Part II: Basic Bike Repairs in VS .NET

Painting QR Code in VS .NET Part II: Basic Bike Repairs

5 While you re holding the axle with one hand, place the other half of the bearings into the other cup After you ve finished with all the bearings, slide the axle the rest of the way through 6 Thread the cone onto the axle until it begins to press against the bearings in a secure fashion Twist the axle to ensure that the bearings are snug and in place 7 Slide the washers and any spacers on in the axle in the correct order 8 Thread the locknut onto the axle by hand (as shown in Figure 7-10) and, after it tightens, use a wrench to tighten it further while holding the cone in place with a cone wrench You don t want to tighten the cone, because it could press forcefully against the bearings and damage them When tightening the locknut, leave a slight amount of play in the axle so that it can accept the additional force from the tightening of the quickrelease lever 9 Adjust the tightness of the hubs by following the procedure in the next section Figure 7-11 shows an example of tightening the cones in the hub

The cones on a hub cannot be too loose or too tight they need to be just right What does that mean exactly The tightness should be such that there is little to no play in the hub, but the axle rotates freely If you have trouble finding the right point between too loose and too tight, err on the side of being slightly loose To adjust the tightness of a hub, you need a wrench for the axle locknuts and a cone wrench to fit the cone To tighten the hub, hold the cone in place with the cone wrench and tighten the locknut with your other wrench Only the locknut should move; if the cone is moving, it could press against the bearings and damage them To loosen the hub, loosen the locknut If only a small adjustment is needed in the hub, you can adjust the locknut and cone on just one side of the bike Whenever you adjust the hubs of a wheel that uses quick releases, leave the cones just a little loose Tightening the quick release will apply extra pressure to the bearings and take that little wiggle out when clamped in the frame Be sure to check the adjustment once the wheel is clamped into the bike

Wheels are an amazing feat of engineering a handful of thin spokes woven together to provide enough structural integrity to support the weight of a rider going across various types of surfaces To accomplish this feat, the spokes must be laced to the wheel in just the right pattern and tensioned evenly across the wheel This aspect makes working on spokes a slightly complicated affair for a beginner But with some practice, you can master some basic techniques and that s what this section is about

Replacing a spoke is manageable and a good place to get started If you do end up needing to replace a broken spoke, take it with you to your bike store so that you can replace it with another spoke of the same size and width Keep in mind that the spokes on your wheels are probably of different sizes In many cases, front-wheel spokes are not the same length as rear-wheel spokes The same is likely true for spokes on the right side of the wheel hub versus the left side Here s how to replace a spoke: 1 Insert the new spoke into the spoke hole from the broken spoke you removed from the hub You may need to remove the wheel from the bike to perform this procedure (see Taking off a wheel, earlier in this chapter) 2 Weave the spoke through the other spokes, following the same pattern, crossing and interweaving the same number of spokes as the others 3 If the old nipple (the nut part that the spoke threads into) is undamaged and still in place, thread the end of the new spoke into it If the nipple is damaged, you ll need to remove the tire, tube, and rim tape to replace the damaged nipple with a new one 4 So that you don t lose track of the spoke, mark it with a piece of tape or string 5 Using a spoke wrench, tighten the spoke to the same tension as the other spokes 6 To finish the procedure, true the rest of the wheel (see the following section)