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Your least favorite bike chore.

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

Your least favorite bike chore.

Old 03-05-18, 02:00 PM
  #26  
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I'm also anti cleaning the cassette.
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Old 03-05-18, 02:02 PM
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Originally Posted by arizonamed
How many miles do you go between changing bar tape? My current tape has about 1300 miles on it and looks brand new still.
I frequently change handlebar tape too.
I just like the change of colors. Not the act of changing the tape.
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Old 03-05-18, 02:07 PM
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1) Any messy teardown or bike cleaning project while living in apt. with my super neat freak fiancee. Best attempted when the mrs is out of town on a job. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT SO CLOSE TO MY NEW RUG!!!"

2) Handlebar tape - really, being a creative professional, flytier, fairly handy, OCD etc. I should be a natural at this! Nope -maybe it;s the OCD thing, but it always seems to take me forever trying to get it perfect. I've ripped expensive tape more than once, just the other day as a matter of fact! Always dread this-but also love me some crisp new tape.
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Old 03-05-18, 02:56 PM
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Originally Posted by indyfabz
Colavita extra virgin chain lube. You can find it on your grocer's shelves and at high-end specialty shops.
Genco olive oil is the clear choice. Ask Michael Corleone.
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Old 03-05-18, 02:58 PM
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Originally Posted by noodle soup
Genco olive oil is the clear choice. Ask Michael Corleone.
The Corleone family got out of the "olive oil" business a long time ago. It's now completely legit.
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Old 03-05-18, 03:03 PM
  #31  
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With so many people voicing displeasure with cleaning the cassette, it makes me wonder about the efficacy of the cassette floss that I've seen at the LBS. Who's tried it?
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Old 03-05-18, 03:05 PM
  #32  
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I'm wondering how people are cleaning their cassettes....

I've got a windex bottle full of simple green. A few sprays on the cassette, 30-60 seconds of scrubbing with a wire brush, hose off.

No big deal. Some of you guys must be pretty anal...

Show your hands now. Who here is removing their cassette and getting a toothbrush out??
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Old 03-05-18, 03:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Abe_Froman
I'm wondering how people are cleaning their cassettes....

I've got a windex bottle full of simple green. A few sprays on the cassette, 30-60 seconds of scrubbing with a wire brush, hose off.

No big deal. Some of you guys must be pretty anal...

Show your hands now. Who here is removing their cassette and getting a toothbrush out??
It sounds like many people are using Chain-L, or some other lube that leaves their cassette filthy.
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Old 03-05-18, 03:14 PM
  #34  
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Rear cassette cleaning is the worst followed by truing a wheel. Favorite thing to do is replace outboard style BB or the chain. Something satisfying about unscrewing and threading in that BB cup and measuring, marking, cutting and pushing in the pin.

I like wrapping bars esp when you get the overlap all sexy :-p
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Old 03-05-18, 03:40 PM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by noodle soup
It sounds like many people are using Chain-L, or some other lube that leaves their cassette filthy.
Weird. I use Chain-L, but my cassettes don't end up filthy.
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Old 03-05-18, 04:10 PM
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Originally Posted by kreative
Re-cabling & derailleur adjustments....
how often does each need to be done?
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Old 03-05-18, 04:12 PM
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Originally Posted by ThermionicScott
Weird. I use Chain-L, but my cassettes don't end up filthy.
I’m not saying that the cassette was a gunked up filthy mess, but it was definitely dirty.

Chain-L works well as a lube, but it’s not for those that like a clean drivetrain. It works well for some environments, but there are better choices for road riders in the SW.
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Old 03-05-18, 04:14 PM
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Originally Posted by indyfabz
The Corleone family got out of the "olive oil" business a long time ago. It's now completely legit.
Thank you Tom Hagen.

Last edited by noodle soup; 03-05-18 at 04:17 PM.
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Old 03-05-18, 04:26 PM
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Doesn't happen frequently, but lining up up handlebars with the wheel/fork and making sure shifters are lined up is supremely annoying (especially if your bike is already cabled up). It just always seems to be ever so slightly off.

Other than that, dealing with caked on brake dust after wet rides (all the time in the PNW) is the worst.
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Old 03-05-18, 04:26 PM
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Originally Posted by WhyFi
With so many people voicing displeasure with cleaning the cassette, it makes me wonder about the efficacy of the cassette floss that I've seen at the LBS. Who's tried it?
I have, didn't like it. The floss likes to snag on the teeth.

Fortunately, I use dry lube, and that keeps cassette mess down to a minimum.
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Old 03-05-18, 04:27 PM
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Pumping the tyre with a minipump after fixing a flat in the cold winter rain. It just sucks.
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Old 03-05-18, 04:47 PM
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Cleaning the factory oil/grease/gunk off a new chain. Oh wait, is this going to derail the thread?
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Old 03-05-18, 04:49 PM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by Racing Dan
Pumping the tyre with a minipump after fixing a flat in the cold winter rain. It just sucks.
Yup. I've had too many of the stupid little pumps break on me.

Always used to think the CO2 thing was a bit gimmickey...until I tried it, and it actually [I]works more reliably[I] than a minipump IMO.
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Old 03-05-18, 05:02 PM
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For a moderate level of grime it does work ok - about the same as a twisted strip from an old T shirt. For dirtier jobs though, best to remove the cassette.

Originally Posted by WhyFi
With so many people voicing displeasure with cleaning the cassette, it makes me wonder about the efficacy of the cassette floss that I've seen at the LBS. Who's tried it?
Yeah it does snag, t-shirt strip less so

Originally Posted by Wileyrat
I have, didn't like it. The floss likes to snag on the teeth.

Fortunately, I use dry lube, and that keeps cassette mess down to a minimum.
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Old 03-05-18, 05:04 PM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by cthenn
Cleaning the factory oil/grease/gunk off a new chain. Oh wait, is this going to derail the thread?
Sheldon says DON'T DO THAT.

I agree.
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Old 03-05-18, 05:38 PM
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Originally Posted by MagicHour
For a moderate level of grime it does work ok - about the same as a twisted strip from an old T shirt. For dirtier jobs though, best to remove the cassette.

Yeah it does snag, t-shirt strip less so
Having lost a bunch of weight riding, I have a big bucket of old t-shirts that used to fit me and are now just fodder for cassette cleaning these days.

I tend to pull the wheel, soak the cassette down from my giant spray bottle of simple green (or generic orange) cleaner, then run a big plastic bristled brush (intended for use with a matching dustpan) through the cassette until I'm confident it's mostly scrubbed every bit of it. Finally, laboriously pull t-shirt through each cog-space up the cassette then down again, occasionally blowing out any residual cleaner on the spokes and so on. Once I'm done with the cassette, the rest of the wheel gets a thorough wipe-down as well.

It's an ugly chore I tend to only do once every couple of months.

It is definitely nice to have the shiny-cassette feeling again, though.
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Old 03-05-18, 06:42 PM
  #47  
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General drive train cleaning for me, especially the chainrings . I get my knuckles are chewed up.

Fav is polishing the chrome and waxing the frame. KB.

Added : I use Chain-L, not problem with being overly dirty, and what Sheldon says about not removing factory lube from a new chain. KB
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Old 03-06-18, 02:45 AM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by Velo Vol
Anything other than riding it.
Yes!

Actually, I haven't done too much, but cleaning my chain was not worth the effort for all the mess I made. I still have not done enough to find other things that really drive me nuts.
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Old 03-06-18, 05:32 AM
  #49  
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Washing the bike. Living in an apartment means putting it in the shower-tub. The whole process is so awkward and laborious, and then there's all the post clean-up clean-up. Meanwhile, I've found that sometimes, all that's really necessary is a wipe-down, and I was happily surprised at how good a job just a soft, dry cloth did. I credit that in part to the fact that I'd applied some spray polish (like Pledge) before taking the bike out.
I don't mind cleaning the cassette too much, but the crank set and derailleurs are just so awkward....
Second least favorite: changing tires. I'm incompetent - always working up a sweat, hurting my hands. But I must say, I feel like a champ once I've done it.
My fingers are too clumsy and my eyesight is too poor to do anything dealing with tiny screws, so derailleur adjustments are out of the question. I tried it a couple of times and only succeeded in making things worse.

Last edited by kbarch; 03-06-18 at 05:39 AM.
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Old 03-06-18, 06:05 AM
  #50  
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Originally Posted by noodle soup
Thank you Tom Hagen.
The Godfather II was on AMC last night.
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