Cones and cups

[roadrunnertwice]

Sing calloo and callay for overhaul season, and for grease under my nails again! My bike was getting a little wobbly and uncertain-feeling after the winter, and yesterday was a nice cloudy Saturday that I didn't mind blowing on some DIY, so I hied me to A Better Cycle and overhauled both hubs and my headset. (My bike is more than twenty years old, and I'm pretty sure most of the parts are about the same age; those three bearing assemblies have built up some pitting, and they slowly wear out their BBs and get looser over the course of a half-year or so. I mean, like all such do, but I really do think they need a re-up more often than a fresher kit would.)

Anyway, vive la difference -- Brigadelle feels *much* faster and more responsive, like it was a bear that just shook off the last haze of hibernation.

I love doing that work. Honestly, it would make way more sense to have the shop handle it, since they can work a lot faster and I'm not broke like I was when I learned it. But it makes me happy. I like the smell of worn-out grease and that orange pumice soap; I like keeping my own eye on those cups and cones as they deteriorate. (One more season, I keep saying, but they keep holding up just fine.) I like listening to music and singing while I polish away the old grease. I like the satisfaction of getting the cones locked down juuuust right, freely spinning but with no play. I like the way beer tastes after an afternoon of virtuous tinkering.

Hurray for overhaul season, and hurray for life.

(x-posted from my journal.)

Comments

[copracat]

There's a lot to be said for knowing your bike so well that when it works, it works because of what you did.

[darkemeralds]

Though I'm a committed take-it-to-the-shop urban commuter, I really enjoyed this post. You've described the experience wonderfully.