bike If you have a racing bike, new lightweight wheels with fewer spokes can greatly improve performance If you re starting to tour, some road riders convert to 650B wheels in order to use wider, touring-type tires Take care when you ride The way you ride can have a significant impact on the life of your tires Avoid making contact with objects in the road as much as possible If you need to cross a curb, think about getting off your bike and lifting it over the curb If you do have to impact something with your tires, lift yourself off the seat, bend your knees and elbows, and, using your legs and arms as shock absorbers, let your bike rise up over the object

Wheels are an amazing work of design They require spokes that are properly calibrated in order to spin straight and smoothly If any of the spokes are improperly tensioned, your wheel could come out of alignment or become unstable Before you ride, take a moment to do a few checks to inspect your wheels: Give the wheel a spin it should continue to rotate smoothly for a period of time It s normal for the rear wheel to not spin as long as the front because of the drag of the cassette/freewheel You shouldn t hear any noises other than the rear cassette/freewheel Grab the wheel with one hand and the frame with the other, and try moving the wheel from side to side If it moves side to side, the hubs may be loose and in need of adjustment or overhaul (See the Overhauling the hubs and Adjusting a hub sections, later in this chapter) Spin the wheel and keep your eye fixated on the brake; watch the rim as it passes by If it is not perfectly centered, it may need to be trued (See the Truing a wheel section, later in this chapter)

Pluck the spokes of the wheel and listen to the sounds they make They should make a similar sound if they have the same tension If one feels loose or makes a unique sound, it may need to be tightened Check the PSI in both tires with an air pressure gauge Don t go by the feel of your tires take the time to test them with a pressure gauge Inspect the tread depth and condition of the tires sidewalls, looking for dry rot, deformities, or slices from road debris Often, tire sidewalls start to corrode or oxidize, vastly reducing their integrity and lifespan Consider occasionally applying Armor All or similar vinyl/rubber protection to the sidewalls using a clean rag

Before you can remove a wheel, you need to loosen the brakes Brakes are designed to grip the rims, which are narrower than the tires, so their position prevents the wheel from being removed Most brakes are designed with a mechanism to allow for a quick release of the cable that holds the brake adjustment in place The way in which you ll detach the cable may vary depending on what type of brakes your bike has On some brakes, such as cantilevers, you pull the end of the cable out of the brake arm In most cases, you need to pinch the brakes together to create slack in the cable, enabling you to lift the end of the cable out of the brake arm After you remove the cable and release the brakes, the brakes will spring open Here s how to do this for the two main types of brakes: If you have V brakes, you ll need to pull back on the rubber boot of an L-shaped piece to expose the cable Pull the cable out of the narrow slot in the cable holder and release it to open the brakes If you have side-pull brakes, there will be a small lever on the brake where the cable is attached Move the lever to the open position and the brakes will spread apart In some cases, there may be a button instead of a lever; if you have a button, push it to release the tension on the brakes Some bikes have the quick-release mechanism built into the brake lever If you can t find it on the brakes, look here If you can t figure out how to release the brakes, you can always let the air out of the tires Sometimes this will provide enough clearance between the brakes to remove the tires