It’s been more than a week since I used by bike (discounting the daily trip to the William Gates Building and a couple runs into town)!
Despite another particularly busy week I did want to go cycling but wouldn’t allow myself to due to the state that my bike had got into. Over the term I’ve cleaned the chain a fair few times, but was only lubricating it with 3-in-1 oil. Consequently it really needed replacing. Additionally, the rear brake had lost a lot of power and the front was starting to as well. I suspected this was due not to wear of the pads but due to excess friction between the cables and cable outers – presumably due to dirt getting in them. So, I ordered a new chain (nickel plated, with a quick-link – small upgrade there), a pair of brake cables, some general purpose bike, brake and chain cleaners and some wet and dry lubricants. The order arrived on Wednesday, but I had to wait until Thursday evening before I had time to do the work.
This is what it looked like before:
Close up of chain and rear wheel:
Close up of cassette after having cleaned it:
Looks a little bit worn! That said it seems to be working fine, and my understanding is that though a stretched chain wears a cassette, there is little risk of a worn cassette wearing a chain. So, I will probably just keep using this cassette until it causes noticeable problems in use.
Looks a little bit cleaner! The finished job:
I ended up partially disassembling the chain tensioner – having taken the wheels and chain off I noticed the jockey wheels were harder to spin that they ought to be, thanks to a load of dog hair caught up in them (that’s the problem with the garage at home – it’s full of the stuff). I took these off and gave them a good clean. Prior to putting the new brake cables in I washed out the cable outers with WD-40, and having put them in repositioned the static pads.
Keen to use it having not allowed myself to for a week, I went out on my usual North West route this afternoon. There were pretty strong winds in places which really slowed me down, but in the calmer parts I was reaching speeds I don’t think I normally would do – so presumably there is now less friction in the drive-train. Annoyingly Google My Tracks has done the same thing it’s done once before and only recorded half the route – based on the section My Tracks did record my average moving speed was 24.86km/h. Route:
View North West Cambridge 20 in a larger map
Here is the Google Doc with all the stats:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0At0EKwdiLZmYdFg4Mk9fdHltdWlGeWpQTHMzM3RjU3c&hl=en_GB