80's Mountain Bike Restoration Tune Up | Easton Reflex ALX 89 

It really depends on if you know what to look for or not. Such as the Hyper Hydroform is an outstanding bike for 200$, the Schwinn Santis was another good bike for 200$ just depends on what you want.

You'll find with Halfords the Boardman range of bike are a far better quality of bike well the Frames are , still made in Taiwan I have the MHT 8.9 but I have completely replaced all parts with better ,the Frames are very good and I have taken it in many red trails with no problems at all !

+Loli... I completely disagree. This bike, as is, is 100 times better than anything you will find it a Walmart.

WORD!!!

And dont forget pleasure and assurance that everything works properly!

Can I get an Amen. For me it’s not just with bikes. When I’m in my garage restoring and creating, building or fixing, I feel this zen feeling where time melts away and my stresses disappear... until a bolt gets stuck or stripped that is 😁. Thanks for chiming in.

vai tomar no cu

Even Walmart bikes?

All might be a bit of an overreach.

Agreed!

A crummy bike is still a crummy bike now matter how it was maintained. This one happened to be a good one in it’s day.

Cold blueing for rifle barrels is the best way to prevent rust on a raw frame

@@BerserkerNick I did not know that and great to know. Thank you so much for the information that is very useful to me.

@ do your grammar search. He didn't know, he thought that would help.

I'm an old thing. I wish somebody would give me new life :)

No de-lamination to worry about w/stainless lol. I also have solid cast cranksets from the 90's, which are serviceable and look great too. Powdercoated one set in semi-gloss black & they came out mint.

Thanks. I’ll check them out.

wow, thats a pretty cool bike

Vittoria also sells a bunch of their mtb tyres with gumwalls, not sure if they're available in 26'' though.

oldshovel Panaracer Smoke and Dart tires. They are front and rear specific, look awesome, and are period correct for 80’s-90’s mountain bikes. I use them or WTB Velociraptors (basically same idea but all black [it can be argued that the Velociraptors started the trend away from tan wall to all black]) on all of my vintage mountain bikes. www.jensonusa.com/Panaracer-Smoke-26-Tire www.jensonusa.com/Panaracer-Dart-26-Tire www.wtb.com/products/velociraptor

Donny Disco tabletops are great tire but are more of a dirt jump/street/bmx type tire

Lol thanks my friend. I’m editing a new one right now. I’ll do what I can to chase away your bike build blues.

Thanks 🙏 much appreciated. Thanks for watching.

I agree, very impressed

Cool. Do it

Just the thinnest coat possible. A torque wrench is handy for square tapers as long as you know the proper setting.

See above. All square taper cranks need grease. "Too much" won't hurt anything, just a waste of grease. A square taper crank requires a crank puller to remove. Your local bike shop sells them.

Not back in the day, crank doesn't seat correctly and causes creaking and cranks coming loose. Old school shop mechanic from early '90's.

Scrolling through to see if anyone else noticed, thanks for saving me the trouble of having to explain it!

Isn’t this an urban myth? All my time as a bike mechanic, we used and still use to grease that part. Not with normal grease, but with fitting lubricant (idk if that is the correct English word for German 'Montagepaste'🙄)...

@@trashes_to_treasures Well what need is there really to do so, when crank pullers are literally designed to overcome the friction holding the crank in place. No tight fit short of galvanic corrosion would be impossible for the crank puller to defeat.

Was about to say that... should never grease a square taper BB/crank for that reason.

Wipe them with mineral oil and scrub clean with paper towel

lol 😂 I thought the same thing about the Biopace sticker. It did not even come off when I was scrubbing it.

@Aditya Wardhana Anjiiirr..😂 Auto ngakak...😂😂✌

And you are wrong. I won't make the argument, but simply let Jobst Brandt do it instead. RIP, the cycling community misses his enlightened, direct approach. :> My cranks get loose, quite quickly too; over about 10 miles or so > from being solid to flopping about in the breeze. Any suggestions? Your cranks are ruined! Once ridden in the "floppy" mode, the square taper in the crank can no longer be secured on the spindle. Get some new cranks and properly tighten them after lubricating the tapers. Proper tightness can be guaranteed only by torque wrench or a skilled mechanic. The second of these is less expensive and you might be able to get a demonstration of what is tight enough. The admonition to not lubricate the tapers of the crank spindle seems to find life only on bicycle cranks, of all the machines I have seen. I have pursued the "dry assembly" instruction by talking to crank manufacturers and discovered that they apparently had warranty claims from customers who split their cranks open. It is easy to prove that cranks cannot split by over-tightening simply by attempting to do so. It is not possible to split a major brand crank this way, the bolt will fail first. Crank failure from "over-tightening" is caused by the re-tightening of previously properly installed cranks. Once installed, a crank always squirms on its taper, and because the retaining bolt prevents it from coming off, it elbows itself away from the bolt and up the taper ever so slightly. This can be detected by the looseness of the retaining bolt after the bicycle has been ridden hard. Grease in this interface does not affect performance, because only the press fit, not friction, transmits load from crank to spindle. As any bicycle mechanic can tell you, crank bolts are often appreciably looser after use, the left one more so than the right. This occurs because the left crank transmits torque and bending simultaneously while the right crank transmits these forces one at a time. The right crank puts no significant torque into the spindle. Either way, the looseness occurs because loads make the crank squirm on the spindle and the only direction it can move is up the taper, the retaining bolt blocking motion in the other direction. Regardless, whether grease or no grease is used, in use the spindle and crank will make metal to metal contact and cause fretting corrosion for all but the lightest riders. The purpose of the lubricant is to give a predictable press fit for a known torque. If the spindle is completely dry this cannot be said, and even with marginal lubrication, some galling may occur on installation. Lubrication is only used to guarantee a proper press because the lubricant is displaced from the interface in use. Taper faces of spindles show erosion and rouge after substantial use, evidence that the lubricant was displaced. "Dust caps" aren't just dust caps but retention for loose bolts. It is not that the bolt unscrews but that the crank moves up the taper. However, once the screw is unloaded it can subsequently unscrew and fall out if there is no cap. Because cranks squirm farther up the taper when stressed highly, the unwitting mechanic believes the screw got loose, rather than that the crank got tighter. By pursuing the crank with its every move up the spindle, ultimately the crank will split. It is this splitting that has been incorrectly diagnosed as being caused by lubrication. I have never seen a warning against re-tightening cranks after having been installed with a proper press fit. It is here where the warning belongs, not with lubrication. For the press fit to work properly, the pressure must be great enough to prevent elastic separation between the crank and spindle under torque, bending, and shear loads. This means that no gap between crank and spindle should open when pedaling forcefully. Friction has no effect on the transmission of torque because the crank creeps into a position of equilibrium on the spindle in a few hard strokes. Failure of this interface occurs when the press fit is too loose allowing a gap open between spindle and crank. Torque is transmitted by the entire face of the press fit, both the leading edge whose contact pressure increases and the trailing edge whose contact pressure decreases. If lift-off occurs, the entire force bears only on the leading edge and plastic failure ensues (loose crank syndrome). Tightening the retaining screw afterward cannot re-establish a square hole in the crank because the retaining screw will break before the spindle can exert sufficient stress to reshape the bore. Beyond that, the crank would split before any plastic deformation could occur even if the screw were sufficiently strong. Because retaining screws could become entirely lose from squirming action, especially if the press is relatively light, "dust caps" should be used to prevent screws from subsequently unscrewing and causing crank bore failure. Besides, the loss of the screw won't be noticed until the crank comes off, long after the screw fell out. The argument that the greased spindle will enlarge the hole of the crank and ultimately reduce chainwheel clearance is also specious, because the crank does not operate in the plastic stress level. At the elastic limit it would break at the attachment knuckle in a short time from metal fatigue, that occurs rapidly at the yield stress. In fact, the depth of engagement (hole enlargement) can increase with an unlubricated fit faster than with a lubricated one, because installation friction is the only mechanism that reams the hole. Jobst Brandt

@@dudeonbike800 wrong. I've been a bike mechanic for 23 years and and he is wrong and you are wrong. But I'm sure you're always right and you're online and that's what counts so keep on doing it that way

@@justineaves1977 I figured I'd get a reply like this. To you I say, "and I've been a mechanic for forty years." Managed seven of 13 LBS's. At various times, our LBS was the largest Specialized and Cannondale dealer in the WORLD. Yes, you read that right. Our shop manuals instructed mechanics to grease tapers. I then worked for a few manufacturers and they all greased crank tapers. I Raced on and off road. I Ride road and off road on singles & tandems. Unicycle too. I've greased crank tapers my entire life. I've snapped square taper crank spindles completely off, yet have NEVER lost a crank arm. (In fact, the crank I was using 30 years ago that I snapped the spindle with was scarred by the failure, yet still functions 100% today.) I've broken seven frames in my life (not due to crashing). And again, I didn't make the argument based on personal anecdotal evidence, but instead chose the wise words of Jobst Brandt. Yet you chose to play the "I'm a mechanic for 23 years" card, so I figured I'd let you know my bona fides. I'm pretty sure my experience (anecdotal evidence) and Brandt's explanation (empirical evidence) pretty much prove the point. And I went to the trouble of this because I've heard this "don't grease tapers" admonition for 40 years. I rode with a guy so obsessed with crank tapers, he cleaned his spindles & cranks with acetone prior to assembly. He was FANATIC about it. Needless to say his bike creaked like a banshee. It was funny and unbearable at the same time. However, I'll admit that I never saw him lose a crank taper. But just because he didn't doesn't prove your point. I want people to fully understand that greasing crank tapers is TOTALLY 100% A-OK! No more debate. No more uncertainty. (And if you choose to not grease yours, then fine. But please stop furthering erroneous information.) But the reality is this, almost all mechanical work on a bike lives by this rule: lubricate all metal-to-metal contact. There are exceptions, but they are few.

@@dudeonbike800 the manual😂😂

Thanks

Fucking too right! It was the year i was born 🤣

It was a good year. 😁 thanks for watching Greg.

Cool. I’ve seen the zip tie trying method before.

Thanks for the tips my friend.

Some of those old Norco bikes were awesome. I was up in Canada last week and saw an old early 90s Norco at a thrift store that I would have brought home if it was not inconvenient on my trip.

@@oldshovel its still a pretty good bike i paid $450. when it was new in 89

Agreed. We waste too much in our culture. Thanks for watching and commenting.

Kinda of sad knowing some really cool bikes have been thrown out . I feel like this generation is turning that around . I've restored an old rockhopper and a 950 single track so far.

I agree, There is only one original paint job. Stripping it off would have been desecration.

Awesome

Guess squirrelly might have something to do with that Al + steel frame combo?

That’s awesome thanks

Thanks 🙏

The old Deore parts were built to last.

Yes, did you do anything to protect the bare metal??

Thanks 🙏

@@oldshovel I think he also polished the aluminum parts on a grinder polishing wheel...

Thanks and I’ll keep it in mind.

That’s awesome. Thanks for chiming in!

I think they were but I don’t recal, it’s been a few months since I did this one.

Awesome thanks 🙏

Agreed. What I did was more of a full overhaul type tune up the difference being that this was an old forgotten bike that now has a new life.

KLEIN you mean, an american brand...

Thanks 🙏

Really? Perhaps more durable. Those old parts were solid. Thanks for watching.

It’s a crank arm puller tool. Here’s a affiliate link to one on Jenson USA alnk.to/gzOv93d

@@oldshovel Hard to get from Buenos Aires, but still thanks a lot for the name of the tool and the tip! I never expected to have an answer in minutes, bicycles are not my thing but nevertheless you have earned a suscriber

Thanks 🙏

I can respect that. 😁👍

@toot tall .I understand what you are saying .I was at the Mt Hood races last Sunday. To see a bike that is carbon frame is nice ,but the price is crazy high . I do like taking older bikes like my old Kona bike make it better . I guess it depends what you are going to do with the bike. I pull a trailer with my bike to hunt with . FB Lone wolf bike trailers .I make these .

@@rockysuperstar1 Good to see some PNW love

Thanks 🙏

Awesome

Thanks for the tip

They would. I wish I had found them before this build.

Awesome - I hope he does. :)

Those spoke racks and underside brakes bring back memories.

I Currently Own A 1986 DB Apex (Awesome Bike) I Pulled It Out The Dumpster At A Local Metal Recycling Facility Frame Forks and 1 Wheel. 8 Years Later I Still Enjoy it And Ride it. Thank You For Sharing God Bless You.

Riding a rigid mountain bike sure is is another level, you can't afford slacking off in the saddle! Got to be "smooth" in the arms and legs. It's kind of when riding a single speed MTB, you got to plan ahead! :) With my old Surly Pugsly I had both, a rigid single speed bike, thought the tires gave some 1½ inch of "suspension". ;)

Thanks. It’s a cool part of bike history.

Thanks 🙏

Were they the ones that were 90 degrees away from being perfect?

@@bananasstuff3344 That's what I read haha

It’s definitely a different feel. The stance is so much more over the handlebars and almost twitchy in its responsiveness.

You just practiced OTB more

You could but it was very difficult. Old mountain bikes were in a similar spot as gravel bikes were few years back. Almost everything was borrowed from other categories. That included geometry, riding position, wheel size, etc. There's a good reason why those changes came. Modern gravel and some CX bikes are actually more capable off road than these mountain bikes were.

That was the least of your problems😂Rigid fork and sketchy brakes required attention on the trail. I had this same bike and frame was a little noodly too. Stem was at least 150 mm. And our tires were called Farmer Johns.

Lol Andrew, it was a good year. 😁 I may put something in the future over the chain stay to protect it from chain slap. The old chain guard was well worn.

Awesome thanks

Thanks

Awesome thanks

Thanks 🙏

Thanks. I don’t recall the time this one took me. The time it takes me to film and restore though is much more, sometimes double our triple then it would if I did just the restoration. I would guess it was a Friday evening and most of a Saturday for me to do it all.

@@oldshovelThe bike looks fantastic.

Thanks 🙏