How To Overhaul A Road Bike

This post is mainly going to comprise a series of videos that I produced over the course of 2020, showing how I stripped down my Trek Domane 4.3 road bike to a bare frame and then rebuilt it.

The main issue, at least initially, was the lower headset bearing being totally shot. It turns out you shouldn’t ignore the rusty brown liquid dripping down your forks each time you give the bike a rinse off.

As I delved deeper, I realised that one of the bottom bracket bearings was seized.

And I already knew that a large part of the cabling and drivetrain would need replacing.

So here are all the videos in order.

If you have any questions, either post them in the comments below, or under the relevant video on YouTube, if that’s where you choose to watch them.

You can click here to see a full list of the tools and parts (including links to buy them) I used in the rebuild.

Video 1: Stripping Down The Bike And Working Out What Is Wrong With It

Video 2: Washing All The Parts And Deciding What To Keep

Video 3: Ordering All The Parts And Tools I Will Need

Video 4: Starting The Rebuild (Replacing the Bottom Bracket ¦ Fitting New Chainrings ¦ Refitting The Rear Derailleur)

Video 5: The Rebuild Continues (Fitting Front Derailleur ¦ New Brake Pads ¦ Installing Headset Bearings)

Video 6: Installing New Shimano 105 Gear and Brake Cables

Video 7: Finishing The Overhaul (Installing New Cassette and Chain ¦ Indexing Gears ¦ New Bar Tape)

I hope this post, and this series of videos is useful.

Please do ask any questions in the comments below.

As mentioned, all the tools and parts that I used can be found here.

Monty - Sportive Cyclist
Monty is an enthusiastic road cyclist with only moderate talent. He started Sportive Cyclist in 2013 to record the journey to his first 100 mile ride, the RideLondon 100. Over time the blog has expanded to include training advice, gear reviews and road cycling tales, all from the perspective of a not-very-fit MAMIL. Since you're here, Monty would also like you to check out his YouTube channel. Also, Monty really needs to stop referring to himself in the third person.

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