lube, relube, repeat

In Chicago. Bike tour last night with 8 people. Good group, small, but really more like 4 different groups riding together: a family of 3, 2 Chinese students with limited English ability, a brother-sister duo in their early 20s, a woman from Seattle on business. Not a lot of mingling but not too awkward.

Before that, I spent the afternoon overhauling my bottom bracket on a bike that I've been riding: the Trek hybrid left behind by an old roommate. It's too small for me and not really my style, but it gets me where I'm going. When I took apart the bottom bracket (the part of the frame around which the pedals turn), I noticed that there was NO grease and that on one side the bearing retainer had completely disintegrated. The retainer is by no means necessary, but without it, there is room for more bearings. So without the retainer, it's like missing a couple bearings. No grease, missing bearings. No wonder it felt so shitty.
In the picture, you can see the tub of grease at the bottom, the bearings in the retainer above that to the left, the two bottom bracket cups above that with loose bearings packed in with fresh grease, the tool to take apart the bottom bracket above that. The end result is so much better, almost making it fun to ride. Almost. Still not quite my style.

A couple years ago, the mechanic at Bobby's was doing some late night hanging out with a buddy of his, living the High Life, when they decided to jump some of the older, barely functioning bikes off a make-shift ramp. Unfortunately, this caused the coaster brakes to go out upon landing, and the bike ended up in the river. (It's really a slip, a dock, that connects to the river.) Then, this year, the boat tour company was doing some underwater maintenance, found it, and dragged it up. Here it is, mussels and all.