triathlonphil.com

Probably not going to run too smoothly...

So I bought my Trek 1.7 back at the start of 2008. Since then, the only things that I have changed are both tyres and both inner tubes after they burst simultaneously in Mexico.

What am I left with now? Well in the Windsor race I did around 1h07 minutes on the bike, that’s just 2 minutes faster than I did last year, AND it was draft-legal. In the local Team Outrageous race I splut 36 seconds faster than I did last year. A year of training, and I can only reduce my time from 24:59 to 24:23. Something is wrong. Either my training has been basically fruitless, to use a euphemism, or… something is up with my bike.

I’d been putting it down to something in the rear hub, so I took that apart, lubed her back up and put her (badly) back together. Still I was really working to push any kind of decent gear, and it was especially hard up hills. Maybe it’s the tyres, they’ve got some tread on them Bontrager AC X Lite and Racelite tyres: £50. I took, in desperation, the steed apart last Saturday after struggling to reach 40kph on the flats on a 1 hour training ride. That used to be just so easy, how can it have changed so much?

In need of some attention

1) The rear mech is wildly bent and the g-pulley ceramic bearing was had come apart and was barely moving. Oops. New 6700 Ultegra rear derailleur ordered: £54.95.

2) My bottom bracket lets the crank do, with no chain on, and if I am lucky, 3 rotations if I give it a very hard spin. As we can see from the following link, that is truly, truly awful. http://andy-bell.blogspot.com/2008/04/bottom-bracket-test.html. New Dura Ace 7900 Bottom Bracket ordered: £22.99

3) The cone on the rear hub was pitted, and I need new bearings. New cone and bearings: £15.

4) The 105 chain is looking a bit shabby (not so necessary this one, but as I was in the mood). New Dura Ace chain: £20.

5) Tools to do all the above. Cone Spanners: £11. Chain Whip: £6. Bottom Bracket Remover: £25.

Total: Haven’t bothered calculating it, but on the basis that I’d spent £30 on some rubber in 2 years, I figured that it’s pretty good going.

So for all my rantings on how buying a new bike is unnecessary for amateurs, you indeed DO have to look after your pride and joy if you are going to be even remotely capable of beating the rest. Having a rusty Raleigh Tomahawk is NOT going to win you any events!

None of the above has been fitted (or in fact even arrived yet!), so give me a few days and I’ll update the progress!!!