the state of the bike

[sistawendy]

Not so good: After nine months of commuting up and down suburban hills, I need to replace my brake pads. I've also worn out the ratchet on the grip shifter for my rear derailleur. REI dude says shifters come in pairs. Goldiebike was in mint condition when I bought her, so I'm a little leery of replacing anything big so soon.

Not so bad: At least the friction in the shifter keeps it from surprising me while I ride.

Good: After several months of one puncture per month, I bought a pre-slimed tube in January. It's still good. It was twice the price, but I've already gotten three times the use out of it.

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Weekend nun plan? I'm thinking Chillography over at the Church of Bass.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

GS's are held together radially with allen bolts, basically, and a lot of the innards are apparent when you get them off the handlebar. The shifter ring is constrained onto the part that encircles the handlebar, which holds in place by a hose-clamp-like mechanism. So when you slide off the grip (which you do by lifting a corner by pinching it up and sticking a little screwdriver in there, then pouring in a couple ml of isopropyl alcohol and then scootching the grip back and forth so the alcohol spreads, which will get the whole grip off in a few moments) then you slide off a washer that butts against the grip, loosen the clamp mechanism and slide off the shifter ring, and the whole works comes apart in your hands. As I recall, there are only two moving parts and one bending-moment part in a GS.

And yeah, I'm sure he's right about them showing up new in pairs. I hadn't thought about that since I tend to buy used.