Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Northampton, MA
Posts: 956
Bikes: Iron Monkey: a junkyard steel 26" slick-tired city bike. Grey Fox: A Trek 7x00 frame, painted, with everything built, from spokes up. Jet Jaguar: A 92 Cannondale R900 frame, powder coated matte black with red and aluminum highlights.
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Simple Green, then alcohol, then lube. That's worked for me in supercrud situations.
On the other hand, citrus oil (Goo-Gone, e.g.) works *really* well and dissolves in oil, so you can dry and lube immediately.
There are lots of great LBSes around Cambridge. You could even head out to Newton and hit up Harris. In any event, replacing a bottom bracket isn't a big deal, and you'll want to learn how to do it anyway. You'll need a crank puller and a bottom bracket tool.
It's possible that it's a bottom bracket type that's not common anymore. If that's the case, watch while the LBS removes it if you can just so you can see what's in there. They'll replace it with a modern type, and you can get the tool to swap it out when it dies.
Crank pullers are about ten bucks and BB tools are usually less.You can't really get by with substitute tools. They both do weird things.