Entries tagged with “maintenance bike” from TRI-ing harder

My bike has been noisy for a while now.  There's a very noticeable clanking sound when I pedal, but annoyingly only when I'm out on the road - not when it's on a workstand, so I've been thinking it must be something that takes some load: wheel bearings or the bottom bracket. 

I've been using the noise as my excuse for going more slowly than Dan in everything.  "If only I could have a silent bike", I imagine to myself, "I could go 5-10mph faster, and really whoop his ass."  Sometimes I go further and start to think that perhaps I can use the noise as an excuse to spend £1300 on a nice new Focus Cayo Expert carbon bike from Wiggle.com.   Surely carbon doesn't rattle, squeak or grind?!

How not to prepare for a bike ride
This morning I was preparing my bike for a 3-4 hour ride with Dave, and decided to do some 'tweaking'.  I played around with the brakes a bit - my front brake calipers are still sticky so need replacing soon - and starting checking the gears.  I noticed that my back hub was making quite a lot of noise - grindy, y'know?  So I thought "I know, with only 1 hour to go before I'm due to set off, why not clean and grease my hub".  Anyone who knows me - including myself - would know this was a bad idea.  There's no way I can make even slight adjustments without loosening, losing or snapping something that's necessary for safe and speedy cycling.  I normally like to give myself a few hours (and possibly a trip to the bike shop) before tinkering.  On this occasion  I threw caution to the wind, and went for it.  Next stop broken bike!