It was our Memorial Day bike ride today. Warm with a hint of humid, and plenty of sun. Nice ride. More on the details of the bike ride itself at BackRoadBike Blog. This post however is to address the hiccups and missed pre-ride maintenance issues.
Over the winter, I missed fixing the rear brake on limeforg5's Schwinn Hollywood. So at the end of the ride it began to scream and no braking. She muddled through it and once we reached the shop, I had it apart and the bendix cleaned and re-greased. The grooves on the braking plates were still good, and the bearings all in order. Even the teeth on the clutch catch showed no wear. Not bad for a bicycle nearly 40 years old.
Yellow Dragon was riding a hybrid mountain bike. New to the shifting premise, he quickly adapted, but had some cable stretch that made the rear derailer almost null. I gave him a few gears with an adjustment on the road, but it needs a new cable.
Other than those issues, only a few soft tires, and frequent stops for water slowed us down. A good day for a ride, and some lessons learned for what to check before rides. Some of the group is considering some winter maintenance rebuilds on some components, but overall were all summer ready.
