Monday Blues: Twenty-four Hours Ago

Ah, but you should have seen it twenty-four hours ago. Back then the sludge was thick on those rear derailleur pulleys. I held a screwdriver against the pulleys and spun the cranks - the sludge fell to the floor in sticky clumps and backed up to fill those voids in the aluminum derailleur frame. The chain was black, and as sticky as the stuff that coated it. Because it is a gradual thing, the transition from clean to highly not clean, we may not notice any change. Mile after mile, hour after hour, though, the effect of that sticky gunk adds up. And that's not the only problem - the composition of that gunk, the silica, little fragments of sand, threads (why is there always threads of fabric) and who knows what all else is picked up off the road, causes wear to all those moving parts.

The screwdriver and rag just was not going to do the job this time. The derailleur had to be taken apart (at least the parts through which the chain moves) and sprayed with Muck Off, before they could be wiped down piece by piece, reassembled, and finally, re-lubricated. Only then could I declare the job done. It didn't really take that much time, but it was time that I could have otherwise spent riding. Ha.

Maybe we're just too busy, maybe we just forget, maybe we procrastinate, maybe we have too many bikes. Any one of those reasons, maybe more than one at a time, maybe another not listed, might cause us to overlook the regular cleaning of our bikes. Eventually, though, all that deferred maintenance will catch up, or back up. When that happens you will have to run down to your LBS (wherever that may be), call your Local Bike Stand, or your local VeloFix (who ever that might be), or get your own hands dirty. 

Yes, it is clean now, but you should have seen it twenty-four hours ago.

Now about that frayed cable...