Mechanics and Fixing Any Questions Answered

Aluminum track nuts might disagree with you, though it’s a rare thing.

Agreed, never had mine slip either. it makes you wonder why anyone sells them, however, I live out in the sticks and Oct - Nov is hedge cutting time as in Hawthorn and Blackthorn and I ride a lot in the dark. In case of a puncture I carry a short 15mm spanner with me with which I cannot get the same amount of torque on the nuts, hence a single chain tug on the drive side for peace of mind.

Sorry didn't reply to this at the time. Only just got round to working on the bike today. Sounds like that's what Ive done wrong so will see how this goes. Cheers!

Aluminum track nuts, didn't know they existed, surely a contradiction in terms. I've stripped alu threads with half the force I do my track nuts up with.
yak, what exactly did you do wrong? May have missed something here.

I’m sure they were never meant for the track, but the hubset I had were very nicely made, Cycroc is the company.

Just had a quick gander, some very odd-looking bikes there.

Wonder how it compares to the forces on the threads of an aluminium QR "acorn"

Saying that, I've had a pair for ages and don't think I'd be brave enough to put them on anything other than a balance bike.

Some Profile Racing hubs have aluminium bolts.

The mini velos? Good fun, easy to store in the smaller apartments in Asia where they were designed.

The frame I had by Sillgey had very slick integrated tugs that mitigated any stress that the alu nuts might encounter.

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Can confirm DMR ones will fit 8mm dropouts.

Will I need a longer chain when swapping from a 50t to a 52t front ring? (Road bike)

Probably yes

Will have a look, don't want to pay a lot though, I bought this bike on Ebay, I've done all the work on it myself including building a wheel without spending much at all. It's funny, you go out on a ride and carbon bikes with disc brakes and 50-60mm deep wheels are ubiquitous round here. My humble fixed has had so many comments from the aforementioned, the most common being "nice bike".

Not seen dropouts like that before, interesting.

grease the bolt threads

This was good advice, might have solved my problem. Thanks

No worries! Glad to hear it.

I think I have what's known as a sticky piston on my front GRX disc caliper.

On pressing the brake lever, the pistons do their thing and push the pads against the rotor, but then one of the pads doesn't retract all the way back... so rubbing.

I took everything apart, made sure both pistons were pressed fully home, reinstalled the pads and centred the caliper by eye before tightening the mounts. Pressed the brake lever to apply the pads against the disc, and released. Same piston/pad stays further out/over... so rubbing.

This is a sticky piston, right? And I can try to resolve it using brake cleaner? I am presuming internal seals are fine - this bike has very few miles on it.

(at the moment, I have the caliper centred allowing for the sticky piston but there is so little room that it took me ages and any slight deformity (talking half a mm) happening to the rotor will result in rubbing again - so I'd like to sort)

Take the pads out and squeeze the levers a few times, don't let the pistons pop out, but enough you can see about 5mm of the sides of them, you may need to hold the non sticky one in to encourage the other one. Clean it with isopropyl on a cotton bud on the sides, then apply a little mineral oil and push them in and out a few times, push them in and give everything a quick clean with isopropyl and try setting it up again.

Thank you!

And does it need to be Shimano mineral oil?

(I'm new to disc brakes, as you might have guessed!)

kona dew, circa 2010 ish.
the steerer is a bit rusted, and the headset cap isn't coming off.
I'd expect to see the split cone ring here right??
the middle area of the cap is metal, the cover is plastic. the plastic outer turns, but the inner ring stays stuck to the steerer.
done a bit of the hammer and block of wood routine, no effect.
any ideas?

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Nope, mineral oil is pretty much created equal. People have run their brakes on baby oil in the past, but any brake spec mineral oil should be fine.

It's a chamfer ring which sits on top of the top bearing cap.

I'll use lots of GT85 on it then hot water, push down the steerer with a handle bar attached to a stem and it sh should come off.

Resist the urge to hammer the steerer even with a sacrificial top cap, it might deform the top of the steerer and makes the headset removal even more difficult.

thanks, i'll try the penetrating oil + heat tomorrow.
what's throwing me is there's no split in the ring.

I've narrowed it down to 2011 kona dew, and the specs only say "CH" when it comes to the headset spec. trying to find a manual or something is not super easy as a result. does CH mean something?

Maybe the rust has increased the diameter of the steerer enough to stop the headset ring from sliding back up it. One thing that really eats rust is lemon juice. Fresh from a lemon is best.

So I'd get a cloth and try to remove what rust you can with normal degreaser/cleaner. You can also rub with an old knife, but be careful you don't remove steel. Then wipe it clean/dry, squeeze a lemon onto the steerer, let it sit for a minute. Squeeze another lemon over some wire wool and scrub the very lowest visible section of steerer. Tickle surface with old knife again to see what comes off, final scrub with wire wool, wipe clean, apply GT85 or WD40, attempt wooden block again.