Spring Cleaning

Last weekend, it seemed that spring was in the air. Winter may be mild in North Texas, but that doesn't mean that things don't slip a little during the winter. With a big, fresh bottle of Eezox Cycle Tune-Up, a sunny day, the afternoon to myself, and a gallon of Simple Green, it seemed time to do a little bike spring cleaning.

Buddy Might Like to be Dirty, but it Also Likes Getting Cleaned Up

First, I cleaned up Buddy. While I haven't ridden Buddy to work much this winter, Buddy got taken exclusively on the worst days of the winter. Rain. Ice. Snow. I paid special attention to the minor damage, such as the scratches on the chain stay, and removing the failed chain catcher. While not shown in the photos, I also removed the water bottle. As located, it makes locking to the bike rack at work more difficult. I don't have an inside office door to park this bike any more ,so it'll have to get a little tougher. While still a very sweet ride, this bike will probably approach 10,000 miles this year, so it's no longer a precious item to be babied so much as it was two years ago.


The Paint Chips on the Chainstay are the Biggest Manifestation of My September Crash



Chain Catcher Broke. You Just Can't Rely on Unreinforced Plastic for Jobs Like This



After getting Buddy all cleaned and lubed, I did the same with my wife's bike. I rode it nearly a thousand miles last year with no more maintenance than chain lube. I went with Eezox for this chain as well. When I asked her when she'd last overhauled the bottom bracket, she replied "you're supposed to do that?"

Apparently, some more work is due on this 40 year-old Nishiki before too awfully long. Among other things, those "suicide levers" will be going and the ancient, plastic bar tape will get replaced by some excellent Fizik tape. I'm afraid to ask how old that chain is. All I can say is that the friction shifting works as well as one might ask for on the bike, so maybe there's been maintenance done on the bike she never knew about. The lock holder got removed after this photo and I'd love to replace the stem shifters with downtube shifters. Campy shifters would look wrong on this bike, but they shift so sweetly!

My Wife's Bike Also Got Some Attention