Fun & Fitness over 50

I been doin' some wrenchin' these days.

That is, bike mechanics.

I had a couple of concerns on my road bike.

1. I had been dropping my chain off the small chain ring more frequently and
2. I started noticing a pronounced wobble in my front wheel.

Also, I picked up an older mountain bike
being given away after a garage sale by the side of the road (plus 2 pairs of road bike shoes, my size!)


I thought the mountain bike would make a good comfort bike for Mrs. MTBMan1. The frame was large, our size. The Trek she is currently using is too small, although a nice entry level bike.

First priority was the road bike, 'cause I have a 50 mile charity ride coming up in 2 weeks.

My strategy for the chain was to totally degrease and relube the drive train and then adjust the derailleur if needed. Done. However, while cleaning everything up I noticed that when I installed the new rear shifter cable recently I missed running it through the guide under the bottom bracket. So I partly pulled the cable out to rethread. I had some difficulty 'cause I had almost screwed up this cable when I originally installed it. After I clipped the nipple off one end, it started to unravel making it impossible to thread through the guides. I wound up salvaging it by soldering the end and a place a little ways back from the end where I clipped a strand that was also coming apart. The solder enlarged the cable diameter a bit making it a little hard to get through the holes but I managed it.

Similarly, this time I had trouble because of the soldered areas. I clipped off a little of the end with my cable cutters but they still deform the cable from true round and it has to be finessed back into shape.

Then I tackled the wobble. I thought this was just a matter of spoke tension but I found that a spoke had broken off at the hub. This was the original Raleigh labeled wheel (circa early '80s). I replaced the rear last year after breaking 3 spokes on it at the start of the Tour de Cure 100k (I finished!)

My LBS, Mad Dog Bicycles, won't be open until tomorrow and I know he doesn't stock the 27" wheel that I need so in order to keep in training, I decided to take a spoke from my old rear wheel (even though the spokes are shorter and thicker) and install it on my front.

I got a lot of practice removing and installing my tube on this one. After replacing the spoke, tube and tire I broke another one while tightening it up, so back off with the tire and tube and replace another spoke. I think I broke 2 additional to the original broken one!

After that, I didn't bother trying to tune up the spokes, I just made the replacements "tight enough".

Then a 9 mile easy test ride. Everything seems good.

I got a Crank Brothers speed lever which helps some on the tube/tire removal/replacement.

As for the mountain bike, the shifting was a little sluggish so I decided to replace the rear shifter cable. In trying to remove the old one, I sheared the nut off the shifter top (the cover was already missing). This is an old Shimano Deore XT 5 speed indexed/friction hybrid. Not likely to find a replacement for that so I just ordered a friction shifter.

Also ordered and extended stem and I will put some riser handlebars on it and we should be good to go.