Saturday, March 08, 2008

Inbetween

As the bloke in the bike shop keeps telling me, touring really takes its toll on a bike, and this winter has been full of lessons in maintenance.

The dynohub needed sending off for repair.

I decided to swap out my chainrings, snapping both the chain and rear derailleur cable in the process.

Then there was the small matter of the front rack bolt being firmly stuck in the braze-on half way up the front fork, its head sheared off by my over-enthusiastic spanner work. Pliers wouldn't budge it. Dgym tried sawing a slot in the end and having a go with a flathead screwdriver. I finally took it into the bikeshop and got it drilled out, only breaking one drill bit in the process. Apparently it's a good idea to remove and re-attach these fixtures and fittings every year or so, just so the metals don't get too cosy with one another. My front racks are now re-attached and ready to go.

So shinyThe combination of new chain and old cassette caused a lot of chain slippage, a classic sign of it being time for a shiny new cassette.

I also have been riding on a Brooks B17 saddle since Christmas, and am pretty happy with how that's working out.

I'm still happy with the chainrings, now that I've taken on a couple of the bigger hills around here I am feeling more and more confident that it was the right choice.

It's not perfect, I could do with overhauling the rear hub and rewrapping the bar tape, but it's good enough for the next trip.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

install bolts with a tiny bit of grease on the threads to prevent seizure.

Hel said...

thanks otto, a very important point which I should have mentioned in the article. Grease is good!