Lubing the Bike Fleet; The Wonderful De-Crudding Tool

4 of the five bikes in the fleet that got either lubed,
de-crudded, or their brakes adjusted

Just barely off the injured list, I was not going to get onto the water today, but a short ride was feasible—after getting the family bikes ready for the rest of the season.

Marg's Jamis Dakar first (not shown) -- needed a lot of TLC, lube and brakes adjusted, and a frayed cable needed trimming and an end cap. ... Oh and a broken spoke snipped out. There are at least 31 others in the wheel, but it's a tiny bit out of true where the spoke was broken. that's a fix for another time -- but now I know why it was rubbing in one spot for a while.

Pumping up a slew of flat tires was an interesting workout. One that got me shirtless pretty quick on such a hot day. A friend asked me why not use a compressor. No, at my age, any exercise like that is better than time spent in the gym.

I had a tarp out to catch excess lube, oily scuzz, dirt and vegetal matter that I scraped from four or five derailleur pulley wheels and rear wheel cassette cogs ... don't need that in the grass or for the dog to eat.

Bottom of photo the great cog decrudder and brush. P.S. the
Pro-Link bottle now contains home-brew lube.

From among the tools I found the magic de-crudder. Amazing implement that does a great job excising scads of mud, dirt and organic debris from between the cogs on mountain bikes. The tarp showed just how much fell out; shocking. A must have tool.





[Link to visual home brew lube recipe photo]