Overhaulin' the Bike

The spring season here in Wisconsin has sucked. March was cold and wet. April was cold and wet. And May has been a bust so far. Of six rides last week, five were in the rain. And all of that was after five months of riding in the snow, sand and salt of winter.

What is this leading up to? Time to overhaul the bike. In this case, the Colnago CT2, which has now been relegated to a rain/crappy weather bike.

After removing the wheels, brakes, derailleurs, seatpost, saddle, bottle cages, handlebars and fork it was time to take off the bottom bracket so I could give the frame a good cleaning inside and out. Take a look at what I found after removing the crank;



And here is what was beneath the bottom bracket;



And the bottom bracket itself. The Boss says to clean it up and reuse it but I am dubious after taking a good look at it;



It's a good thing I have a spare on hand. The other good thing is that about a half a pound of water and gunk came out of the frame. It'll feel light and fast when it's back together.

Tomorrow I'm going to break down the wheel hubs. I've never done this on the new sealed bearing type hubs. It should be interesting.

By the way, if you've got your bike set up in a comfortable position you want to take care to note where all of the parts are and how everything is set up before taking it apart. Or if you're trying to set up a new or second (or third, or fourth...) bike to match the first one. Here's an extremely handy chart for you to jot down on paper the position of everything;

Elviskennedy Position Chart1

Take the quick 20 minutes needed to complete it. One day you'll be glad you did.

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