This weekend’s ride to Malaekahana was great. But like most things it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
My Quickbeam has seemingly had a bit of a problem since day one. It creaks and clicks a bit here and there. Now I’m sure much of this is normal for a new bike and, to be honest, all of my bikes creak a bit here and there. I’m a clydesdale and my stuff takes a beating. I ride pretty well these days and avoid most complications, but believe me, when I started all this in 2008 I broke more than a few things.
I’d pretty much taken care of the noises I could by following the suggestions I’d found online. I’d greased up everything I could find that might be contributing: quill stem, seatpost, the odd bolt here and there. And she’d responded by quieting down quite a bit. Except for the click.
There seemed to be a bit of a click in the cranks. The last time I’d experienced this I’d had to replace the bottom bracket on my Fujiyama. It’s unlikely to be a major catastrophe, but I was worried about it.
On the ride home the click became a real annoyance. I could even feel it through my foot. This was really mimicked the problems I’d had before, so I began to think I’d have to replace the bottom bracket and was planning on doing just that as soon as I could afford a Phil Wood Bottom Bracket. I mean, why not go for the best?
But I wasn’t ready to drop money I didn’t have so I kept researching.
I think I found the answer…it’s the pedals.
I’m using MKS Touring pedals which are a great big platform peddle perfect for me. But it seems they aren’t all that well put together.
No, I don’t mean they are badly made. Au contraire, they are great sturdy pedals. It just seems that when they are assembled there is a decided dearth of lubrication. They often, I’ve read, click. I had a click. What to do.
The answer was forthcoming over at bikeforums.net in a post by Panthers007. After finding that article I found more instructions just like them out on the web.
Panthers007 seemed to be speaking to me when he wrote:
The problem with them is you didn’t open them up and clean them and grease them. A pedal-overhaul is needed before you put most new pedals – especially with loose bearings – on the bike and use them.
I hear this complaint all the time regards MKS pedals. And it’s NOT your fault. Overhauling pedals is a dying art. One I’m trying to resurrect.
Since I had some bearing grease around the next step would be to follow instructions and have at those pedals.
At the StankerTanker blog you can find a bit more information with an image of the pedals pulled apart…
I did have to give one of the nuts in the pedal a shot of PB Blaster and let it stew for a while, but eventually I was able to disassemble everything without losing a single ball bearing. That’s a good thing too as I had no spares.
All in all it didn’t take too long to clean, repack the bearings, and rebuild the pedals. It was even a fun evening project. I haven’t had a chance to try them yet, but that’ll come tonight when I pull the QB back out for a ride.
Aloha!