Don’t ever clean your bike! Seriously! Its just not worth it!
I only meant to give it a bit of a de-mudding, last night. Its a rare enough thing in itself. Its normally hurled back in the shed to wallow in filth until next time, with a mere whif of GT85 in the general direction of the drive chain.
Anyway…. first I noticed the headset was a bit notchy, so I took the forks off. I wish I hadn’t. New bearings needed in there, for a start. While the bars were hanging there I thought I’d whip some new cables in, which led me to actually have to look at the drive chain. Hmmmmmmmm. Wish I hadn’t done that either. Its not pretty. In fact, its ****ed! No wonder the shifting is a tad free-spirited. And whats that….. the brakes could do with new pads, and they’re Avids, so a bleed too.
Basically I ended up sat there in a mountain of filthy nackered parts, persuaded off the frame with the aid of a hammer. I’m going to have a right old bill at the LBS at lunchtime 😥
So… my advice is never clean your bike. EVER! No good can ever come of it!
