Mechanics and Fixing Any Questions Answered

The Decathalon "chain whip" is the best tool out there bar none !

Thanks very much @Netakure and @Foreigner65 - I appreciate your input! 👍

My cable cutter has disappeared.

I went looking to the local DIY store for something similar.
Wouldn't the big cable crimpers with V shapped jaws do the job?
The opening of the V is almost 5mm.
Or should I stick to the ParkTool one?

I have these

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TOOOCC/on-one-cable-cutter

which are brilliant

Park tool cable cutter is great, way better than my colleagues Jagwire yellow ones, and another (can’t remember which) budget brand I tried.

Knipex is often the answer, although if yours disappeared maybe stay with the Park.

Thanks all ,
looks like I' m going back to Park Tool.

Thanks all ,
looks like I' m going back to Park Tool.
The Decathlon chain wip recommended above looks excellent too.

Definitely get the Park Tool cutters - I’d say to shop around / try alternatives on a lot of tools, but not on cutters. You want properly clean cuts, and nothing matches the Park ones for that.

Park tool cutters and Decathlon chain whip would be my choice for the two tools.

Ok, not sure where else to ask this question. I want to put a carbon fork on my surly midnight special. the fork has an integrated headset crown race with a 36 degree contact angle bearing.

The bike currently has a Gusset headset which I don't really want to replace, but it seems impossible to find out that the angle contact is for my current headset, everything I've found seems to refer to the outside angle of the headset (45 degrees)

Can I assume that all headset have a 36degree contact ? this is bikes after all where there are no standards.

Are there no marking on the current headset bearings?

Inspect the existing bearing inner contact surface and the crown race. Make a template with a bit of cardboard and a protractor. You'll be able to see if it's 36 or 45 degree.

Anyone know where I can get ball end inner brake cables in central London? Was fixing up mates bike and his brakes need this odd cable I'd not seen before.

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This is nasty.... but you can easily file the barrel shaped ends down to be a ball, it's quite soft material.

Ha did one of these the other day. The supplied gusset lower cup reduces frame from 1.5 to 1.125", steel fork is also 1.125". So if putting a carbon taper fork in you'll need a different lower cup.

Had this for donkeys, so good. Has survived around 5 years constant daily use in a workshop which is testament to it.
Think its made by unior for decathlon.

I'm about to replace the freehub on a 3 year old Hunt rear wheel, mainly because it looks mighty hard to remove the freehub bearings without specific tools, I can swap the freehub myself without a bike shop involved, and there are a few bite marks on the freehub splines anyway.

Questions is, is there anything I can do to help reduce water ingress in future?

Yeah, thanks. I can't believe I forgot that the fork was 1.125" So I'm going to need a new lower headset cup whatever I do.

In your experience is there a standard to the inside of the bearing angle with the crown race ? I'd be better off finding a fork which doesn't a have an integrated crown race wouldn't I.

Twat a load of grease on it, but not loads on the pawls and that.

Check the seal is correctly installed and grease it. The problem is waterproof grease will make the pawls, or ratchet, sticky.
Even if you cannot replace the bearings you can pop the seal out with a knife and pack a bit more grease.

Should be straight forward, most of them just held on with an o-ring/friction against the axle.

If you have rapidly failing main bearing or freehub bearing (and its hard to drift out/press back in a new bearing) then you are one of the many with badly toleranced hub. Have two of them in front of me right now.
It goes...
Bike shop notices a bad bearing, replaces it at cx cost, or cx sends wheel back to 'hunt'. Comes back with a weird undersize bearing to fix problem, which disintegrates within 3 months. Cycle repeats.
Most of them are fine, but noticed a trend that loads of the bores are too tight and it binds on the cart bearing causing premature failure. Hunt deny there is a problem.
Repeat.

What brand hubs do hunt use?

Novatec I believe

I'm using an 11spd Ultegra road chain with SRAM Force 11spd x1 system and its noisy AF. It's not the derailleur position rubbing.

Am I doing something wrong or is it not a happy combo? The chain rings are X Sync so are quite chunky teeth.