Bike Maintenance Sunday

During the big ride yesterday I noticed that a noise coming from my bike seemed to be worsening. It was kind of like a pop or a creak that happened primarily when I stood on the pedals on a climb, although near the end of the ride it seemed like it was happening more and more.

Today I decided it was time to do something about it. I was pretty sure it was coming from the bottom bracket so I removed the cranks and extracted the bottom bracket and cleaned it up, removed the rust and debris, cleaned out inside the bottom bracket shell and then re-installed the whole thing. It really wasn’t that hard to do when you have the right tools. The most time consuming step was trying to clean up the parts when they are all disassembled.

Then I did a quick test ride around the development. The effort appears to have done the trick. The noise seems to have gone away, although I probably won’t know for sure until I go out for a real ride again. Still, I’m pleased to have found the process to be not all that difficult.

I’ve posted a few before and after pictures of the process over at flickr. Feel free to check them out if you like. I wasn’t documenting step by step, but did think to snap a few pictures showing how dirty the inside of the bottom bracket shell was and how much better it looked after cleaning.

It’s been a bike centric weekend.

Fourth of July bike maintenance

So here are a few pictures from the bike maintenance I did last Friday, the fourth of July.

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This is my new cassette, freshly installed on my rear wheel.

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This is the new cassette viewed from above after installing the wheel back onto the bike. Also, note the new chain.

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This is the old cassette. The picture is a little blurry, but the teeth are fairly worn.

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This is one of the new tires I got after I had a glass puncture the previous week.

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And…the whole bike—two new tires, new cassette, new chain, a little bit of cleaning up, and a spiffy insulated water bottle.