Category: Maintenance
-
Get unbent
When preparing for last week’s sakura ride, I noticed the valve core in the front wheel is bent. It’s an easy fix: swap out for a new core and reinflate the tire. I even had the spare and a tool on hand, but I didn’t relish the job of reinflating the tire from empty with…
-
The Snail is Back, B’s!
I had other plans on Saturday that kept me off the bike, but it was all to the good as there was quite a wind, and today was milder. I’ve been eager to get Hornsby out for a test ride following the drivetrain replacement (see Part I and Part II), and it was only a…
-
Matched Set II
I took a pause in the Deore drivetrain swap for Hornsby when I had some alignment and clearance issues with the new derailleur. In addition to sleeping on the issue for a couple of nights, I consulted the shop manual several times to make sure I had done everything by the book. While I was…
-
Matched Set I
With the memory of the shifting issues on last week’s ride fresh in mind, and with a belly full of the appropriate beverage, I decided it was time to change Hornsby from the SRAM drivetrain inherited from Dionysus and go instead for a roughly equivalent Shimano set-up. To be honest I’ve been contemplating this for…
-
Workshop twofer
The weather would have been OK for a ride today — clear and warm in the sun, with just a bit of chilly wind — but it’s a maintenance day. Hornsby has been in the Workshop in the Sky for several weeks, since the chain incident, simply because there hasn’t been enough sunlight for commuting.…
-
International Twist Your Seatpost Day
Happy International Twist Your Seatpost Day to all who celebrate! And that should include everyone who has a seatpost. It’s very simple to play along: It’s important to do this on a regular basis — at least once a year — to avoid having the seatpost seize in the bicycle frame. Take it from someone…
-
Catch-up potpourri
I’ve been quiet over the past couple of weeks as I’ve struggled with the aftermath of a self-inflicted mechanical, something that I really should know better than to have allowed to have happened. I was able to get home with no trouble, but when I hit a roadblock in sorting out the problem, I got…
-
Dunning–Kruger effect
Last week, on the first ride for Kuroko since I started a sweeping round of maintenance in July, I thought the gears were making a bit of noise and the shifting was somewhat sluggish. I was nearly home before I discovered the issue: I’d routed the chain improperly through the rear derailleur cage. With rain…
-
Breaking Bad
Today marked my second attempt to replace the front caliper for Kuroko following the hack job to unscrew the rounded bleed screw. I had no trouble returning the faulty caliper I’d installed a couple of weekends ago, and I received the replacement today, a day sooner than expected. Installing the new caliper and bleeding the…