silvio drive wheel removal

[romelman]

You guys have any recommendations on the fastest and easiest way to remove the front drive wheel. I use a different wheel when I use my bike trainer, but wheel removal and exchange for the front is frustrating. It takes me a long time, It would've been faster if I unlinked the chain, remove the skewers, and remove the wheel. But if you have easier and faster ways of doing this without removing the chain, please let me know.

 

[Charles.Plager]

I don't have a Silvio but:
1)

I don't have a Silvio but:

1) Either turn the bike (gasp!) upside-down or make sure it's stable.
2) Put the bike in small-small gearing.
3) You should be able to get the wheel off without taking off the chain. It's a pain on my Sofrider and Mantis, but gets easier with practice.

...

 

[John Dorlon]

I have a Silvio 1.5. 
I turn

I have a Silvio 1.5.

I turn the bike upside down (in the grass - watch out for dogpoo!). Pull out the skewer. it kinda helps to hold the chain tensioner back (yes, you'll get your fingers dirty). Let the RD flop around if it wants to after the wheel comes off. It will go right back into place later when you put the skewer back in.

Just reverse the steps to put it back together. I've never removed the chain (or even thought of it) during this process.

For some reason, this process on the Silvio 1.5 is MUCH easier than on the Vendetta 2.0. I'm not sure why that is.

My advice: Use Gatorskin tires and get fewer flats!

-John

 

[Doug Burton]

I reverse the skewer installation direction...

I slide it in from the drive side.

When I remove the wheel, I can slide it almost all the way out, so it's in far enough to keep the derailleur hanger located.

 

[John Tolhurst]

I meant for the RD hanger on

I meant for the RD hanger on Vendetta 2.0 and Silvio 2.0 to be a snap fit, so once in it would stay there. But it didn't work out that way and there is unfortunately no opportunity for a grub screw fixing as on Silvio 1.5. A drop of supaglue can be used to fix the hanger to the chainstay.

 

[Jeremy S]

I had bad luck with

I had bad luck with superglue, it cracked right off after I tightened the skewer the first time... I cleaned off the residue with acetone and now I just deal with the separate parts.

 

[Eric Winn]

With my Vendetta I generally

With my Vendetta I generally put the boom in my workstand clamp to do this. It is fiddly but I can usually pop the wheel out in under a minute or less and that is going slow to avoid getting chain grease on me.

I don't switch wheels for my trainer as I use a Wahoo KICKR which has a cassette, flywheel, power meter, etc that the bike mounts to.

In my case, I have a SRAM X9 Type 2 rear derailleur which includes a clutch bearing and cage lock. The cage lock is just a pin that holds the cage in the fully extended position. With care I can grab the cage and extend it against the spring and then push in the cage lock pin without getting any grease on myself.

Once the RD cage is extended and locked I flip the rim brake release, pull the skewer out and use the skewer rod to help hold the now loosely hanging chain out of the way so I can pull the wheel and cassette out of the fork dropouts and away from the chain. I then put the skewer back in place to keep the chain stay, fork, RD and hanger, etc together as they don't like to stay together without the wheel and skewer holding everything together. I can usually keep the RD and hanger in place. Sometimes they pop out in which case this process takes longer.

At this point I release the bike from the workstand clamp, move the bike over to the KICKR, pull the QR skewer out of the KICKR and the one in the bike, mount the fork on the KICKR using the skewer rod to again help guide the chain around the KICKR's cassette and then put the KICKR's skewer back in place, check alignment for everything and then clamp it tight.

I am a BIG fan of that little cage lock button on the derailleur! I'm sure having to deal with the RD spring without it is a real PITA.

-Eric

 

[3WHELZ]

I feel your pain.  I

I feel your pain. I experienced two front wheel flats on my Silvio during my Sunday ride, despite having Gatorskins. At home, I simply place it over back of our leather love seat, which has a split back. It take about five minutes compared to the 20 or so minutes in the field.

Like you, I too use a dedicated wheel with the appropriate tire, when using a trainer.

 

[Ivan]

I decided I better practice

I decided I better practice this at home before having to do out on the road. Definitely recommended for Silvio owners to practice this as it is so different usual DF rear wheel removal. After a couple of tries I decided the following was the best way for me:

1. First, shift to small-small, and remove the skewer. I remove the skewer completely and don't use the springs as they serve no function in the Silvio configuration (they do in a DF setup of course.)

2. Shift to small-small of course. Remove drive wheel, and the derailleur will likely pop out as well. Leave it out and arrange it as follows. The fact the derailleur comes out is not a bad thing to me, as Silvio can then stand on on her own on the ground. I found that arranging the derailleur as in the picture below helps me to reassemble the wheel.

3. Fit the wheel with cassette in the correct placement with respect to the chain, then position the derailleur in the approximately correct position as per the picture below. Don't worry about putting the wheel in the dropouts yet, and don't worry that the derailleur hanger is disconnected. In this manner you are dealing with only one step at a time.

4. Now slot the wheel into the dropouts. I find it much easier to slot into the vertical dropouts with the derailleur disconnected. I think this is because the direction of the slot with respect to the derailleur angle is different on Silvio than it is on a DF. With the derailleur disconnected, slotting the wheel into the dropout is no more difficult than on a DF. In the pic below the wheel is in the dropouts, but the derailleur is disconnected.

5. Now that the wheel is in, I can reach over the boom, hold the derailleur with one hand, the chainstay/fork with another, and slot the derailleur hanger in between the chainstay and fork. Ta da! At this point, the skewer goes back on.

PS. Sorry for the toes, but I was bending over the boom and taking pics with my phone while holding onto Silvio. This was a field practice after all so I couldn't use any other props to hold up the bike!

 

[romelman]

what was your time?

Ivan,

Was wondering if you happen to time yourself and what did you come out with?

thanks,
romelman

 

[Ivan]

Romelman, I didn't time

Romelman, I didn't time myself. I would guess 4 min, and with a bit of practice down to 3 min. Mulling it over in my head, I may try removing the RD hanger before taking off the wheel as that allows the chain and RD to "stay organized" which is the key confusing thing for me upon reassembly.

 

[bladderhead]

I have enough trouble getting

I have enough trouble getting the back wheel on and off my Grasshopper. This is when one misses DF bikes.