America's #1 Balance Bike Destination

America's #1 Balance Bike Destination
America's #1 Balance Bike Destination

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Cleaning Day! (Night?)

Cleaned my little red Hyundai inside and out.. and just now, I finished cleaning my chain, cassette and chainrings. Weird time to be up, but I've been meaning/needing to do it for weeks and never felt like it until 11:00 pm tonight.. Yes it took two hours. I scrubbed the cassette (while on the wheel) with a scrub brush soaked in laundry detergent (nothing less will emulsify the grease). It's shiny and like new (smells good too) The chain is a horror show.. I don't have a chain cleaner tool, so I blast it 5-6 times with a spray solvent and wipe it down in between applications. How to get the grime from inside of the links? Thread a long thin piece of cloth through there, three links at a time, and pull it through. Took a while.. but I'm not in the mood to buy a new chain. Chainrings were easy.. Brillo pads in the sink. And of course I polished the entire bottom bracket area before re-installing the rings. I've had this bike since August 3rd of last year. Bought it off Thom Norton (after getting hit by a car and losing my EPX bike) for a great price (I should have bought all of his inventory back then.. regrets) I'm thinking I want to get a Powertap race wheel- tubular. Maybe Ebay has something I can afford.. Speaking of Powertap.. I've come to the conclusion (and Solobreak will give this a hardy "Bah!" when he reads it) that Powertap is such a vital tool for improvement that I'd sooner give up my STI shifting than give up the Powertap.. Yes, I'd rather have SIS downtube shifters than ride without a power reading in my face at all times. It's a realistic position to take, once you've tried it. So it's almost 1:30 AM. Oh well. Gotta take care of the bike if it's gonna take care of me.. I'm almost over yesterday's melt down. Beating myself up for racing poorly, with indigestion and fatigue.. even after making a great bridge to the break.. Can't be so hard on myself. It's still better than missing the break on a good day, I suppose. Thanks for reading.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Murat,

Try using Simply Green. It works like a charm on bike/chain dirt. Also, I save old tooth burshes to clean my chain with.

A clean bike is a happy bike.

Anonymous said...

Hi Murat

Yeah, I'm a big fan of the power tap. I even think its more useful in a race. I was getting my fat ass dropped on every hill, but I realised that i was pushing too big a gear, cadence dropped to 60rpm, power in the 230-250 range. when i dropped down the gears. cadence at 80-85 power was in the 400Ws range and i was only getting dropped less often.

Also, i find it great on long intervals to control the effort. My heart rate responds quite slowly and drifts for say most of a 15-20min interval. with power it easier to control the effort.

kieran

IMA said...

nhrider: I broke down and bought a $25 chain cleaner the other day (Park). I passed on the $9 solvent though. It was nothing more than mineral spirits with a fragrance added.

Kieran: I wish I bought a Powertap years ago. Then again I also wish i hired a coach years ago too.