The plan next Saturday is to have a guest join for a ride on a completely new route. I’ve had some outstanding maintenance issues for Dionysus, and since that’s what the guest will be riding, today was the chance to address those.

The cogs have been a bit noisy since I replaced the original chain with a KMC, and recently the shifting has become a bit iffy. I’ve been fiddling with the cable tension but it has only got me so far. I need the bike to stay in the lowest gear (largest cog) while climbing, while the guest rider needs the highest gear (smallest cog) — which I only use on downhills — for riding on the flats.

Yes, we have a significant difference in our cadences.

I had a list of things to check, and first up was the chain wear. I’ve got a replacement handy (a genuine SRAM chain), but the KMC still has some good life in it.

The next thing to check was the derailleur hanger alignment. I bought a cheap alignment tool a couple of years back when Kuroko tipped over while I was taking a photo, and it did the job. But it’s become very difficult to work with, and at first I think it just made things worse. After struggling with the derailleur adjustment for some time, I removed it to check with the alignment gauge one more time. One quick shove with the tool and things were in better shape on the second go.

I’d meanwhile brushed up on derailleur adjustment as demonstrated by a SRAM mechanic. It was all pretty much as I remembered. The guide got me in the ballpark, but then I did the final tuning just by listening and observing (and ended up a bit different from what was described).

It’s mostly good, though. The bike shifts to both the largest and smallest cogs, and stays there. Ditto all the cogs in between.

Don’t stand so close to me

With the derailleur sorted, I wanted to try a spacer for the crankset. The chainring runs very close to the chainstay. It doesn’t rub when I’m turning the cranks in the stand, but it’s pretty clear from the paint wear on the chainstay that there are times when I’m putting the hammer down that the frame flex allows them to rub.

I haven’t had the crankset off since I rebuilt the bike in 2020, so it took a bit of effort. But after a couple of pronounced cracking sounds, the non-driveside crank came off pretty easily. I took the crankset out and gave it a cleaning and had a look at the bearings. All good there. But it was also clear I didn’t have the spacer — that’s the wrong size.

I do have a set of proper SRAM BB spacers around here somewhere. But for now I just greased up the crankset and reassembled it. The batteries were dying on my torque wrench, so I just gave it a generous amount of torque and then a spin test.

I’ve been meaning for some time to lubricate the break levers. The rear in particular squeaks when used. I nearly forgot again today but then it came to mind just as I was about to remove the bike from the repair stand. I used some thin machine oil around the brake lever pivot, and ran some over the cable and housing where the cable meets the rear caliper. There’s a palpable difference.

The final step was to inflate the tires — they’d fallen to about 20psi — and check that the seatpost could be raised if needed. All set for Saturday’s ride (or will be after I charge the lights and put them back on).