the 'there's no such thing as a stupid question' bike maintenance thread

Does your shifter cable run underneath your bottom bracket shell? I had an issue before where the cable guide got blocked with shîte from the road, shifting became quite unreliable

I find when wearing gloves if I tip off the up shifter when trying to downshift at all then there zero action on the shifter until the second press

Of absolutely no benefit, but if they're that hard to get on, is there any chance you punched the tube while installing?

I’ve found in the past that this is usually a result of something blocking the little metal paddle that’s moved by the black plastic finger paddle you press to shift to a harder gear at the rear.

Make sure the path is clear of the hood/a stray bit of bartape or dirt. And if there’s no visible obstruction, flush the area with wd40 or similar

On a cold day a few years ago, i had an issue with a freehub. the grease was frozen and prevented the pawls from moving, which left me with no drive. I bounced the bike a few times and they engaged and this got me home. My point is the cold can cause things to stick/not work and then the next day...they work and don't give any other issues.

Mind you, it could also be a frayed cable inside the shifter, so if your cables are a year or more old, id replace them anyway.

They're definitely not jammed. The cables seem fine - replaced 18 months ago and I don't really use this bike during the summer. Both levers work fine - it's just that every now and then when I press the 'tension release' paddle (of either shifter), it moves like it isn't connected to anything. Press it a second time and it shifts perfectly. It started when I moved to full winter gloves so I'm thinking it's possible the colder temperature that causes it - that or the bulky gloves but I can't really see how they would affect the lever action....?

It's not a massive problem - just something I've noticed and the engineer in me becomes obsessed with stuff like this 🙄

I have an Ultegra 6800 RH Lever that does exactly the same thing - try to shift down and it doesn't catch the mechanism. I wonder if there's a lever arm worn down or something that isn't catching? You can achieve the same thing by moving the brake lever in a fraction then trying to shift with the little lever, and it'll move without engaging - that'll give anyone who isn't experiencing it an idea of how it feels.

I’ve known saddle shells to fracture on the underside but that would be obvious if you were to press down or sit on it.

I suppose they do wear over time but I’m currently running Selle Italia SLRs from the mid ‘00s with countless kms and they’re still going strong, albeit discolored and scuffed.

Was the bike comfortable on the turbo in the past? Maybe you could switch the saddle from your comfortable bike onto the uncomfortable one and see if that does the trick.

I'll give it a watch. Getting the saddle on the ebike was a huge pain for some reason (probably just my fat fingers!) so I think I'll just take both bikes outside for back to back spins and see if anything stands out. Not sure why I'm having issues now but definitely seems the flatness of the SLR TM Superflow helps, not sure if it's the wider cutout or just better size but it also seems to fit nicer. I'll measure tilt on and off the turbo to see if there's a difference to account for. I wouldn't mind but I'm only on the turbo for 20-30 minutes!

Everything in my garage was covered in condensation on Saturday too. I don't know whether you could get that much water vapour into a frame though?

I thought I'd follow up on this as I bought a tyre jack to go with a set of Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus 35c. Anyone who knows the Marathon Plus knows how stubborn they are to go on. I could barely even get a tube in with the new tyres because they were so out of shape. When I finally got to the last section of tyre the jack was a big help. Had to do it in small sections but it went on no hassle. Wish I knew about this years ago...