Repairs and Upgrades

I spent most of my time today doing one of a few small projects on my daily transportation/racing machine/sole method of efficient, independent travel.

Since I'm typing from my phone, I'll keep it short.

First, I replaced the pulleys on my rear derailleur. The original ones were still on there, and even though I turned them around to wear the other side, I decided to go ahead and replace them with pulleys for a mountain bike. I did this for two reasons. First, mountain bike parts are, without a doubt, more robust and made to better manage dirt and water. I need that, since I ride regardless of weather and my maintenance of those parts isn't regular. Second, they use ball bearings (one pulley uses a single row (guide pulley), and the other uses 2 ("G" pulley)). The originals used bushings, which aren't anything compared to sealed bearings. Before putting them on, I repacked the bearings with the grease I like to use.

I also cleaned that derailleur and the front one. The use of the word overhaul would be appropriate, and that's also something that hasn't been done since acquiring the bike. They're clean, greased up, working very smoothly, and ready to go for another year or two (and tomorrow morning to work).

Third, I replaced every cable on the bike (that's 4). It's not very difficult, but did require me to get a specific pair of cutters for the job. I say it's not difficult, and it isn't, but one must pay attention to the radii created by the cables (so they can't be too long or too short), and that takes a bit of patience. I made sure to pack the outer cables under the bar tape with plenty of cable lube. I use Slick Honey, a lube made for this.

Replacing the cables means one also has to re-adjust both brakes and both derailleurs, so everything got a tune up as well. (Everything was already in tune because that's how I keep it, but I had to retune it. Fine tuning will take a few minutes here and there throughout the next week of riding.)

Since to replace two of the cable housings/outer cables requires the removal of the bar tape, I also replaced my bar tape, and even reused some of the old tape on my aero bars. They didn't have any before.

I also deep-cleaned both shifters and re-greased them, a process that's more curious than anything else, since mine can't be disassembled without destroying them. It makes cleaning them... interesting.

The last thing I did was clean the chain. That's fairly routine, nothing special to note.

The parts replaced (not including the bar tape) had been on the bike since purchase just over two years and somewhere around 13 to 15,000 miles ago.

Off to the mall for a quick photo op with an F1 car on display. Finally, a reasonable purpose for a mall!