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_Troy_
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PostPosted: 19:45 - 10 Feb 2013    Post subject: New bike + some questions Reply with quote

Hello cycling forum, I'm new here.

I've bought myself a bike, mainly for just cheap transport, but also because I live close to some lovely countryside, so fancy some cross country rides.

I have no money at the moment, so have bought the cheapest bike I could find. If I take to the sport and dabble in some downhill, I'll get a better bike some time.

The bike works fine, except there is no chain. Anyone know what sort of chain I need, or any recommendations? Does anyone also know how much somewhere like halfords would charge to fit it? (I don't have the tools)

Oh and the forks have no real movement in them. It hasn't been used in a while, so assume it just needs a good service?

I'll likely have loads more questions, so apologies in advance for that Mr. Green

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8385/8462540388_c376f6aee8_c.jpg

Oh and I know its not a great bike, but for the price I paid I'm surprised it isn't in bits.
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G
The Voice of Reason



Joined: 02 Feb 2002
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PostPosted: 20:32 - 10 Feb 2013    Post subject: Re: New bike + some questions Reply with quote

Chains are generally based on the number of sprockets at the back - so count them up. I'm not that up on it, but 9 and 10 speeds have separate chains each. Think 8 might generally be it's own one, then 7 and below use the same.
Some chains don't require any tools - if you do need the tool, you'll be able to get it for less than the fuel/bus/food to get to halfords, never mind what they'd charge.

As for the forks - leave them as they are for the road, I'd say. After my town bike got nicked, I've been riding around on a cheap heavy full suspension bike with seized forks. No problem at all for the road.

Likely it'd cost you more to do anything to those forks than to buy new ones.

I'd worry a little that your bike was made from stolen parts - half decent pedals and a disc rear wheel on a cheap frame. Handle bars don't look to match either.
Might just be stuff got chucked on when it started to break, of course.
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_Troy_
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PostPosted: 20:41 - 10 Feb 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the help G.

How can you tell the pedals are expensive? Any thing else look out of place?

The guy I bought from had other bikes, so I assumed this was just a fix with what ever kinda bike. I only paid £15, so its not like he's making any money on it.

I'll have a look at doing the chain myself then I think. Nearest bike shop isn't close, and I don't fancy walking it for miles.
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G
The Voice of Reason



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PostPosted: 20:46 - 10 Feb 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Had a quick look and you can get a tool on ebay for £2.29 delivered.

They look like a DMR style pedal - which would probably cost around £30 minimum. Though, not a great expert on these either - definitely look better than you'd expect for that bike.

In the end, if it is made from nicked parts, not much you can do, prove etc anyway.
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_Troy_
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PostPosted: 20:59 - 10 Feb 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

G wrote:
Had a quick look and you can get a tool on ebay for £2.29 delivered.

They look like a DMR style pedal - which would probably cost around £30 minimum. Though, not a great expert on these either - definitely look better than you'd expect for that bike.

In the end, if it is made from nicked parts, not much you can do, prove etc anyway.


I did think that when I saw them, and obviously noticed the disc on the back. Hopefully it's not made from stolen parts, but nothing I can do about it really anyway.

Oh I need some new grips. Or at least want some, the ones on there are quite worn. Anyone had any experience with the cheap Chinese lock ons from eBay?
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KLR600
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PostPosted: 22:32 - 10 Feb 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can get DMR clones for £13 brand new so I wouldn't worry too much:

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=563

The plastic pedals that come with bikes at this price range often break quite catastrophically so I wouldn't be too suspicious about what look like unbranded metal pedals.

If the guy had a load of bikes then it's probably just a bitsa, the bars and stem look fairly matched to the bike although I suspect the original bars would have been black. They're not high end bars though. There are people in Manchester that buy up loads of broken old bikes, make working bikes out of all the broken ones and sell them really cheap to students so perhaps the guy had that kind of venture going on.

Not saying it's definitely not stolen though, have a look and see if any frame numbers have been ground/filed off - They're usually found on the bottom of the bottom bracket shell.

Cheap chain tools are almost disposable but I doubt you'll need to use it more than a couple of times at most so £2.29 for a chain tool seems perfectly reasonable.

I'd avoid Halfords working on your bike at all costs, even for simple jobs. There's bound to be a decent bike shop near to you and fitting a chain is a 10 minute job at most. I bet if you got a chain (£20 at most?) from a decent shop they'd even fit it for free.

Even if you manage to make those forks work properly again it won't be long before they seize up again. As G says, they'll be fine for the road. If you end up getting into some off road stuff come back and ask us again for fork recommendations!

EDIT: Lock on grips can be had for less than £10 from the UK too, no point going all Chinese!:

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=36970

Or these if you're feeling flush, proper good these ones too:

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=441
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_Troy_
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PostPosted: 23:29 - 10 Feb 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cheers for all that, very helpful.

I'll do a check for frame numbers and such, and will go over the bike fully tomorrow. Didn't get a chance today in the rain.

I've seen some Superstar grips that get good reviews, and they can be had for under a tenner.

There is a decent bike shop round here, but its a bit of a walk. Might ring them in the morning and see what they can do. I'm happy to do it myself, but don't really want to wait for eBay to send me the tool.

Are seized forks useless then? No way to free them up a little? Not really bothered, as the majority of riding will be road anyway, but some suspension would be nice. I'd probably not want to splash out on forks, but if you have any recommendations for seriously budget ones, let me know.
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cagiva gezzer
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PostPosted: 23:32 - 10 Feb 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

They look like cheap suntor forks I've got on the GF's bike. I pulled one spring out to make them more lively.

Cheap forks are best left alone as they granade when disturbed.
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KLR600
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PostPosted: 23:47 - 10 Feb 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not so sure. I've taken apart cheap forks in the past, greased what I thought needed greasing and cleaned what was obviously not supposed to look rusty orange and put them back together and regained some degree of functionality. Like I said though, it wasn't too long before I was back to square one with seized forks.

If you're feeling brave then take them apart. Just be careful you don't get a spring in the eye socket and try and be as methodical about it as possible. You might need tools like circlip pliers and really long allen keys but budget forks aren't usually too bad to work on.

_Troy_ wrote:
but if you have any recommendations for seriously budget ones, let me know.


You'll be back to square one in no time but will be £50 (for example) lighter for the trouble, there's really not much point in my opinion. I'm not saying that as someone who wouldn't think twice about spending £1,000 on a set of downhill forks either (well, if I had the money!). I buy most of my parts second hand and I haven't once come across a decent pair of second hand forks for under £90. (I say £90 instead of a £100 as I got a pair of Marzocchi Monster T's for £95 on pinkbike once, they are amazing!).

EDIT: (damn my keenness to reply...) I'd definitely rather take a bit of a walk (you can cycle back!) to a decent bike shop than have a Halfords monkey working on my bike and no doubt break more things than they fix.

I do this exact thing quite often as well actually. There's a big Halfords about a quarter of a mile away from me and I only ever go there if I know they definitely have what I need in stock and it's the cheapest I can get it. There's a great bike shop about 4 miles away across town and that's where I go for anything that I can't do. I needed a specific bottom bracket tool for taking an old BB out of a frame not so long ago and I didn't want to buy the tool for £15 to only use it once. I took a walk to the shop and they took it out for free as I'd already taken the cranks off!
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G
The Voice of Reason



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PostPosted: 00:13 - 11 Feb 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

For the road riding, seized is actually nicer - cheap forks can bob horribly and sap your pedalling power; so might be better that way Smile.
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