By Lennard Zinn
photograph : Galen Nathanson A can of beer constantly helps to make problems seem less important, butsometimes, it can actually fix motorcycle problems ! Aluminum beveragecans are 0.1mm dense and are easy to cut with a knife or a couple of scissors, rendering them quite utilitarian for making minor spacing adjustments on a motorcycle.
Slipping seatpost
A seatpost that gradually slips down as you ride can be causedby an ovalized seat tube, a sizing difference between the seatpost andseat tube or a tolerance buildup over a number of parts ; the latter isparticularly rampant with abeyance seatposts in outsize seat tubes.What can you do ?
A common “ fix ” is putting grease desegregate with sandpaper or valve-grinding compoundon the seatpost. This often does not work, and it mars the eat up of thepost. A more elegant and effective solution is to cut a small shim outof a beer or pop can and put it in between the seatpost and seat tube ( orseat-tube sleeve ) .
Cut out a 1-inch X 3-inch piece of toss off can with a pair of scissors, rounding the corners. Hold it lengthwise down along the wall of the seattube ( not at the slot ) with about half of its length sticking out of thetop. Stick in the ( greased ) seatpost. If the post won ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate go in, make theshim narrower. If it fits sloppily, try a across-the-board strip. Insert the post, assuring that the shim stays in position .
For a late-night motorcycle fabrication, if you only have a seatpost a size ( 0.2mm ) excessively minor and want to ride anyhow, one wind of a pop can adds 0.2mm. Makethe shim just long adequate that the ends don ’ thyroxine quite meet when wrapped aroundthe post .
Most suspension posts come in alone one or two diameters. If you havea 27.2mm suspension station, and your bicycle takes, for case, a 30.2mm seatpost, then you need to purchase a 1.5mm-thick shim sleeve that has a 30.2mm O.D.and a 27.2mm I.D. It looks like a short-circuit aluminum tube with a brim aroundone end and longitudinal slit down one side. You may find, though, thatthere is enough treacle in the match between the seat metro and the sleeve andbetween the sleeve and the seatpost that the mail lento inches down asyou ride. A small beer-can shim between the sleeve and the post can keepit from sliding down .
besides, if your saddle is slipping in the seatpost clamp, sometimes abeer-can shim can help. It was on a Moxey suspension post, which has twoclamshell pieces that clamp the rails and are squeezed together by a hingedpart close over them. By slipping some beer-can shims between the hingedtop assemble and the two knurled semi-cylindrical clamshell halves it clampsover, the slippage, a well as an annoying whine sound, disappeared .
sometimes the head of the seatpost won ’ triiodothyronine clamp the saddle rails wellif the top musical composition has gotten besides bent on a post with a two-bolt clamp. Onsome seatposts, the crown of the clamp wraps over a pair of clamping piecesthat resemble a pipe sliced lengthwise that are notched for the seat rails.If the top of the clamp is stretched or bent, it can not hold these piecestightly adequate, and the saddle can slip directly back or rotate ( usuallynose down ). A pair of beer can ships around the cylindrical clampingpieces can fix that.
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There are celebrated examples of shims being used with great achiever. photograph : AFP ( file photograph ) Handlebars
If your handlebars slip in the stem clamp, that can be dangerous whenyou slam dance on your brakes. A beer-can shim between the prevention and the root clampwill tighten it up and prevent the bar from twisting. It is not a greatidea to mess excessively much with wear stems and bars, though, particularly superlightones. If the bar and/or the stem turn has gotten therefore deformed that the clampdoes not work well anymore, equitable use the shims as a irregular fix, andget another root and bar .
Disc-brake Rotors
If you have disc brakes and a number of wheels, you want to be ableto interchange them without the rotor dragging on the bracken pads. Sincethe spacing between pad and rotor is on the order of 0.01-0.015 inch ( 0.25-0.4mm ) and there is frequently a slight back-end-forth careen to the rotor to boot, a minor rotor outgrowth will make it drag forte. What to do ?
Crack open a can of beer, of course ! Cut rotor shims with a knife usinga template, since they must be quite precise. I use a bolt-on disk hubadapter as a template and screw it down to a block of wood, through oneor two layers of aluminum cut from a can. then I cut around the inner andouter edges of the arranger. I trace the bolt holes with a scribe and punchthem out with a hole punch .
These shims work capital ! once you go to this disturb, there is no adjustingof brakes to be done any when you switch wheels. by the way, onceI got my rotors all in the lapp spot, I switch wheels with Hayes and Shimanorotors back and away between bikes with either make of brake without anyproblem .
Disc-brake Calipers
If you are a stickler for tranquillity brakes, you can besides cut out shim washersfor spacing the brake caliper from International Standard brake mountson the skeletal system or branching. The thinnest spacers you will find pack with adisc brake are 0.2mm, but if inserting one moves the bracken in besides far andremoving it moves it out besides far, beer-can washers will move the brakein half as much .
Cogsets that don’t shift well
If you have a cogset with which your rear derailleur works capital onsome of the cogs but can not be adjusted to shift perfectly on all of them, drinking a little beer could help here deoxyadenosine monophosphate well. The spacing between nine-speedcogs is so close up that the derailleur has to move very precisely under eachcog or the chain will try to climb to the following one. A thin, judiciouslyplaced spacer between a couple of cogs can wholly fix skipping, auto-shiftingand make noise that any amount of cable-tension adaptation can not eliminate.
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I have, for case, an early SRAM 9-speed 11-34 cogset that I measureto be 0.3mm narrower than a Shimano cogset. similarly, I have a 0.2mm under-width Shimano Dura-Ace cogset from the first base turn of nine-speed production thatfrustrates proper derailleur adjustment over the full range. If I get thecable tension right on the little cogs with either of these cogsets, whenthe chain is on the second- or third-largest cog, the chain will try toclimb to the next larger cog. This is a bummer when you are trying to getup a hill .
The fix is to cut out spacers from an aluminum can to go between someof the cog in the center of the cogset. Cut around the inside profileof a cog into the aluminum sheet, and cut the out circumference 3-4mmbigger. On the Dura-Ace cogset, two beer-can spacers between the 15 and16-tooth cogs wholly fixes the trouble. On the SRAM cogset, I put inthree pop-can spacers between the14 and 16-tooth cogs, making the cogsetstack thickness the same as a Shimano, and the chain nobelium longer ascent upand skips on steep hills.
While there are some problems besides big for a can of beer to fix, it canmake many little ones go away. When I told my 8-year-old niece that I wasgoing to fix her dad ’ s seatpost with a slice of a beer can, she asked, “ Why a beer can ? Why can ’ t you use a beer bottle ? ”
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