In true Canadian weather fashion, the weekends have been abysmal! I swear, there's a conspiracy to keep people off the road in training for the Ride to Conquer Cancer. First the weather has been terrible, and now there's an issue with liability and insurance that has essentially ground the ride group that I was a part of last year to a halt. In order to keep my legs (and butt) in saddle form, I've been going to a bunch of spin classes down the street at RPM.
When Lisa was off shopping with one of her friends, I decided that I would bite the bullet and finally tune up my Home Hardware TANK of a bike and get it ready so I can use it as a commuter ride to work. Somehow I've managed to ride this beast for over ten years on and off and never pop a single tube, but I finally did in the fall of last year about a week before it got bitterly cold. I never bothered to fix it, but now that the weather's getting better I figured it was time.
Over the course of an hour or two I managed to:
- Regrease the chain and relube it up
- Take the rear wheel off and remove the treads
- Replace the tube and replace the rear wheel
- Fix the derailleur tension
- Tighten the brake cables
- Reinflate both tires
Not bad for a first timer! I swear that I've gotten soft with my hardware skills, too used to the wonderful world of quick-releases! If all goes well I'm going to be commuting about 24 kilometres round trip to work so that should be decent practice. The only major difference is that this beater is a dual-suspension bike so I'll go from a super soft luxury touring car to a super hard bone shaking supercar when I finally get onto my Cervelo! Wish me luck!
See you at the finish line!
K
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