Bike maintenance

[johnridley]

I had a flat on the back Friday morning, so while I had the wheel off I put a non-studded tire on. The flat was just a snake bite; I let the tire pressure get too low (I'd been running low (about 35 PSI) for the extra snow traction). In the process I realized that the mount pivot on my rear derailler was seized up.

Saturday I decided that the tire I had on the back, I'd rather have on the front. It's a Top Touring 2000 that erikvolson gave me back in 2008. He gave me a pair but the one on the back didn't last the whole season. This is the one that was on the front, and I decided to put it back on the front. The rear now has the Race Lite that was on the front for 2006 and 2007, and finished up the 2008 season when the TT2K didn't make it.

I also had to remove the rear derailler; the pivot point was crammed with fine dirt that wouldn't just loosen up with lube, I had to take the shaft and loading spring out, clean and relube. Since I had to remove the chain to get the RD off anyway, I cleaned it (which I rarely do) and relubed. Wow, that chain's really loose now (in a good way). It was so full of dirt that it was difficult to bend side to side. I also loosened the rear derailler cable by about 1/16th inch, since it's tended to shift just a hair low and sometimes in the lower gears it wants to drop into the next lower gear. The adjustment barrel up front was all the way in so I had to actually move the cable.


Tire history (to put this all in one place):
2004:
0: Kenda stock tires new
2150: Kendas off (year net 2150), nokians on

2005:
2800: Nokians off (net 650), Kendas on
3906: Kendas off (net 1108), Nokians on

2006:
5208: Nokians off (net 1302), Kendas on
5250: Kendas dead (42 miles, total miles 3300)
5250: Race Lite new 2006
8459: Race Lite off for winter (net 3209 miles)
8459: Nokians on

2007:
9800: Nokians off (year net 1341 miles)
9800: Race Lite back on for 2007
12343: Race Lite off for winter (net 2543 miles), rear race lite now dead @ 5752 miles, front still OK
12343: Nokians on

2008:
12908: Nokians off (year net 565 miles), retired (total 3858 miles)
12907: TT2K on, new 2008
15134: TT2K rear sidewall blowout, probably damaged by me when installing (dead @ 2227 miles)
15134: Race Lite re-installed
15715: Marathon Winters installed new, TT2K off (year net 2808), RL off (year net 581 miles)

2009:
16815: Marathon Winters removed (net 1100 miles), TT2K and RL back on

So the Race Lite on the back is currently at 6333 miles, and the TT2K on the front is at 2808 miles. The Nokians lasted 3858 miles. The one that was on the front actually still has some life left in it.

So anyway, the studded tires are off. This, of course, means one more ice storm before spring.

Odometer: 16815

Comments

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

Ice storm: Apparently I was wrong, and it's not happening this week. Rely on it for next week. :-)