Trying to breathe new life into my neglected and abused 2012 Carrera Virtuoso which has been recently reintroduced for commuting duty.
The weekends mega degrease and oiling of the drive train has worked wonders. Though it’s currently working as a 2x7 not a 2x8 speed, as it refuses to move up to the largest cog despite tinkering with the rear derailleur setup following the ParkTools video, I suspect I need to adjust the index position but the barrel adjuster won’t budge and the gear cable is frayed up to the nut. I didn’t want to undo that yet as I was still using the bike up until today.
The gear cables need full replacement so it can be set up correctly, so tonight while I wait to collect new inner & outer gear cables tomorrow I thought I’d grease the headstock bearings, a rust stain can be seen on the fork coming from the lower bearing. It works satisfactorily but isn’t super smooth turning.
Anyway, steel forks are fused in the aluminium frame, a rubber mallet and a quick squirt of WD-40 isn’t working so it’s now soaking overnight with more WD-40. Hopefully, it releases its grip tomorrow!
Lesson learnt will do more preventative maintenance in future rather than running it into the ground like I did before.