Putting a cassette on a Giant bike

My wife's Giant bike - a mountain bike - has been designated
"uneconomical to repair" by local cycle shop. Can a new rear wheel be
fitted with a cassette which would give the bike more years of life?
Or is there another solution?

I'm handy with tools - is this a DIY job?

Failing that looking for good suggestions for a commuting bike in
London UK. She cycles about 6 miles every day.

`

Andy Evans

On Aug 8, 8:46*am, Andy Evans wrote:
My wife's Giant bike - a mountain bike - has been designated
"uneconomical to repair" by local cycle shop. Can a new rear wheel be
fitted with a cassette which would give the bike more years of life?
Or is there another solution?

What exactly is wrong with it? New rear wheels and new cassettes are
indeed commodity items and quick to fit. Cassettes do require a spline
tool and a chain whip to fit, whether or not they're worth purchasing
is up to you.

On Aug 8, 12:54 pm, landotter wrote:
On Aug 8, 8:46 am, Andy Evans wrote:

My wife's Giant bike - a mountain bike - has been designated
"uneconomical to repair" by local cycle shop. Can a new rear wheel be
fitted with a cassette which would give the bike more years of life?
Or is there another solution?

What exactly is wrong with it? New rear wheels and new cassettes are
indeed commodity items and quick to fit. Cassettes do require a spline
tool and a chain whip to fit, whether or not they're worth purchasing
is up to you.

I saw a DIY instructional lesson wherein the guy crammed several allen
wrenches into the cassette in lieu of the proper tool... he got 'er
done but I've sprung for the spliney thing myself.

There is a bike restoration forum on Yahoo. Peoples there spend way
more than an old bike is worth to fix up those stylish vintage jobs.
I don't think Giant ever has or ever will build something that could
be considered in that category tho. I hate to sound like one of those
elitist snobs, but these are cheap bikes from the specific rim to
start with, not the good old chicago steel .

If you care enough to scrounge around garage sales you can probably
find a much nicer bike to start your restoration project on, or quite
possibly a bike that is ready to after pumping up the tires and lubing
the chain for less than the parts for your Giant are gonna cost mail
order.

What exactly is wrong with it? New rear wheels and new cassettes are
indeed commodity items and quick to fit. Cassettes do require a spline
tool and a chain whip to fit, whether or not they're worth purchasing
is up to you.

I haven't actually seen it yet - my (ex) wife lives round the corner.
Will try and find out tomorrow. Andy

Andy Evans wrote:
My wife's Giant bike - a mountain bike - has been designated
"uneconomical to repair" by local cycle shop. Can a new rear wheel
be
fitted with a cassette which would give the bike more years of
life?
Or is there another solution?

I'm handy with tools - is this a DIY job?

Failing that looking for good suggestions for a commuting bike in
London UK. She cycles about 6 miles every day.

I'm a bit lost here. If all it needs is a new rear wheel and a
cassette, this isn't "uneconomical to repair" -- the bike shop gets
a wheel off the ones hanging up by the ceiling, pulls a cassette off
the shelf, puts in a few minutes installing said equipment on the
bike, and you're good to go. It's mostly parts. At the
low-but-usable end, this would be about $80 US (probably more now
with inflation and the dollar sinking).

Usually, things become "uneconomical to repair" because they need a
lot of labor. If this is the case, and if the skills required are
ones you have / can easily get, then repairing the bike is
reasonable.

What's wrong with the bike?

What's wrong with the bike?

I haven't seen the problem - my ex-wife lives round the corner.

Update - her second bike is a Claude Butler road bike which hasn't
been used for a good 2 years. Got it out and shop fitted new tyres,
but chain is slipping about every third rotation, and particularly on
the smaller gear wheels at the back - the large inner gear wheel works
fine. the chain was rusty and stiff, so I put some penetrating oil on
it with a spraycan. Still kind of jumps every third rotation. Bike is
a 5 speed from 60s. Anything I can do myself with a few tools? I have
the bike at home here. Andy

Andy Evans wrote:
What's wrong with the bike?

I haven't seen the problem - my ex-wife lives round the corner.

Update - her second bike is a Claude Butler road bike which hasn't
been used for a good 2 years. Got it out and shop fitted new
tyres,
but chain is slipping about every third rotation, and particularly
on
the smaller gear wheels at the back - the large inner gear wheel
works
fine. the chain was rusty and stiff, so I put some penetrating oil
on
it with a spraycan. Still kind of jumps every third rotation. Bike
is
a 5 speed from 60s. Anything I can do myself with a few tools? I
have
the bike at home here. Andy

OK, that's helpful. Somebody else will probably chime in as well.

My father in law had a Claude Butler he's now passed on to my
brother in law, and Claude clearly made some good bikes.

If the chain's slipping every third rotation of the cranks, this
sounds like about every 1 rotation of the chain. You said it was
rusty and stiff, and it's likely still stiff on one spot.. You might
be able to figure out which link is still stiff. The chain has to
make a sharper angle to get around the smaller gear wheel, which
would explain why it skips on the small wheel. But...

You can get a serviceable chain for a few bucks (I'm thinking $15 or
so); I'd just replace it. A chain tool is handy for getting the old
chain off, and any required shortening of the new chain to match the
length of the old chain.

In article ,
"ZBicyclist" writes:
Andy Evans wrote:
What's wrong with the bike?

I haven't seen the problem - my ex-wife lives round the corner.

Update - her second bike is a Claude Butler road bike which hasn't
been used for a good 2 years. Got it out and shop fitted new
tyres,
but chain is slipping about every third rotation, and particularly
on
the smaller gear wheels at the back - the large inner gear wheel
works
fine. the chain was rusty and stiff, so I put some penetrating oil
on
it with a spraycan. Still kind of jumps every third rotation. Bike
is
a 5 speed from 60s. Anything I can do myself with a few tools? I
have
the bike at home here. Andy

OK, that's helpful. Somebody else will probably chime in as well.

My father in law had a Claude Butler he's now passed on to my
brother in law, and Claude clearly made some good bikes.

If the chain's slipping every third rotation of the cranks, this
sounds like about every 1 rotation of the chain. You said it was
rusty and stiff, and it's likely still stiff on one spot.. You might
be able to figure out which link is still stiff.

This is where I'm gonna chime in. I've found stiff chain links
are easily detected by lifting the rear wheel off the ground
somehow, slowly backpedalling, and observing where the skip
occurs, indicated by the rear derailer making a little "hop"
each time the stiff link goes through it.

Stiff chain links can sometimes be loosened by gently wriggling
them side-to-side, thereby getting the sideplates to fall into
place. In my experience, stiff chain links are places where
the chain had previously been undone, and not properly
reconnected. The links are stiff because the overlapping
sideplates aren't quite parallel. No amount of lubrication
can fix that. When a chain is perfuntorily reconnected with
a chain tool, the pin being driven through will actually
splay the sideplates it's supposed to go through.

Wriggling the link as I described might get things to
fall into place. But it's better to push the pin through
a little more (with a chain tool,) and then push it back in
from the other side. One can often sense a subtle but
satisfying tactility when the sideplates snap into place.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

Thanks - that's all really helpful - I'll try and locate the stiff
link.

Andy