Major Service and Winter Recovery Actions

I normally "deep clean" my bikes once a year around Easter time (i.e. some time between mid-March to the end of April). This is a proper clean rather than a superficial clean as per here - components removed, cleaned and stripped (if required) and replacing the chain and occasionally the cassette depending on condition and mileage. On the Giant I also put back on the Cole Rollen wheels replacing the heavy but strong original Giant branded wheels the bike came with.

The timing for this is that in theory by this time of year we should be in the better weather, the salt is gone from the road and it should be a bit drier. However this year my Giant was in a quite dreadful state and I had been deferring the clean for a number of weeks and finally I could put it off no longer. There were a number of jobs that were making the bike quite borderline. Firstly the brake pads (both front and rear) were very worn, both brake calipers were stiff and would not spring back properly (I had had to strip the front one several weeks earlier to free it off), the chain was way over 1% worn and recently I had discovered that the rear dérailleur was very stiff as the upper pivot, whilst not seized, was stiff enough that when in the small chain ring could not rotate enough to take the tension up. This the list of jobs was quite extensive. Alongside all of these jobs I would also fully clean the bike with some T-Cut and polish.

Firstly the brakes - here's a couple of pictures showing the wear to the rear pads - there was some life left in them but not a lot:

Rear Pads

Another view of rear pads but also the level of road muck on the calipers

I stripped both calipers back down again and carefully lubricated the main areas. However I think now that these calipers might be starting to decline - there is clear sign of aluminium corrosion after 5 years of all year round use and this means that they are never going to be trouble free any more and need a lot of regular maintenance through the years- this compares to having been on the bike and doing nothing to them for the first 4 years or so.

I fitted replacement brake pads - not new but not that worn - so some bedding in of the pads will be needed over the coming miles.

The most difficult job I could see was the service of the rear dérailleur - I have cleaned the jockey wheels but not done any other jobs. Fortunately Google is our friend and on the Park Tools web site was an excellently detailed article on how to do the job: http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/rear-derailleur-overhaul

The first problem was getting the dérailleur off the hanger - the age old problem of steel/aluminium corroding together - after over a year of it being fitted it was extremely tight to remove - it was not possible to undo it using just a simple Allen key. I used as much releasing agent as I could but still could not shift it. In the end I needed a bit and socket wrench to get the leverage up. Even then it was tight and I was concerned that I might fail the hanger itself. In the end it did come off but was tight.

Following the instructions from the Park Tools site I decided to mount an Allen key in my vice to hold the dérailleur

Mounting the dérailleur

Disassembly was exactly as per the Park Tools site. I expected the B Plate to be under more spring pressure when I removed the C Clip but there was very little in the event. (It was also easy to rebuild the unit because of this as well).

The Upper Pivot Dis-assembled and laid out

The problem was that there was a light film of rust and dry lubricant between the body and the pivot pin. After cleaning the inner diameter and the bush and applying some grease all was well again. Re-assembly was the reverse of dis-assembly although it took me 3 attempts the get the B-screw plate aligned correctly despite having sketched the component layout as I took it apart. Fortunately I had a 2nd identical (but long cage) unit to compare against.

After this the rest of the jobs were pretty straightforward - I was going change the rear dérailleur cable any way but as I was removing it found fraying inside the shifter and part way down the length - normally I moved the rear cable and fit to the front dérailleur but just binned it this time. So I ended up fitting new cables to both front and rear. 

I also fitted a new chain as planned - another KMC X10 with split link. I normally keep the old split link and put it with the puncture kit on the bike as an emergency spare, but this was was absolutely spent - as was the chain.

It took a bit longer to do than previous years as I had to service the brake calipers and dérailleur as well compared to previous years, but the bike looks clean and shiny again

I expect the bike to stay fairly clean now with only light cleans until around September when the autumn weather begins. From that point the dirt will build up and the wear rates will start to accelerate again.

What I have found is that chain wear is minimal from March to October as the chain stays dry and clean, but then as the weather turns wet and the roads muddy the grit and muck gets in the chain and all the wear occurs over the winter months.

This is supported by comparing the wear rates of the Giant (year round use all weather) and the Scott (mostly spring-autumn use in drier weather). Both use the same chains but the Giant's chain is total scrap at over 1% use after normally 2500 miles compared to 0.5-0.75% wear on the Scott for similar mileage.

I have just got to do the same job to the Scott but this won't take as long - not least as the brakes and dérailleur are all OK.