Getting ready for a 50 miler tomorrow with a friend. Decided to check the bike over and clean it up a bit. I didn't expect to find both the idler pulley and the jockey pulley completely gunked up with grit and grime. Tried just chunking it off with some degreaser and a rag but ended up using a flat blade screwdriver to scrape it off. I had no idea that it had accumulated so much junk. I think the cleaning will help the shifting and I just hope the neglect hasn't done any damage to the chain or the cassette. I need to be more conscientious I guess.

Moral of the story, there is more to cleaning than the body of the bike. Come the fall a full bottom up cleaning is in order.