The "Maintenance Issue", Two of many more to come.

Robbe Smith
September 25, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

In partnership with

Ease into investing

Ease being the key word. With automated tool like portfolio rebalancing and dividend reinvestment, Betterment makes investing easy for you, and a total grind for your money.

Get started

In today’s send I’m going to talk about some more basic maintenance. This week I will cover the cassette cleaning and maintenance. I will also the crankset and bottom bracket.

I wanted to talk a little about tools. I have a use tools from a variety of sources. Some of those sources are expensive, but some are very affordable. I want a quality tool, and sometimes I need to pay for that quality while other times I can get good quality at a bargain. When it comes to recommending tools I will almost always default to Park Tools. They are the gold standard for bike tools. That said, they have great quality tools, and they also have a lot of great overpriced quality tools. In many cases you can find a tool of equal quality for 50-75% of the cost of the Park tool.

In the meantime, this newsletter is sponsored by Betterment.

Maintenance: Part 3, the cassette.

The cassette is another really important part of your drivetrain. For the most part outside of cleaning they are not a high touch component. Keeping them clean is easy, especially if you follow my tips on keeping your chain clean. Your cassette won’t be covered in dirty grease.

I will start with a brush like the Muc-Off Claw Brush. You can also get them as part of a larger brush set like Muc-Off 5 Piece Brush Set. If the cassette is a little dirtier than normal, or I just want it super clean, I will use a spray bike cleaner like this Muc-Off Cleaner. Don’t be like me and wait fifteen years into my cycling habit to try a product like this. They work great with or without water. After I spray the cassette I use the brush to get in all the nooks and crannies to clean everything out. If needed I will rinse it with water. When using water to clean your bike less is always better. The pressure should never be more than a watering can. Water from a hose can and wll wash away grease in places where it needs to be. You will save yourself time and frustration later by avoiding the hose.

If you really want to scrub it, you can take it off the wheel with a few basic bike tools. Even if you never take a cassette off to clean, knowing how to install and remove them is a good skill to have if you ever need to tighten or change your cassette. You will need a chainwhip and a cassette lock-ring tool. You will need to remove the wheel from the bike. The lock-ring tool will go over the axle inside the smallest cog on the cassette. The chainwhip will be used to hold the cassette still. Loosening the cassette is the same direction it spins on it’s own. The chainwhip keeps it from spinning. Once the ring if off, lift all the cogs off, spray, and scrub them. A SRAM XD cassette doesn’t have a lock-ring, and it will come off as one piece. A traditional cassette can only go back on one way. There are splines on the cassette body that need to fit into the slots on the cassette cogs. They literally will only go on one way. Stack them largest to smallest. Apply a little grease to the lock-ring threads. I find using a small applicator brush helps a lot. I don’t waste grease, and it keeps my hands cleaner. Use the lock-ring tool to tighten it back down. The lock-ring will bottom out, but you don’t need to get there for it to stay tight. From there, just put the wheel back in, and you can admire your work

Bike I’m Eyeing: Specialized Stumpjumper 15 Alloy

Here’s why…..it the newest bike from Specialized that’s now avaliable in aluminum. It also has ports for a wired rear derailleur which the carbon counterpart doesn’t have Check out Loam Wolf’s write up.

Stumpjumper 15 Alloy

Maintenance: Part 4, crankset and bottom bracket.

There are dizzying number of bottom bracket and crankset standards. I have five or six different bottom bracket tool, and they are all industry standards. Industry standards are supposed to make things easier. In some ways they do, but it can lead to confusion because there are so many. For the sake of simplicity I am going to talk about SRAM cranks with an external threaded bottom bracket. For a while the industry was going towards internal press fit bottom brackets. In theory it works, but in reality it created creaky, hard to service, etc. Most new bikes are coming with threaded ones again. I had one bike with a press fit bottom bracket. Any benefit was outweighed by the drawbacks.

There are several use cases for removing the cranks and bottom bracket. They could be a new chain ring, bottom bracket, chasing down a creak etc.

I chose SRAM cranks here because their self-extracting bolts work the same way as a lot of other manufacturers like Race Face, E-13, Praxis and Cane Creek. Shimano has their own system. I can see benefits to both, and both work as designed.

SRAM cranks are two piece. The driveside crank arm and chainring and one park, and the spindle and non-drive side crank are the other piece. When the two pieces are joined on install they create a super tight bond. You can’t break it free by pulling on it or any other use of force. The self-extracting bolts come into play here. Once you break the bolt free, it will get hard to turn again. That is the self extracting part doing it’s job of breaking the two pieces apart. You will be most likely using an 8mm hex key(Cane Creek is the exception), and you will spin the bolt counter clockwise when facing the drive side of the bike. Once the bolt is out(it will stay in the crank arm), pull the non-drive side arm and spindle out of the bottom bracket. A mallet might be needed to get it started. Once the cranks are off you can swap out chainrings or just give them a good cleaning.

The SRAM DUB cranks use a standard tool that is use on most external 30mm spindle bottom brackets even though the DUB spindle is 29.6mm. To install or remove the bottom bracket cups you will need a bottom bracket tool. This one is specific to a 16 notch external bottom bracket. Before you remove the cups check the bearings for rough or crunchy feeling movement. Put your finger on the bearing, and spin it. If it’s bad you will feel it. Bearings that are a little crunchy can still function reasonably well, but they will need to be replaced sooner than later. If it it’s relly crunchy and rough you will want to put the new bottom bracket it. To remove the cups, spin the drive side cup counter clockwise, and the non-drive side clockwise. Clean the threads on the cups qnd the frame. Apply a thin layer of grease, and spin the cups back in. Be careful to not cross thread the two. You should be able to get them close to fully tight by hand. If you have to use much more force, something is off. Both cups will bottom out. Snug them down with the tool. The cranks the go back on. When joing the two pieces make sure they are straight. If they are off it will be obvious. Use the 8mm allen to tighten them down. They will hit bottom too. Once the cranks are as tight as they can be, you can still get side to side play in them. There will be a preload lockring on the non-drive side crank arm. Spin it until it’s snug to eliminate the play.