2009/09/22

Assessing the Damage

Took a closer look at my bike this morning while performing a post-century tune up. Things got scratched up more than I first thought.

The bar tape I knew about. Bummer. I really hate having to rewrap that bar.

Moving along, I found some additional scrapes on my left brifter as well as a series of mystery scratches midway down the lever:

These mystery scratches were definitely NOT from the spill: they were not linearly arrayed like the crash induced scrapes, besides, my hands were ON the levers when I went down–I was, after all, trying to stop. I wondered if they were from leaning my bike against something. I checked the other brifter. SAME random scratch pattern there at the SAME height. I got on the bike and put both my hands on the brakes and looked down to where they contacted the levers.

Ah-hah! The scratches are from my wedding band and since my weight has gone down so much, it was slipping off my left ring finger pretty easily so I've been wearing it on the right hand since about July, thus creating the mystery scratch symmetry.

Left pedal took the brunt of the slide (along with my calf), getting the silk-screened "KÉO" logo ground almost completely off. I guess if I was sporting Speedplays, I would have had the side of my shoe ground down instead...

Continuing to look along the left side of the bike, the last of the damage found was some scratches on the rear quick release lever.

With the bike up on the workstand, I also found my rear wheel a bit out of true. Just had them trued about two weeks ago.

And, since I did my powerslide into a big patch of sand, everything below water bottle height was coated in a beige, sandy dust:

Maintenance performed this morning:

  • disassemble, clean, reassemble cassette
  • remove chain, rinse clean w/gasoline (I was out of eco-friendly degreaser), lube re-attach
  • rinse down whole bike, scrub underside of downtube, inside of fork, chainstays and under brake calipers
  • adjusted rear derailleur, cleaned jockey gears (you might know them as "derailleur pulleys")

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