Dusting Off the Wrenches in the Tinkery

As I mentioned yesterday, Spring is tune-up season. So I took some time over the weekend to get the Peugeot into prime condition for riding season. I should note that I ride nearly every day through the winter, so regular maintenance is a year-round affair. But on one of the first mild weekends of the year, it feels awfully nice to wrench on a bike with the garage door open and a beer in hand. I got the Peugeot up on the repair stand Sunday morning, which put me on a deadline for an afternoon ride on the Galloway Trail.

First step was to replace the dangerously spent brake pads. I picked up a bulk supply of Jagwire pads on the internet recently and I was looking forward to trying them out. They're a bit different than the original Nashbar pads that came with calipers - thicker and not as sleek - but they're a lot grippier than the Dia Compe pads that I used to use and I really like the old-school look.

Other than a general cleaning, my other task was to repack the hubs. The front hub went pretty quickly, as it uses standard ball bearings. But I forgot that the rear hub uses Suntour cylindrical bearings, which had me scratching my head until I found some disassembly and cleaning instructions online. In the end, I got the hubs repacked and rolling smoothly.

I didn't have time to tackle cables and housing, which wouldn't have mattered anyways since the guy in the shop accidentally sold me a mountain brake cable along with the other road brake and shift cables I bought. I was also considering replacing the bottom bracket cartridge, so I'll probably end up grabbing one of those when I pick up the one brake cable I'm lacking.