Prepping my bike for summer plans
Hey BF!
This is my first post, I'm glad to be a part of the forums!
Anyhow, I have a lot of access to some good bike paths and parks really close to me and have decided to put my bike to good use. It's a bike I've had since I was a kid, a 1999 Nishiki Bravo. Great bike, a tad small but I really like the ride and agility of it, although I know there are a lot of much better bikes out there as well. But since I got it when I was a kid, I had no idea how to properly take care of it. There have been quite a few times I've lubed the drive train with extra long blasts of WD-40, gobbs of motor oil, and other assorted fun stuff. Now that I know much better I've stripped down the bike and throughly cleaned the dérailleurs, front sprockets (forgot the name), cassette, and chain. The frame is quite clean now, and so is everything else. I used a chain break tool to get the chain off, and am going to clean it again before I put it back on, then lube it up correctly. I checked for stretch, and it's in good shape. I'd estimate the bike has 75 or so miles on it.
So here's what I'm wondering. The bikes been through a lot of dirt and plenty of other childhood fun, I was thinking of pulling the cassette and other drive train components so I can clean and lube wheel and any other assorted bearings there are, is that something you recommend? What about the fork bearings? Also, my spokes all make a different tune, maybe time for a tension job? I'm pretty mechanically inclined, I'm used to working on cars, the bike stuff is new to me lol. I've done a lot of research on the net but still don't know if some of this is something I should attempt until the bike has higher mileage.
The bike has also been in a pretty serious accident, the pedals, hand grips, and even brake levers were ground down good from sliding down the cement. Should I replace? The brakes have never been the best, just some cheapo pro-max OEM ones. I was thinking of getting a whole new system including the levers. Tires need replacing too, they are kenda alfa bites. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow, but for now I think I need to get to bed! Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks