[Howto] Take apart your bike.

[ridelife!]

Since i have a new frame on the way, i figured i'd post a howto on taking apart everything on your bike.

What you will need.
All sorts of wrenches.
All sorts of allen keys.
Flathead screwdriver.
Varsol cleaner.
Lots of rags.First, grab your tools.


Next, flip your bike upside down for easier access of the wheels.


First things first, the front wheel.


Find the right size wrench, and untighten the bolts holding the wheel to the fork.


If you have unsealed bearings like mine, when you take out the axle, you will see the icky grease and dirt and stuff in there.


The picture doesn't have the bearings in, but take those out first, put them on something so as not to get grease everywhere. See all that stuff in there? That's gotta come out to get fresh grease in there. Take a rag and get all that stuff outta there. Do this for both sides.


Now that you have that cleaned, you should have a pile of dirty bearings. Keep these on something away from your workplace so they don't get lost.


Moving to the rear wheel.


Take it off in the same way as you did your front, removing the chain tensioner as well.


To take your back wheel off, you gotta get the chain off it, so while you're at this you might as well just take it completely off. If you have a chainbreaker, cool. If not, you should have a master link. It's pretty much self explanatory from there.


Now put your chain aside, possibly near the bearings.


Now back to the rear wheel. When you get the axle out of there, if you have a freewheel, then it'll be like this. Very similar to your front wheel.


Thats for the freewheel side, take the bearings out, again putting them aside from where you're working. And clean that grease out.


Now you should have a pile similar to this.


On the other side of the wheel, the bearings will be a different size, so take these out and put them in yet another pile away from where you're working.


Your pile should look like this.


Now clean the grease out from that side as well.


Now we're going to clean these things. Take your bearings, and chain outside and put some varsol in a bucket. You don't need very much.


This is about all you need.


Now stick the bearings in there, rub it around with your hands, get them clean.

[ridelife!]

Now bring the clean and dried bearings inside.


This is where i recommend you put all your parts in one place, this means your axles, bearings, wheels and chain. To store the bearings, sounds weird, but take three different colored baloons, and stick each set of bearings in a different colored one. This way none will fall out.


Then put all your axle hardware on your axles.


Now find a corner or somewhere where you can put your cleaned up wheels, axles, bearings and chain.


As of now, your bike should look like this.


Now we wanna do the cranks. First take off your crank arms by undoing the compression bolts, then the pinch bolts with an allen key.


Now that you got the crank arms off, it should look like this.


To take apart your cranks, undo the bolts on one side, these may unscrew opposite as they could be locking bolts, they only need to be about finger tight. After these are off, you should see the thing pushing the bearings into the cup, this will unscrew as well. Now just take out your axle. Once you take your axle out, do the same as you did with your wheels; clean your bearings and wipe the bearing cup if you have unsealed bearings. Now get your axle and bearings, stick it together and put it in some sort of container.


Now you have this, and you're cranks are done.


Put your crank arms, spindle/axle/bearings container, and your sprocket over with your wheels.


Now is a good time to take a break, go play Madden 07 and score a 98 yard interception for a touchdown. :clap:

Now you can flip your bike over, it's time for the fork, bars, and headset.


First we'll take off the stem, then the bars. You gotta undo the compression bolt first, then the pinchbolts.


The compression bolt uses a wrench, pinchbolts use an allen key.


Now you should have that off and be left with this.


Leave that for now, we're going to take the bars out of the stem. Just undo the front bolts, and take it off. Make sure to put it back together though.


Back to the steerer tube/headset. Now take those spacers off, and now you want to get your headset open on the top, which will allow the fork to come out, as well as open up the bottom bearings. I have pretty much unsealed everything, so this is how you do it. Take a screwdriver and push it between the little covering and the cup. Pry this up, it should come off.


After it's off, it should look like this.


Thats the top done. Now we can get that fork off, and look at the bottom. At this point i will mention that you should do the same thing with these bearings, clean the cup and the bearings. Your fork should slide out and the bottom should look like this.


Then a close up of the bottom.

[ridelife!]

Right, now make sure you don't drop those bearings, again clean them and stick them somewhere else. Oh, and when cleaning bearings that are in a casing.. a toothbrush is very helpful. Now you're left with this.


And TAADA! you're golden. I will put up the reassembling part once my frame gets here. Put all your parts together in one place until i get the reassemblance up. Haha. I kept my fork on so i didn't have to take out my headset bearings.


BTW, sorry about the giant article, i wanted to be detailed.
BTWBTW, sorry about the triple post. :P

[screwglue]

nice ass article man! i gave u rep for it! this should be in the bmx tech faq for sure! i got a question, actualy 2, if u have sealed bearings do u still need cleaning it? and how do you take of 1 peice cranks?

[RideBmx92]

u spend all this time for doing this for everyone?
thx u i always wanted to no how to take my bike apart i suck

[Wombles]

i give u rep man! excellent review! too bad mine r sealed XD

[ridelife!]

Haha, thanks guys, i figured that i would've liked to know when i was starting out, so maybe people would find it helpful. Umm, the sealed bearings thing you don't really need to clean em, since not a lot of dirt gets in there, but with unsealed.. you need to every once in a while, 'cause dirt n stuff gets in there. you shouldn't need to do it with unsealed bearings more than like once every 6 months, if that. :) oh, and i think there is actually a one peice crank remover? don't quote me on that one.

[tafkin]

great article :)

[Celeborn]

Mostly good, but the part about taking the cranks off is very basic; "Take all the stuff apart" isn't exactly very helpful.

Would be nice of you went into more detail about this part.

[X0X]

Very nice artical :]

[blazer]

very nice!! i'll prob be ordering new parts soon anyway so this article will definetly come in handy!!
thank u for existing:p

[JustinCarter]

Props man, you really thought this out! +1

[DurtJumpPhreak]

Wow, awesome article you got there, thanks for thinking of the beginners. +1 for sure.

[allgame91]

wow that is good, thanks, ur getting +1 from me

[Scottehrm]

awsome article... best review on the forum




congrats!!!!!

[ridelife!]

thanks guys, the frame should be here sometime this week, so i'll update it then.

[ridelife!]

anything that needs to be clarified?

[DavidMorris]

its pretty self explanitary, but good job (Y)

[groovesection]

agreed,very informative walkthrough dirttrailx3,
for anyone who doesnt know how to take apart/build a bike this is a great post :)

[cohcoh14]

some one like me..lol

[fitbike61]

i never knew this but if the balls can come off and stuff out of the bearings, that means theyre unsealed? and if theyre nice and tight in a ring cage like a donut its sealed?

sorry dont know much about bearings, i come from skateboarding where all bearings are caged up in a nice and tidy cage

[dirkadirka]

amazing review man

help all them newbies

[ridelife!]

ahhh, a fellow skater. haha yeah skate bearings and sealed. although the loose bearings can be in a casing.. unsealed just means you can take the bearing/bearing case out and clean it/regrease it n shit. and dirka, i'm actually a little bit of a newbie, i can clean, take apart, fix shit on my bike, but i'm not actually that good of a rider. :P

[GotMilk]

now we need one of these made by someone who has breaks, besides that, this is a great article, very useful

[Wombles]

taking brakes off isnt hard. it's quite simple.

[ridelife!]

i have brakes, if it's really that big of a deal i could probly post something when i put them on.

[Dylan]

I think this an alright article but theres individual articles somewhere on the forum, good to know your willing to spend alot of time writing one.

Hopefully this helps the new people ^^

[outk5t]

Wow, thanks.

[xerosene]

OMG dude... You rock! i'm repainting my whole bike and was having trouble with the forks. :respekt: +rep for you buddy! :respekt:

[xerosene]

oops... Im thinking of a different forum where you get reputation. +rep anyway

[ridelife!]

haha, i'm glad i could help somewhat.. i think this place has rep?

[Celeborn]

Any news on the putting-your-bike-back-together article? :)

[ridelife!]

hahaha i should probly change that.. i was too excited to put my bike together.. so i didn't wait for a camera. therefore i don't really have a put back together bit. ::oops:

[Robb187]

nice HOW-TO

i gave you rep for it!!!!

[ridelife!]

thanks.

on a better note.. check out my sig for the finished product. :lol:

[Butter_Nutts]

next week: howto put your bike back together!

[ridelife!]

i was going to.. but when my frame got here.. i was too stoked.. i tore it open with my hands and put it together within like an hour and went riding.

[Robb187]

mad props man, this prolly took along time to make to....

[ridelife!]

meh, it shouldn't really matter.. i just did it to help the nooblets. :D

[Mikey Cold Cuts]

very nice....just got done with the same thing about 2 hours ago, minus the photos..haha.. nice review

[randzilla]

wow you have some hassaling parts, unsealed stuff is a hassle as you can tell, if i were you id upgrade, havnt you blown any bearings yet? the only thing i run unsealed on my bike is headset because sealed ones suck. btw jx062894, if you have a one piece crank its probably going to have unsealed bearings. good review, but it would be helpful if you included more parts then, like unsealed bearings. let me know if you want any tips to make the review any better. btw, this is not a hate comment im just offering some advice.

[sledneckadam]

Awesome guide I gave you rep points for it!

[feltCHASM]

nice article, and you have some bigg ass dropouts

[ridelife!]

haha, i will update it one time if i get new stuff. i don't see a need to make an article on sealed bearings.. considering it's pretty self explanatory.

Sealed bearings = not really much of a need to grease or maintain. Just throw some thin oil in there and you should be good.

Not my frame anymore, got a different one, check my sig.

[Auron]

ya dude nice and awesome i just started BMXing like 4months ago so u no its helpful

[gtbmx0222]

very nice!
def should be put in the tech faq and possibly even a sticky ;)

[ridelife!]

thanks, a sticky would be gnar.

[ridelife!]

wowohweewaaaahhhh. did i ever write a long article. i hope this thing helped people!

[BreakOut]

damn helped me but how do u put the cranks back together???special way on doin that??

[ridelife!]

nope, same way you took them off.