Mechanics and Fixing Any Questions Answered

My first time with hydraulic. Which bolts do you mean?

The two attaching the caliper to the brake mount.

Better still, take the pads out, align the caliper over the rotor by eyeballing it, put the pads back in

Not sure about eyeballing it without the pads, never tried that...

But loosening the mounting bolts and grabbing the brake before tightening them again usually does the trick, sometimes it needs a little adjustment after that.

This is the way. The 'squeeze the lever and tighten back up' works OK if your pistons are equally loose, but one slightly stickier piston will throw it off and you'll be in rub city.

The correct action in that case is to ensure the pistons aren't sticking.

More a shed question.. not bikes

I am planning to DIY Japanese ShouSugi Ban technique on reclaimed planks to finish off my cladding

I have 13kg propane gas bottle, regulator, burner, hose, jubilee clips, metal stands, flameproof gloves, 30mm wrench and prepare some gas leak solution. Definitely not the traditional method, no doubt loads of practice runs required with off cuts

different wood species char in different ways, so it’ll be pot luck and probably very varied results, the planks will also vary in deep by a few mil.. which will make the door jambs interesting, but I have a solution for that too. Any creosote on planks I will plane off, hopefully just the edges and ends to deal with

The plan is to deeply char plank front faces, edges and ends before fixing to vertical battens. Then preserve the planks with clear sealer to finish

Any tips from the forum before I burn down the garden fences and half built shed..

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Do you want tripod recommendations for your phone to ensure top quality video capture of the resulting carnage?

Yes please… 🤣🤣🤣 also needs HQ sound for when the gas bottle explodes, so phone upgrade required too

Cane Creek shims are supposed to be good.

I'm also a shim in the Stanton to run a poxy-looking 27.2 dropper because the proper sized OneUp dropper had issues when clamped with enough force to hold it in place. The 27.2 with shim works better.

Hello oh wise mechanics

Fitted a new 11-32t and as you can see the derailleur has trouble engaging.

Pretty sure this is a medium cage so does this mean I need to get a long cage? Also assuming that I need to add some links to my chain as it looks a bit toooight or would the long cage sort that out? Or (ideally) do I just need to add a few links and turn the limit screw a bit?

Thanks in advance

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Tried the B-screw?

Yeah, add more links.

Might or might not need a new RD.

@pifko I haven't tried the b-screw - one of those things that terrifies me for no reason - but sounds like I need to be brave.
@coventry_eagle cool, I'll try that. I was a bit perplexed by thinking I might need a long cage RD for a 11-32t cassette.

you'll definitely need to adjust the b screw if you've fitted a larger cassette.

32 should need a medium/long cage but you might well get away with it. I just fitted a short cage etap mech with a 30t on my wife's bike and it works fine

Is there anyway to figure out if some specialized cranks I have are power spline or ISIS bb?

Depends on the RD. I ran 32T cassettes quite happily on short cage Di2 RDs.

I haven't tried the b-screw - one of those things that terrifies me for no reason

Screw it in and watch the RD move backwards, away from the cassette. It's pretty self-explanatory.

You need the RD to clear the teeth. If the B-screw isn't in far enough, the jockey wheel teeth will clash with the cassette teeth. I normally aim for 1mm gap between teeth on the road (sometimes more if I'm running a silly cassette and need to take up slack when chain is on the 11T).

SRAM has some funky tool to set it.

power spline or ISIS

Powerspline has 12 splines, ISIS has 10

HQ sound for when the gas bottle explodes

Think your best bet would be an external microphone, maybe a shure MV88+ then you can record in stereo (get the extra wind jammer its worth it). Remember to turn the limiter on in the app 👍 :-)

Any creosote on planks I will plan off, hopefully just the edges and ends to deal with

By the time you've planed through the creosote affected zone, there will be no plank left. It's an absorbed treatment, not a coating. You need to base your safety plan on the assumption that you'll be burning creosote.

OK, thanks, simple as that!

And a quick count up tells me it's f-ing octalink!!!!

Safety first of course, but thank you for your post. I will share results back here for anyone interested.

I suspect the creosote will be like fuel to the flame, I will have safety plan.. hopefully I get a decent charred finish, rather than the mess found in chimney stacks

@hippy ok that's good to hear on the RD. I thought it was gonna be overkill to get a long cage, so fingers crossed!
@fredtc cheers for that, good to hear that it worked on your wife's bike. I'll try and see how much and if I need to lengthen the chain!

The Shimano BR8070 disc brake calipers on my bike have developed the retaining bolt problem, where the bolt thread has seized and the (aluminium) bolt head is so soft that trying to apply any force with a flat headed screwdriver just removes material. Shimano obviously recognised this as a problem as the second generation come with a hex bolt instead of a slotted head.

Has anyone else experienced this, as it is quite common apparently, and if so, how did you remove the bolts?