Bicycle Mechanics - Bringing a Road Bike Out of Six Years of Storage

Well, after doing a windy 65 mile club ride yesterday, I finally feel out of place on full-blown touring bike (with rear rack, no less) when everyone else is on serious to bloody serious road bikes (Ti is almost passe).

The time's come to clean and tune up my '91 RB-1, and I started the process today. I last rode it 6-7 years ago in Maryland (before kids), and it's been in storage, and moved cross-country, ever since (hung up in garage). I started off with cleaning everything with some Citrus degreaser, and then polishing with BikeLust.

Both tires took air fine, but the front tire is flaking bad and needs replacement (Supercomp HD, 700x23). Trued the front wheel, and the bearings felt fine (I did the last full rebuild myself). The crank and rear hub felt fine as well. I haven't checked the headset yet.

Drive train cleaned up fine, and my chain checker showed about .6 stretch on the chain, so it should be okay for awhile. The cogs look almost new, but the chainrings are looking pretty sharp on the teeth. After the citrus dries out of the chain, I'll apply White Lightning.

The barcons shift fine, as does the original Ultegra 600 derailleurs. The BRS 300 brakes needed cable tightening, but the blocks looked fine.

I don't have time to re-lube all the bearings-- should I have this done before any serious riding, or should the Phil's Grease I have in there from 7 years ago still be okay? It doesn't appear that things have dried out terribly. I'll also pull the seatpost and stem and relube them with white grease just for good measure before I ride it again for the first time.

So, the plan is to do a shortish test ride, listening for creaks or bad feels. If it feels good, I might simply put on a new front tire and ride it for the season and then have it professionally rebuilt at the end of the year. Or, given it's time in storage, should I have that done right away and avoid possible damage to the BB, headset, hubs, etc?

Any thing else to check out or have checked out before riding? I had my touring bike checked out last year (also from six years of storage), and they said the bearings and all looked fine (I also did the last rebuild job on it).

Thanks!

I don't know how long Phils holds up without drying out. Why not pull apart the front hub(easiest) and take a look. If it seems OK and the others were done around the same time with the same stuff and they feel smooth you should be OK. I would take care of that tire soon, those dry sidewalls like to tear with little provocation.

You can defer service on the rest of the bike a little while but a failure of your front wheel can put you on the ground. Check out those bearings and treat your self to a good tire and tube.
Call it a safety issue, you need to ride the fast bike to stay with the group (safety in numbers), the bike needs a new tire to prevent a trip to the er. ENJOY!

Thanks for the replies-- replacing the front tire is no big deal, and I'll likely do that before riding more than a hundred yards.

Rev. Chuck, your suggesting about opening up the front hub is also good. Won't take long, and it should give me a good idea of how the grease looks. From that I'll make a decision on the rest.

Now that the bike is down and all polished, it's hard not to head for the horizon, though.

Quick Update:

After replacing the front tire (with a new supercomp), and double-checking the front hub, headset, etc., I took the RB-1 out on Saturday for a test ride. It was dreamlike. Wonderful ride and feel, great on the climbs, fast on the flats, solid on the downhills.

Here I've been daydreaming about a new roadie, but this bike flies. Such a major difference from my mtb and touring bikes. A few more tweaks, and it's time for more club rides. Amazing how much fun a solid road bike can be.

Glad it turned out well, just think of all the people who you will make unhappy cause they spent big bucks to go that fast.