Well, at least why I hated the bike last night. Jumped on for a quick spin on the trainer last night - ended up riding for a total of 15 minutes over a 90 minute period…
First, the front derailleur cable wasn’t working well since it had stretched…long story short…tried to fix the cable, stripped a bolt, fixed the bolt, back on the bike.
Then, was getting some slippage while spinning…another long story short…twist in the chain, busted link…got off, started to fix that and what should have been a quick fix ended up taking much longer…hands covered in grease…pissed at the world…but finally it was working again.
By now I was just angry at the world since these two fixes had taken me so long so I packed it in for the night.
All I could think was what a pain the bike can be due to the mechanical nature of it all…if my goggles leak, I tighten the strap…on the run, not much mechanical (other than me) that can go wrong. But when it comes to the bike…I was about to throw her across the room last night. She wasn’t behaving well.
I couldn’t agree more! Perhaps why this “run focused” summer is going to turn into a run focused life for me (or at least until I start breaking down more!)
However, those days cruising along effortlessly at 25+ MPH (10% ST inflation rate already included) are so worthwhile!
Regular routine maintenance will prevent most problems. Other than the occasional flat, it’s been years since I had any troubles and I’ve gone thousands of miles.
I feel your pain… I have become the defacto wrench for my training buddies. Seems I am always fixing, replacing, optimizing something.
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It can also win you a lot of brownie points and free beers.
In my experience an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. All “my” bikes get a clean, lube and tune ~ every 2 weeks. Keeps major problems to a minimum.
Plus - while bikes require relatively more overhead in terms of prep work… it still hurts a lot less the next day than running.
