Little Tricks

[Dirtdame]

On cold winter rides I carry a pair of polar fleece type gloves inside my jacket next to my body. When we stop for a break I put my riding gloves in my jacket and wear the belly gloves that are warm and toasty. When the break is over my riding gloves (Tour Master Polar-Tek) are warm and toasty. Wearing one pair of gloves all day long on a winter ride will leave the phalanges cold and almost useless. Cold toes is one thing, but cold phalanges I can't handle.

I started carrying fleece gloves too, on the rare wet and snowy riding occasions. I have always removed and wrung out my gloves at a rest stop and shoved them up against the engine to warm up, while my hands ended up in fleece pockets or close to the hot engine.

 

[rancher1]

Every time I change my rear tire I pull the chain adjuster bolts and apply anti-seize. This will prevent a major PIA of the bolts seizing.

 

[HuskyDude]

Every time I change my rear tire I pull the chain adjuster bolts and apply anti-seize. This will prevent a major PIA of the bolts seizing.

I "Never Seize" every bolt I touch work, home, bike....
It's becoming so bad I just can't help myself.
When someone else at work, takes something apart I've worked on they know I've been there....

 

[rajobigguy]

I "Never Seize" every bolt I touch work, home, bike....
It's becoming so bad I just can't help myself.
When someone else at work, takes something apart I've worked on they know I've been there....

Just remember that torque values go way down depending on what type of thread lubricant you use. I'm going to try and post or have the site host some charts and graphs that have values for different lubricants.
I have a really slick program for figuring out how much reduction in torque value there is but it will have to be hosted some how and I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

 

[gem]

A little trick that I picked up;

When changing oil use the cardboard roll from the toilet paper and slide it up through the skid plate over the drain plug bolt. Now insert your socket on an extension up the tube and remove the drain bolt. The toilet tube 'guides' the oil down into the drain pan and eliminates the mess all over the inside of your skid plate! It helps to have the bike on the stand and offset the hole in the stand to slightly pinch the toilet roll keeping it from falling with the oil.

Hope I've described this ok. If it isn't understandable post up and I'll try to attach pictures.

 

[Dirtdame]

The cardboard tube sounds like just the thing. I'm tired of having to try to wipe oil off the top side of my skid plate.

 

[Howard70]

Never Seize Vs Loctite

Just remember that torque values go way down depending on what type of thread lubricant you use. I'm going to try and post or have the site host some charts and graphs that have values for different lubricants.
I have a really slick program for figuring out how much reduction in torque value there is but it will have to be hosted some how and I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

A quick question for those of you who know more about fasteners than I do (in other words 99.99% of the list):

Some of us use Loctite to reduce the loss of fasteners due to vibration, others use thread lubricants like Never Seize to avoid "frozen" fasteners. The two types of thread treatment seem opposed?

If I use a thread lubricant am I increasing the likelihood of lossing fasteners due to vibration? Do loctite like products provide a barrier to corrosion and prevent frozen fasteners (as long as you stay away from the "permanent" sort)?

I've used blue loctite extensively and haven't had frozen fasteners on my bike but I've only been at it for a year and haven't been in very corrosive situations. In my sailboat days there was a real problem with stainless fasteners in aluminum fixtures when exposed to salt water. There I found only one product (Lanacote or Lanocote) that would reliably isolate stainless from aluminum and prevent bimetallic corrosion.

What do you all think?

Howard

 

[xymotic]

A quick question for those of you who know more about fasteners than I do (in other words 99.99% of the list):

Some of us use Loctite to reduce the loss of fasteners due to vibration, others use thread lubricants like Never Seize to avoid "frozen" fasteners. The two types of thread treatment seem opposed?

If I use a thread lubricant am I increasing the likelihood of lossing fasteners due to vibration? Do loctite like products provide a barrier to corrosion and prevent frozen fasteners (as long as you stay away from the "permanent" sort)?

I've used blue loctite extensively and haven't had frozen fasteners on my bike but I've only been at it for a year and haven't been in very corrosive situations. In my sailboat days there was a real problem with stainless fasteners in aluminum fixtures when exposed to salt water. There I found only one product (Lanacote or Lanocote) that would reliably isolate stainless from aluminum and prevent bimetallic corrosion.

What do you all think?

Howard

I'm worried about this as well since I live on a sailboat and my bike is parked 50' from the ocean. On the boat I use 'tef-gel' for every aluminium to stainless connection, but I'm afraid of vibration on the bike.

 

[rajobigguy]

Well here is my take on the situation.
When you have two dissimilar metals you need to take special care because they will create a eletric potential between the two of them and no amout of sealing will stop the process.
In the case of aluminum and stainless what will happen is the aluminum being the more moleculary unstable between the two will give up one of its elctrons and form an oxidation in the joint between the two materials. This aluminum oxide is very hard and crystaline so it makes the two patrs difficult to get apart. I would use a graphite spray on the fastener and then coat it with a metalic base "anti seize", something with copper or silver would be prefered.

So far as wheter to use anti seize or locktite, well it depends on what you're fastening. If the bolt has a torque spec than I would use anti sieze. For this application I would use a non metalic base lubricant that contains "moly" or ceramic. Remember to reduce the torque spec. accordingly. Arule of tumb is that if the torque spec is given for a dry make up that you should reduce the torque by 10% when using moly base lubes and 20% when using metal based lubes.

For fasteners that don't have a torque value just use what makes sense. If its in a high vibration are then blue loctite works well and isn't to tuff to remove. If it is in a in a potentially corrosive area then some sort of thread ube might be better. If its in a high vibration area that is exposed to the elements then you might want to use loctite when assembling the fastener, then coat with grease to keep the rust and corrosion to a minimum.