These levers no longer index properly when the grease inside gums up — and the internals are very complicated. John Allen has posted an article describing several approaches to repair of these levers, and with a link to an expert in rebuilding them.
Repair of Shimano STI Drop-Bar Brake/Shift Levers
A reader has posted a very nicely-produced short video about upgrading of an older steel-frame bike. This kind of project is exactly what sheldonbrown.com is about.
The bicycle already has endured some 30 years, and it will probably still be running long after today’s top-of-the-line carbon fiber bicycles have splintered.
The rebuilder’s tools and technique clearly also went through an upgrade. A hammer, punch and drilled clock of wood are used to break the old chain; a proper chain tool to install the new one. There is less and less use of adjustable wrenches as the video progresses.
There’s some riding on the sidewalk near the end of the video, next to a wall with doors in it. Suggested follow-up upgrade: a reading of my Bicycling Street Smarts!
John Allen has written a new article on this topic, which Sheldon oddly did not cover. Read to the end, though, to learn something you may not have expected about Sheldon’s preference in cycling footwear.
This glossary page had a very long entry for headsets, information recently updated and expanded in a separate article. I shortened the glossary entry to get it out of the Department of Redundancy Department (one of Sheldon’s favorite quips) and to take one small step in making the site easier to manage.There are several other such long entries in the glossary.
Minor edits, a tag line and a photo added to Tom Shaddox’s article about the Schwinn Varsity.
John has done minor editing on tires.html and its British English clone.
John updated the page on repair of flat tires, also adding some new tricks, checking links etc. http://sheldonbrown.com/flats. html
While John is plugging away at adding new material to the site, I continue to work on cleaning up the code. I had started converting files to XHTML but I am now converting to HTML5 instead. I am trying to give the pages a more uniform layout for easier maintenance and I try to repair the syntax and check on broken links as I work on the files. Someday, I may get to the end of this task and start writing but I fear it shall all be like “Albert’s Bridge” by Tom Stoppard. When I get to the end, it will be time to start again.
March 13-22-25
headsets.html – major updates including instructions on adjustment of threaded headsets; added exploded diagrams; resized photos and added a photo of a “brinelled” bearing race. More to come — photos of disassembly/reassembly.
March 12
velos.html — added comments in favor of the Peugeot UO-8 frame.
March 11
tooltips/cartridge.html — added information about Velo Orange French-threaded bottom bracket.
February 18
raleigh26.html Minor update (fixed formatting of a list, and one spelling error)
home-drop.html — noted unavailability of commercial drop bolts, pointed to my own implementation, ran a spell check.
January 1
saddles.html — added information on saddle width. tire pressure and width, and suspension seatposts.
December 28
gears/index.html, gears/internal.html, braquets/index.html — I put the new Sturmey-Archer S2 into the calculators. SA used the same model number for a different hub in 1966.
December 27
deakins/lowgears.html
December 26
speeds.html — added information about SRAM 10-speed systems
k7.html — added information on 9 of 10 on 7
k7-7.shtml — updated to indicate cassettes now no longer available
gearing/index.html — added links to more pages about gearing
December 25
seatpost-sizes.html and seatpost-sizes-m-z.html,: major updates and added encoded link to the Webmasters’ new e-mail address.
December 24
brakes.html — updated to provide a guide to the other brakes pages.
