In the end I held the Tyre Glider in place and worked onwards from there with my usual tire irons. And it did go more easily this time. Once I had one side of the tire off it was pretty easy to remove the tube. I pumped it up a bit and verified there was a pinhole leak in pretty much the spot where I’d been fighting hardest to get the tire back on the rim.

Before inserting the new innertube I gave it a light coating of talcum powder, which ended up all over the rim as I remounted the tire. And in fact this seemed to be more effective than soapy water for easing the tire back onto the rim — either that or the tire is starting to give a little after repeated attempts.

I was still worried of course that I’d pinched the innertube again, but as I inflated the tire it held. I took it right up to the maximum rated pressure, at which point the tire beads seated with two sharp cracks. I let all the air out before reinflating it to 40psi and closing the valve.

Just the first step

With the new tires on the new rims, I was ready to tackle the rest of the maintenance: new cassette, servicing the freehub, new chain, and finally new brake rotors and pads. The first step was to put on the new cassette, because I would use that to pop the freehub off for servicing.

With the cassette serviced, it was time for new rotors front and rear. The rotor is larger on the front — 160mm vs 140mm — but it hadn’t occurred to me previously that the lockring was different style. Back into the toolbox to find the proper socket. Fortunately it’s bright blue, making it easy to spot.

Chains and pads

I didn’t take any photos of cleaning the packing grease off the new chain, measuring it up to the old chain for length, etc. With that done, I turned my attention to servicing the rear derailleur. I’d heard that the Ultegra pulley wheels are higher performance, but when I compared them to what was on the bike, they looked identical — at least the top one. I hadn’t realized before but the lower, tension pulley is an oversized unit with a couple of extra teeth.

I decided to clean and reuse the existing pulleys as there’s nothing wrong with them. Cleaning off the old, caked-on grease was a chore, but they looked much better afterwards. I spent more time cleaning what I could off the derailleur cage and the mech itself before reassembling it.

It was a tight fit getting the new brake pads in. The bicycle has been hanging in the stand for three weeks without wheels, and without rotors between the pads. I probably should have removed the old pads three weeks ago and stuck bleed blocks between the pistons. Fortunately I have a piston press tool and I was able after some effort to get the new pads in and, finally, the wheels back on the bike.

The final steps were to put the chain on and adjust the derailleur and brakes. The chain came with a quick link, which was a bit of a surprise to me as I’ve always had Shimano chains without a quick link in the past. I have a quick link tool so it shouldn’t have been an issue, but as hard as I pulled I knew the quick link wasn’t fully locked into place. I oiled the chain and then when I set the bike on the floor I used the pedal to pop the quick link into place, which it did with a loud pop.

The brakes are another story. The rear seems OK but the front is dragging considerably. It probably needs a good bleeding. As close as I was to finishing the job, I decided I’d had enough for the day and so the bleeding and brake adjustment will need to await another day. Ditto the derailleur adjustment.

Maintenance record

Kuroko is 6km shy of 19,000km ridden, according to Garmin, so we’ll use that as the mark. I’ve replaced the following:

• Rims
• Tires
• Cassette
• Chain
• Rotors
• Brake pads

In addition to the above, I cleaned and serviced:

• Freehub
• Rear derailleur