Trail's End Cycling Center

Can it get any weirder?

As we are closing today, a customer comes in with a Giant Trance X Advanced carbon fiber MTB. Just acquired from a friend. Says that someone had used CA (Superglue) to stop the dropper post from sliding down in the seat tube. Mary Ann and I cannot budge it. It is an externally routed KS Dropper. The owner disassembled the dropper's actuation lever and attempted to remove the upper post by loosening the upper lockring. No go. The post is already a goner.

He says that the bike has been to four other local bike shops who tried to free it but gave up and turned him away. He even tried three local body shops. Says one of the bike shops and at least one of the body shops referred him to us (thanks!).

Before we closed for the day, I dribbled a large amount of CA glue softener/debonder down the seat tube. We made no promises when he left the bike with us. The customer's Work Order states that we will need to destroy the stuck dropper post in our attempt to remove it and the possibility exists that we may even damage his carbon frameset. He is fully aware of the consequences.

More to follow tomorrow morning...

Just delivered!

Our customer just took delivery of the first Scott Fastlane 20 eRoad Bike we ordered! The owner pre-ordered his bike in November 2025. Originally scheduled to arrive in January 2026. After several changed delivery dates, it finally arrived just after Memorial Day.

A Class 3 road bike that tips the scales at around 25 lbs! The TQ drive motor engages so seamlessly, you may think that the power going to the rear wheel is solely coming from your legs. Full carbon fiber with a Syncros carbon wheelset, Shimano105 2x12 wireless Di2.

We have had a bunch of recent inquiries about ordering the new Fastlane. Sadly, the 2026 allocation is completely sold out, all sizes, all levels. We should see them again in a few months.

Call us to reserve yours.

Fathers' Day is this Sunday. What father doesn't like or need more bike tools? Bike accessories? Or maybe a new bike? Stop by for some great Fathers' Day ideas.

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"I have fabric stuck in my tire..."

Today, we had the most weird phone call and service request in 15 years.

A woman called and said that she had fabric stuck in the tire/wheel of her daughter's folding eBike. Reminded me of the great opening scene from the movie "My Cousin Vinny" where a local tells Joe Pesci the vibration in the front-end of their Cadillac is due to having "mud in his tires". Mary Ann tells her to bring it in.

She and her daughter show up about an hour before closing time. Yes' she had something stuck in her rear wheel hydraulic brake caliper, jammed between the caliper, brake pads, and brake rotor. It was a black shawl about 6 feet in length. I tried the usual: rolling the bike backwards with weight on the saddle while we tried to pull it free. Nothing budged.

Removed the caliper fixing bolts and tried prying the hydraulic brake caliper upwards. Nothing. I removed the caliper mounting adapter and pulled some more. Nothing.

Finally, I took a soft-faced hammer and tapped upwards on the caliper. It started to move!. To make it easier, I removed the Cotter pin holding the brake pads and H-clip in place and resumed tapping. The hydraulic brake caliper was finally freed from the rotor! The pads and H-clip fell to the ground with a freshly shredded and tattered shawl.

Installed a new H-clip to replace the badly deformed one, re-surfaced the brake pads and re-installed everything. Amazingly, the rotor was completely intact and true.
The tires on this eBike have a contrasting-color wear indicator that shows when the tire needs to be replaced. There is a bright orange spot now showing through the tread. My sense is that when the shawl became wedged and stopped the rear wheel from spinning, she skidded to a stop and wore the tire down to the wear indicator.

Mary Ann comes into the shop. When she sees the tattered fabric on the floor, she asks, "Is there anything you cannot fix?" Well, maybe a broken heart.

I really don't need these mental calisthenics on a daily basis.
The bigger question is why do we see so many odd and unique repair situations only on eBikes? Hmmm.

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Janet Breunig Mountcastle, look familiar? We posted this article about a month ago. Glad we caught it in time.

"My bike doesn't shift well."

Shifting issues can be caused by a bunch of things: derailleur out of adjustment; bent derailleur hanger; worn chainrings, chain, or cassette; worn out shifter; bad shift cable, cable housing, or damaged ferrules. Electronic shifting has its own set of possible issues. Let's just look at mechanical shifting for now and a problem that plagues Shimano 10- and 11-speed STI shifters.

We have see plenty of frayed rear derailleur cables. But the ones that will stop you dead are the ones that fray and break, or get stuck INSIDE the shifter body. If your derailleur cables exit through the side of your Shimano shifter and not the bottom, you may have a shifter that is prone to eating up cables. These cables have a fairly sharp radius where the cable exits the left/inside horizontal edge of the shifter, just before the cable enters the ferrule and cable housing. Left unchecked, the cable can part, leaving cable fragments inside the shifter. If we catch it soon enough, the cable will look like the one in the attached photo.

This is a Shimano OptiSlick cable that came from a Customer's Felt paired with Shimano 105 ST-R7000 2x11-speed shifters. The cable was replaced just over two years ago. He came in concerned that the bike shifted poorly into the smaller cogs. When we disconnected the cable from the rear derailleur and added some cable slack, we had a difficult time pulling the cable out of the shifter body. When we finally pulled the cable clear of the shifter body, we saw this rat's nest.

How to prevent it...

Well, I wish we had a good solution. For countermeasures, we always coat the last 50mm of the cable near the swaged end stop just before it goes into the shifter's cable seat with some Shimano Cable Grease (yes, there is such a thing). The part number for Shimano Cable Grease, sometimes called Special Grease, is Y04180000. The other thing that we have seen improve cable life in these Shimano shifters is Shimano OptiSlick cables (p/n Y60198100). These are not simply just coated cables. The friction-reducing compound is applied in a way more like powder coating and adheres better to cables than anything we have seen, including Shimano's Polymer coatings. But the best solution is regular service.

If in doubt, have us inspect your shifter and shift cable. Catch a worn or frayed cable before it grenades into tiny cable shards inside your shifter.