Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Historic Heat

Oh enough! This summer has been epic. We're breaking records from the summer of 1980. Though I was young... I remember that summer. I played outside constantly. But returned inside each day at lunch to watch the weather with Rob Robin on KPLC. to see if we'd broken a record. I remember him talking about the extensive drought in Texas, which seem so far away. This summer was the exact same weather pattern, exact same results.

I'm officially tired of it. Today I simply don't feel like fighting it. Just as well, as there is work to be done. The HighBall is filthy. Gritty. With the dry weather, comes dusty trails, leads to gritty bikes. It's been a while...

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...there is Colorado dirt, Houston silty moon dust, and Texas hill country lime powder on there.


The cleaning goes well. With some additional steps. I've had the freehub not, errr, free a few times on the trail. Not consistantly, but every now and again I'd stop pedaling but the chain would keep going. Given that this rear (PowerTap) hub is a couple of years old, investigating is in order.

I'm a bit nervous about this. I generally avoid freehub internals. Throwback to childhood, when my dad once warned never to take that apart or I'd never get it back together. Naturally, I took it apart. And quickly discovered my father (like most things in life) was right.

Freehubs are much simpler today. So before I wrap a brand new XTR derailler around my spokes and take out a seat stay... I dig in. As I put the cone wrench on the axle... it's loose. Not even finger tight. Hmmm. It all comes apart easy. Here's the culprit...

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Some cleaing, degritting, regreasing and all appears mostly well. The pawl seems to 'catch' a bit. Maybe replace soon? Reassembly is easy. Just crew on the axle flat, preload the bearings, ready to go. It's a lot quieter now too. We'll see how it holds together.

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