Those little maintenance jobs...

[Arch]

I'm crap at them. My winter hack was built up for very little money out of the odds and ends we had lying around. Works fine, but for one little thing - the twist shifter for the gears, which had lost it's rubber sleeve. Never mind, we bodged it with a short piece of bar tape, mostly held on with a zip tie, and one day, it would get glued on properly. It worked, but it slipped a bit sometimes.

Well, being me, it never was, and two years later, it was still held on by faith and a zip tie. Everyso often, I'd tighten it all up, and swear I'd remember to glue it on properly. Soon.

So, this week, it came completely loose, and being on the way to work, I pulled the bar tape off to deal with later. And discovered that the plastic underneath was actually much grippier than I thought. Grippier than the bit of old bar tape in fact. Result, after 2 years, much easier shifting.

I suppose if I'd ever got round to gluing it on, I'd never have discovered it was easier without it!

Does anyone else leave things like this (bike or other stuff) for ever, or are you all terribly efficient?

 

[Crackle]

Chains and transmission: Absolutely hate cleaning them. Gritted my teeth today and did the roadbike after feeling guilty reading the chain maintenance threads. Very satisfying at the end though. Going to do the mtn bike next.

 

[PrettyboyTim]

I cleaned the chain and transmission over the weekend, in the kitchen. Luckily my Wife was out as I made a terrible mess (cleaned up before she returned), but having done the 'Sheldon Shake' in degreaser with my chain and scrubbed it thouroughly and scrubbed all the gears with degreaser, after rinsing, an oiling and a few gear changes and revolutions of the chain, loads of black gunk appeared on it again from nowhere...

I don't know why I bother!

 

[Crackle]

... an oiling and a few gear changes and revolutions of the chain, loads of black gunk appeared on it again from nowhere...

I don't know why I bother!

I know this! I resorted to cleaning the gaps between every link with a thin cloth. Eventually after about thirty minutes it began to work. I now get a very light black off it. So much for Mickles '4 minutes job done'

Mind you it might help if I did it more than once a year

 

[mickle]

So much for Mickles '4 minutes job done'

FFS you're not supposed to actually ride the bike between cleaning jobs!! That'll get it all dirty again. like duh.

 

[frog]

Anything with a screwthread!

I can cross it - strip it - leave it too loose - not copper grease it so it never comes undone.

 

[domtyler]

Any job that needs doing gets done straight away round here. "Never put off 'til tomorrow what you can do today" is my maxim.

*cough*bullshit*cough*

 

[simoncc]

My bikes are always kept in good mechanical order. It's the rest of my stuff that I neglect as much as I can get away with - the house, the car and most disastrously the garden. It's amazing how few years it takes a sycamore seed to grow into a huge 30ft tree.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I'm not too bad with bikes, but my car has been running intermittently on three cylinders for months now. I really must get around to having a look at it one of these days.

 

[mickle]

Arch, you and your bicycle are always welcome at the workshop for some TLC you know.

 

[Keith Oates]

The C40 gets TLC everytime I use it but the others are not so well looked after although they are generally OK. However away from the bikes things tend to get forgotten until they are completely broken and have to be fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TheDoctor]

Some of my bikes get regular attention, gears tweaked whether they need it or not, all that stuff. My pub bike never gets touched except to pump the tyres up. I've never oiled the chain because I can't be bothered to get the chaincase off, and it's still (I think) on the original tyres. It was made in 1969, so it's only a couple of years younger than me.
I've got too many bikes. And I want a fixie And a recumbent.

 

[Arch]

Arch, you and your bicycle are always welcome at the workshop for some TLC you know.

Aw, cheers, I know. The thing is, if I spent 6 months looking at the bike on the other side of the room while it was 'off season', and never fixed that tape, the chances of me making the effort to ride to the workshop specially...

I've had an inner tube hanging up in my kitchen for 6 months. Replaced it because it was flat, then checked it in the sink for a puncture, found nothing, must just have been the 6 months storage, thought I'll hang this here to dry off and then roll it up... and it's still there...

I'm useless.

RT, I saw a dog on Crufts at the weekend, does agility tests with only three legs. If it can do that, your car will be fine....

 

[Arch]

Some of my bikes get regular attention, gears tweaked whether they need it or not, all that stuff. My pub bike never gets touched except to pump the tyres up. I've never oiled the chain because I can't be bothered to get the chaincase off, and it's still (I think) on the original tyres. It was made in 1969, so it's only a couple of years younger than me.I've got too many bikes. And I want a fixie And a recumbent.

And the same age as me! I'll make the remarks about also never getting touched because no one can be bothered to get my chaincase off, before any of you lot do..

You can never have too many bikes. Ideal number of bikes is n + 1, where n = current number of bikes...

 

[John the Monkey]

I'm absolutely paranoid about wrecking the new bike by inattention, so I don't leave anything outstanding very long, myself.