Teach me about bike maintenance

So I recently got an old Raleigh road bike that I was going to repaint and swap to a single speed but I have no idea what all I will need to do to get this thing road worthy again. Basically bought it use to cruise over to downtown Huntsville from our house on. I have gotten all torn apart except for removing the bottom bracket which I have no idea how to do. I also need to do some maintenance and stuff on a free bike my wife got.

What should I look at doing and parts do I need to buy for this project? Also are there any special tools I need?

Sheldon Brown (RIP) had an excellent web site, read the whole thing cover to cover so-to-speak and come back in 2 weeks with any additional questions.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/

I'll let the more experienced people chime in with specifics, but if you don't already have a bike maintenance stand it's well worth the investment. You will need special crank pulling tools for the bottom bracket. Most everything else will be covered by basic hand tools. Crimpers and cables for brakes etc. There are lots of little nuances and tricks you'll figure out over time. 

Some bike tools are really specific, and you need to know exactly what size and type components you're dealing with in some cases. The bottom bracket, hubs, rear gear cluster, and headset need identifying and, in some cases, measuring. Some parts are left-hand threaded. Sheldon Brown's website is a very good place to start, as noted.

There are plenty of sources for parts. I've been buying from Niagara Cycle Works (no affiliation) lately. In this case paying the premium for buying at your LBS is probably money well spent, as they can help you through the process and answer whatever questions you have as well.

Without seeing exactly what you have it's hard to say, but I'll make some WAG's:

1. If the bottom bracket spins freely, don't eff with it.  Otherwise, if it is an older bike, it is probably has loose bearings and you can remove it, clean and repack the bearings and reassemble.  I used to do this a lot to my BMX when I was younger.  All of my modern bikes have sealed bearings that rarely require maintenance.

2. The headset is also probably a loose bearing set up. Clean and regrease.

3. The brakes will probably require cleaning and a bit of lubrication. New cables and cable housing would be recommended.

4. New bar tape may be a good idea. Most older bikes came with thin tape that wasn't very comfortable. New bar tape is nice.

5. Converting to a single-speed may or may not be easy, depending on the number of gears and whether it is a cassette or freewheel type cluster.  The trick here is getting the chain line correct.  Sometimes you can just remove the rear derailleur and shorten the chain, but if the gear cluster has ramps on the cogs, they can be a pain sometimes.

Pics? 

I'll post pics this evening when I get home. Thanks for the advice.

Basically what I would like to do is get to a single speed version of this. My thought was new seat (current ones are kind of corroded), wheels, rear brake parts (dump the front), repaint and parts to make it single speed.

I urge you to embrace derailleurs. But I'm like that. Seriously, do what you dig.

Gah... TL;DR: the info above will sort you. A couple of things got me stringing thoughts together, so maybe there's something to be gained by reading on:

To Ian's post, I'd add making sure to replace the balls when you repack the headset (they're fractional-inch sizes; shop should have the gamut). They're often in cages, and I prefer to replace them with loose, which allows me to add a few more in. Use grease to hold the balls in place during assembly. Have a good look at the cups for pitting or brinelling (denting). The latter will result in "indexed steering" (old bike shop joke). Either one means new headset time.

I'd also say that new cables and housings are absolutely worth doing unless things already work spectacularly.

If the BB isn't silky, or acceptable, I wouldn't repack it; I'd replace it with a modern cassette type. I think you can get them for pretty much any application and price range now, and they're just nicer. Take the existing one with you so they can get BB shell width, threading,  and spindle length (and offset?) correct. The *right* tools for the existing BB are a BB wrench that fits the notches on the outside of the locknut and the appropriate pin spanner for adjustment, but if you're just going to remove them, you should be able to get away with loosening with a chisel and same for turning the cup out (remember drive side is LH threaded!) then all you need for dealing with the modern one is the splined BB tool to fit.

You might watch ebay (or check your bike shop!) for some better levers with rubber hoods. The hoods are the general purpose hand position, and those levers with the cheater levers kind of ruin that, in addition to the inelegant aesthetics...

Opinion: Keep the front brake. Are you making it a fixed gear or single speed? Either way more brakes are better. You can certainly repaint but it looks decent as is, at least in photos. 

If you're going to spend money, get some modern brake levers like these or these and re-cable them. Find a single speed crankset like this or a used one. Pick up a cheap single speed wheelset, a set of 700c tires, and a new chain. Oh and new bar tape, pedals, and a Brooks saddle. That should be enough to get you what you want.

Keep in mind that list is hundreds of dollars of stuff, and you'll still end up with a heavy frame. You can do it much cheaper at a sacrifice of the looks of course. 

I would vehemently  advise against a fixed gear conversion, as the rear dropouts on your bike face forwards, and a fixed gear bike provides shock loading in both directions, which will loosen off even the tightest bolted on rear wheel.  This will result in your back wheel yanking forwards and taco-ing itself around the chainstay, probably as you sprint to beat a light on a heavily trafficked road .  (Yes, speaking from personal experience here)

The best -and cheapest- option is to keep it as is and lock the derailleur travel down to one gear if you don't want to suffer the undue mental exertion of remembering when to shift.  You can do this several ways, from super ghetto /grassroots(get in the gear you are happy with and put a cable clamp over the down tube of the bike to trap the cable in that gear) up to hardware store fancy (find the two screws on the derailleur body that limit travel and purchase longer ones of matching thread to be able to limit travel to zero.)  

The benefit is that the derailleur body stays on the bike as a chain tensioner, and you can always return to using gears should you discover your hometown isn't as flat as it used to be when you were a fit kid on a BMX bike.

Seconding the Sheldon Brown recommendation, and also see if you can find a copy of Barnetts bike manual  ( https://www.emanualonline.com/Other/Barnetts-Bicycle-Repair-Manual.html?currency=USD&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvpah-rGr2AIV1zyBCh3HAgWkEAQYAiABEgJnVPD_BwE )

Erich said:

Opinion: Keep the front brake. Are you making it a fixed gear or single speed? Either way more brakes are better. You can certainly repaint but it looks decent as is, at least in photos. 

If you're going to spend money, get some modern brake levers like these or these and re-cable them. Find a single speed crankset like this or a used one. Pick up a cheap single speed wheelset, a set of 700c tires, and a new chain. Oh and new bar tape, pedals, and a Brooks saddle. That should be enough to get you what you want.

Keep in mind that list is hundreds of dollars of stuff, and you'll still end up with a heavy frame. You can do it much cheaper at a sacrifice of the looks of course. 

Single speed rather then fixie. I may end up keeping just the rear derailer. I will probably try riding it a little without the front brake and then decide if I need it or not. I can always reattach it. TBH I am not overly worried about weight or performance. Basically building this purely for looks. Which is part of the reason I wanted an older frame and why I am trying to with as few cables as possible. The roads I will be riding this are pretty lightly trafficed.

You want a front brake.  If you remove either, then remove the rear. Fixed gear bikes are often only fitted with a front brake.  For all the same reasons why front brakes on cars are more important than the rear. Yes, BMX bikes only have a rear brake, but that is an entirely different use.

On the good side, those are center-pull brakes, rather than cheaper side-pull brakes. Easier to adjust and generally more powerful.

Damn it. I had a whole response typed out and I clicked a link in an above post like a noob. 

So yes, I agree with the above posts about replacing the brake levers, I agree with at least keeping the front brake (it's something like 70% of your stopping power) but both would be preferable. You can likely find a single speed rear wheel like this that is already properly dished to run a single bmx-style freewheel. You also may be able to remove the ring on the crankset you don't want and just run it with one ring. You could even pick a cog that gives you a fair chain line and just run the existing rear wheel as is- sans derailleurs. Given that the bike has semi-horizontal dropouts and a bolt on wheel you can pretty much make whatever happen. You'll be able to pull the chain tight with the adjustment in the dropouts so you won't need a faux-derailluer (or singulator) to keep tension on the chain now that the derailleur is gone.

Obviously new bar tape, brake pads, cables, and for my money I always love new tires on an old bike. If it's a 27" like I'm guessing it is you can probably find the gum-sidewall ones really cheap if you want the old look, otherwise Continental makes some nice moderately priced 27" tires as well. 

Your frame looks like the perfect age for a bit of modernizing- not too old that things are odd/unsupported sizes, but old enough to be lugged steel and have that classic look. 

A local bike shop (which is where I worked for a decade) is also a great resource- if you can get a friendly or patient employee to walk you through stuff they should be able to easily point you in the direction of the right tools etcetera. 

Bikes are fun. I love bikes. If you have any other questions feel free to PM/Email me, I'll try to be watching this thread but I don't bust the laptop out at home much. 

Oh and to the basic maintenance question - clean. Keep things clean.

Lubricate the chain with a proper chain lube (something like this) and get some tri-flow for the cables and pivot points on the derailleurs. Spin the cranks, apply the chain lube liberally, and wipe off the excess (including dirt) with a shop rag. Bicycle adjustments are pretty miniscule, quarter turn of a limit screw here, half turn of a barrel adjuster there. If the bike won't shift 'up' (going up the rear cluster into a larger cog) it likely needs a little more cable tension. The opposite (less cable tension) holds true if it's hesitating going down the rear cogs. If it flips the chain off into the spokes that will be a low-limit screw (on the body of the rear derailleur), chain coming of on the bottom side into the drop out will be the high-limit screw next to the other. Usually these are labeled H and L, but not always. Make sure the cage of the derailleur is close to vertical/straight when looking at it from the back of the bike in any gear. Truing wheels is the same, tension the spoke opposite the wobble of the rim, small increments at a time. Usually go a few spokes before and after the side to side wobble to help it pull straight. 

For the bottom bracket, I'd go to the LBS and give them $5 or whatever they want to loosen it, rather than pay $30 for the tool you'd only use once.  

AngryCorvair said:

For the bottom bracket, I'd go to the LBS and give them $5 or whatever they want to loosen it, rather than pay $30 for the tool you'd only use once.  

 

Already ordered the tool from Amazon. $11.

I was able to tear down and completely rebuild my ugly green bike without any special tools or a bike stand. I also converted it to single speed with the existing components without buying anything extra. There is a thread on it in the sprockets section but I'm afraid photo bucket has consumed all the pictures. It's easily doable for little money with a little fab work. 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/sprockets/introducing-the-junky-green-bicycle-build/104988/page1/

I'm with Ransom on keeping the derailers. Never saw the fascination with single/fixed gears after riding multi-gear bikes. Also agree keep all the brakes. Nothing says you have to use them but they are nice when you need them. A lot of us started wrenching on bikes as a kid as a necessity then moved on to motors when we got old enough. We used to build BMX bikes before you could buy BMX bikes. Had to make, modify or alter parts for what we wanted to do. That's how I learned to braze. Tear them up, rebuild and tear them up again. As a kid, used to collect junk bikes and rebuild for specific purposes, BMX, jumping, wheelies, tricks. Rebuilt a couple 10-speeds too. Not as hard as you make it out to be. You supposed to be an engineer, you should be able to figure it out.  Just giving you a hard time Robert.  Those don't look like they would take that many specialized tools. Maybe the rear sprocket gears and naturally the spokes but everything else regular tools should work. Might need thin wrenches though. The only special bike tools I know of are to pack into small packs to carry with you on the ride. Kinda like multi-tools. If not planning on doing that then not really needed. FYI, Rob Rose in the Brit Car Club used to work as a bike mech at the high end bike shop in Huntsville.

I love the single speed. So much quieter and generally smoother than dealing with noisy and clunky gears and derailers. Even though I didn't think it would matter the effect of having much less rotating mass in the drivetrain is pronounced. But I live in a very flat area. I certainly couldn't pull the gearing I chose in a hilly area. Give me a single speed any day for just riding around locally. Put me out in the road and I like gears. Different tools for different uses I guess.

can confirm, if you have hills to deal with having 1 gear kinda sucks. 

seriously considering a sturmey archer kickshift hub on my bmx cruiser just to have 1 more gear available.