So I rebuild the fork on my bike periodically. Not as often as I should, but I've done it a bunch of times.

So a few weeks ago, I was way overdue, so I did a full service. Well not internal O rings but new seals no fluids etc. Cleaned it all out etc.

The lowers were all clean, new foamies installed, new seals. Foam was soaked in new oil, seals were freshly greased up. But when I went to put them on, they seemed to bind up. In a way I've never experienced before. I had to push really hard to get them on. Then I finished the reassembly and put the fork back on. It was working, but it was kind of sticky. It wasn't super plush like they usually are after a rebuild.

At this point, I figured one of the foam rings must have gotten pinched and caught between the stanchions and the bushings in the lowers.

Over time it loosened up a little bit but last night I took it apart again to fix it.

This is where things got very strange. There were some small pieces of chewed up foam rings that came out with the oil. BUT when I examined the rings themselves, they were not chewed up or mangled at all. They looked to be in basically perfect condition.

So new foam rings, new oil in the lowers, new grease, and the lowers slipped right on and now the fork feels good and plush. But I'm still not clear on exactly what happened. If pieces of foam came from the the previous service, they would have been super obvious. I removed the seals and the original foam and cleaned the insides of the lowers. I would have noticed chunks of foam sticking around in there. And yet..... last night, there they were.

Note - it may not look like it in the video, but those chunks are definitely pieces of foam. I picked them up and smooshed them and they were clearly torn up foam.

I bought these Elite carbon gravel wheels from AliExpress quite a while ago, and at the time I probably didn’t notice that they came with a Shimano ROAD HG freehub.
My bike has a Shimano GRX RX820 1x12 groupset. My DT Swiss wheelset uses a Micro Spline freehub with a Shimano 12 speed cassette, so that cassette does not fit the Elite wheel.
I want to keep both wheelsets complete, each with its own cassette, because I want to use different tire widths depending on the ride.
So I see two possible options:
Replace the Elite HG freehub body with a compatible Micro Spline freehub body, then use another Shimano 12 speed cassette.
Keep the current HG freehub and use a different brand 12 speed cassette that fits HG, but still works properly with the Shimano GRX RX820 1x12 drivetrain.
Is either option possible? And if I keep the HG freehub, which cassette brands/models would you recommend for good shifting compatibility with GRX 12 speed?
Photos attached. Thanks!
Btw i know there is too much grease on the free hub, so dont worry I removed a lot of it ;)

Tires too wide or is the wheel out of true? Slowly swapping parts on my first project and wider tires are rubbing on one side of the rear chain stay. To me it looks like if the wheel was centered then it would be tight, but it would fit. It has an old drum break so I’m not sure if that changes anything. Any ideas appreciated!

Tubeless newbie here! My rear wheel has been leaking sealant from the tire/rim interface during rides, but has been holding sufficient air despite that - until today, where it went flat. No significant air loss overnight when sitting still. Took the tire off and inspected rim tape (came with the wheels). In several places, the tape is 1-2 mm from the side wall next to the bead bed, and I wonder if that has caused the issue. Tire bead appeared to be seated. I would be really interested to hear what you guys think.

Tire: GP5000 S TR 28 mm

Tape: DT Swiss 25 mm

Sealant: Silca Ultimate w Injectable Fiber Foam

Hello all. I wanted your opinion on my pedal clearance on my Jamis Ventura 57cm, as a noob. I was having slipping issues on my basic pedals I had, and did just put more of an mtb style in to save cost. I have not ridden with them just yet. Im not sure if I was having issues with striking, and it might just be the slippage but a few times it felt like my front toe got caught and began to be pulled under. I was gifted this bike and wanted to see your opinions on if the pedals were sitting too low or this is a typical size for road biking? I’m 5, 11” for reference. Sorry if the pics are silly, the first one with the can is the bike standing up straight.

If it is sitting too low, what are my best options?

I use the same tyres that came with.the bike and this happened :(

Really shitty video but bike started making this noise after I changed the front derailleur cable. No chain rub on the cage. Just a crazy noise I can’t pinpoint. Any help is appreciated!

I have a Cannondale CAAD13 with a mechanical Shimano 105 11-speed drivetrain (50/34, 11-30). I recently changed the stock wheelset to a new Zipp 404 Firecrest, while keeping the same cassette.

Since the wheel change, I have a strange issue: under high load (standing and accelerating/climbing) in 50x11 only, the chain climbs off the outside of the big chainring. At normal power it runs fine. It seems to derail at the same points on the chainring each time, and there are now visible marks/damage at two areas of the big ring, roughly opposite each other.

Things the bike shop and I have already tried/checked:
- Rear derailleur adjusted several times and hanger alignment checked with an alignment tool – straight.
- Front derailleur adjusted, including setting it very close to prevent an outward drop – chain can still come off.
- Original 50T chainring replaced with a new one – no improvement.
- Chain checked – apparently fine.
- Original 105 R7000 11-30 cassette temporarily replaced with an Ultegra 11-28 – exact same problem in 50x11.
- Zipp freehub inspected and regreased – nothing obviously wrong.
- Crank/chainline moved about 2 mm outward using the existing crank spacers to improve the chainline towards the 11T cog – still drops.
- Under load I can also hear some drivetrain rubbing/rattling in several of the smaller rear cogs.

The bike worked normally before fitting the Zipp wheel. The problem appeared after the wheel change.
The chain only drops when I put substantial power through it, so it is difficult to reproduce on a workstand. Both I and the mechanic can reproduce it on the road.

At this point I’m wondering about cassette/freehub position or movement under load, chainring/spider/crank runout or flex, or something else that only appears under high torque. My next thought is to reinstall the original rear wheel as an A/B test.

What would you check next? And does the fact that it always seems to climb off at the same locations on the chainring point towards anything specific?

This got damaged in a ride a couple of days ago. The chain broke, and the right side of the frame where it connects to the rear wheel got bent as shown in the photos here.

There is a spot that I first thought was broken, but the latter two images here and the feel of it seem to indicate that it's only the paint.

I'm wondering if this is fixable. I can try to bend it back, but don't know if that would be worth my while. Should I even bother, or would it be too weakened after doing so?

Hey everyone

So i got my first real roadbike a month and a half ago which is a canyon aeroad CF SLX 7 di2 2027 model, since then i have had 5 punctures all been due to something getting stuck in the tyre and all being on the rear tyre, i havent had any pinch flats. I am riding on Conti aero 111 26mm on the front and a GP 5000 S TR 28mm on the rear. I am a quite heavy rider being 192 cm tall and weighing 96kg. Is it common to experience this many punctures and would tubeless solve my issues as i am quite annoyed by having to fix so many roadside punctures.

Thanks in advance (just got home after puncturing yet again:(( )

Was given this bike - super stoked until i realized the front fork is stuck. Anyway to fix this?

Hey! I am trying to fix my fork. It’s loose. I can see the bearing. There are cables running through it.
All the screws are screwed to tork including the one going down from the top. But I feel like the cap where the cables enter is not correctly on. But I can’t seem to get it on correctly…

Any ideas?

I have an old (2010) Specialized Rockhopper that I’m slowly converting into more of a gravel/adventure bike.

The fork is a Rockshox Dart 3 that has 80mm of travel, has never been serviced, and honestly doesn’t work too well.

I’m considering either replacing it with a newer air fork (Rockshox Recon, Manitou Markhor), or saving money and weight and go rigid instead.

Rigid forks that would work seem pretty rare, all I’ve found so far is the Steel Surly Krampus or Carbon Ritchey WCS. Does anyone have any leads on other forks that would work?

On the other hand, is the ~2.5+ lbs of weight savings even worth giving up the suspension for mainly road/gravel/smooth singletrack riding? My rigid 29er fatbike feels more plush, but it has 4.8” tires to help with that.

Pertinent specs:
1-1/8” threadless straight headset
9x100mm QR axle
Axle to Crown 484mm
Post-Mount disc brake
160mm disc brake diameter

Backstory, running a Fred Bar on top of my stem.. With my OEM Trek compression plug, the lower half of the stem is no longer supported. So I fired up the old google machine, and tbh was surprised in the lack of "normal" cycling brands offering for 60-90mm length compression plugs.

So I grabbed a 90mm no-name cheap one to try it out, and find it really only expands from the top end...the lower end has a smaller ramp, and while it does extend a bit, it stops well before the top end does... So, I am not sure it's really doing any good this way. Or do they all act this way, really only expanding from "the top"?

I did find Pro offers a 50 (or 58mm, depending on the listing) long plug, and Cane Creek offers a 46mm (net 38) one. I suppose I don't actually need 90mm, as my stem plus Fred bar is 56mm total, with a 1mm spacer in between. So like a 50-60 would be plenty?, I was thinking of the Pro, although tbh it looks just like the no name one I bought off Amazon, since no local dealer carries something like this it seems :(

Any suggestions for other brand? I saw the Specialized also but it appears the lower part doesn't actually provide any support at all, it's just a filler

Just bought a used sl and rd m8000 off fb but just realized that the shifter doesn’t go below 8th. From the videos they just blast wd 40 into the lube port which I think this has but I’ve also heard people saying to never use wd 40 on your bike, any help would be appreciated. Did only buy both of these for 40 together so not so bummed but I’d like to fix the shifter somehow.

Got a salsa journeyer flat bar. I’m routing the brake lines for the first time and I routed the rear brake on the same side as the lever (right) but there’s port holes on the left. I assumed that was for the dropper or a FD.

I got the whole thing built and bled but for some reason the lines look off. as in they never cross eachother in front of the headtube. I then looked at all my bikes with external routing and they all cross.

Obviously it still brakes fine. I just thought it looked weird since it was the first time doing it myself and wondering if there’s any obvious safety issues by not routing it on the left exit port across the headtube into the right lever.

and for clarification for my setup:

Left lever/front brake: empty port on left downtube port exit. Front brake line runs straight into fork.

right lever/rear brake. hydraulic line on right downtube port exit and routes to rear brake.

Shifting is all wireless so no need for shift cables. Might run a cable dropper in the future.

Thought I was a total hero for getting GP5000S TRs onto my new deep carbon rims at home, without tire levers. Now I’m wondering if I’m an idiot and screwed!

I mounted the tires by placing my feet inside the rim, while sat down. Pull tire with hands and hold rim away with the feet on the opposite inside. Fairly easy to get the tire on. Excellent!

Except that I can’t get my disc brakes to stop rubbing occasionally as they go around. For both wheels it’s a very slight rub, twice per rotation. Enough on the rear to slow the wheel more than desired. The front is more a light brush, but it’s an annoying sound on both wheels.

I “measured” my wheels trueness using a credit card against the rim. Eyeballing it, the back rim is out by about 1mm (might be slightly more or less, I tried about 10x to measure it but couldn’t keep it steady). Weirdly the front rim I mounted/dismounted/remounted a tire whereas the rear I only mounted it, yet it seems the back is slightly worse.

1. is it possible or likely that I “pulled” my rims out of true?
2. is it fixable if that’s what happened?
3. should I just try to align the callipers with a business card as a disc/calliper spacer rather than get the rims trued?

edit: rotors installed after installing tires/cassette and weren’t touched

I have a 2020 Trek Émonda SL 6 Disc with an Ultegra groupset that I bought used last year. Since then, I haven't been able to get the front derailleur aligned.

I set the height, then the angle, then the L screw, and everything is fine up to that point. But when I go to set the H screw, I have to turn it in so far that it pushes the whole derailleur outward, which throws off the L setting. As it is, I essentially can't use the larger chainring without the chain rubbing on the derailleur.

I've included some photos, though I'm not sure which angles are the most helpful. Let me know if you need different ones. Please help!

I've tried searching and can only find posts about synchro shift and that's not my issue

When I'm in my granny gear things are normally fine. But when I start throwing a lot of torque (e.g. really steep hill) the RD shifts into the next smallest cog. I am fairly certain this is a shift and not the chain slipping. The gear selection updates on my head unit when this happens.

Im pretty I need to adjust the L or B screw but I'm not sure which one or which way

So I am replacing the cabels and cabel housings on my bike. I haven't done this before. I wanted to ask since the old cabel is exposed part way what would stop me from just adding an extra housing segment ? Is it a bad idea or would that be fine

I have coke (and other liquids), and a cheap ultrasonic cleaner.

The blue part got moved up and it no longer turns.

Any idea how to fix it?

The lower jockey wheel on my RD is very noisy. I was running a 105 RD, I changed the jockey wheels which didn’t help. I wanted to try the GRX 810 RD anyway so swapped that in. Even brand new I’m getting the same noise. Shifting is great and I’m happy with the adjustment throughout. It’s worst in the big cogs and much less noticeable in the small ones.

I do a lot of regular commuting miles. The rear cassette probably had about 8000km on it, the chain is fairly new <1000km. I’ve recently changed to squirt dry lube and am starting to wonder if that is to blame. Straight after lubing the sound is a bit better but then it comes back very quickly.

Grateful for any ideas.