It’s been a busy weekend, but not in the usual way. This weekend was two days where Tammy and I went to Bow Cycle to take part in the Complete Overhaul Service School course. This marks the fourth time I’ve done it. It was a first for Tammy. The basic outline of the course hasn’t changed:
- Bring in your bike,
- Tear it down to the frame,
- Clean everything, replace worn parts,
- Build it back up better than new.
I took my Roubaix, and Tammy took her Cannondale. The course was reserved for the Bow Cyclist Club, and this is the first of three weekends where there will be 6-7 people in the class. When I took it in 2016, I was the only person in the class. Tammy was the only woman in the class, and she certainly did fantastic. She was the first one done by a long shot and helped me re-wrap my handlebars with new tape.
I think the kids enjoyed the weekend: no parents around and yesterday we brought home Chinese food and Timbits and today we brought home Red Swan Pizza. We took a few pictures, and a video of Derek wrapping bar tape, but nothing too great, so here’s a picture of Murphy instead!
The first day, the class was led by Mark, Ryan and Mike. I have taken the course from Mike before, in years two and three. Tammy and I were set up with workstations next to each other, where we could watch whatever the other was being taught, and lend each other a hand when need be. Mark walked everybody around to start the class, going over each bike and describing the unique challenges of each type of bike. There was quite a range: a disc-brake aluminum gravel bike (Chris), a full-suspension mountain bike (Darren), a beat-up steel-framed cyclocross bike (J-F), a rim-brake carbon road bike (Liam), Tammy’s flat-bar hybrid and my bike.
Everybody got to it. The bikes that had seen more wear and tear took more time. Chris was replacing a lot of parts and that took time. Both Tammy’s bike and my bike were in pretty good nick, so taking them apart didn’t take too long. Neither of us removed the disc brakes or hydraulic lines so that saved time. Bow has a new parts wash station now. It’s like a super-duper dish washer, but for bike parts. It used to be a manual affair with degreaser and scrub brushes. Once everything was squeaky clean, it was time to start putting stuff back on. Both Tammy and I got our derailleurs, cranks and cassettes on, our shifter cables re-run and wheels trued by the end of day one.
Day two didn’t start too auspiciously: there was a change of instructors. Derek and Braiden joined Mark today, and Derek had gone over my bike and found some slight play in my reassembled crank. We tore it down and re-seated the bearings. Then Mark noticed that I’d used the wrong kind of dust seal on the front shift cable, so that had to be pulled apart again. But after that it was smooth sailing. A new chain for me and adjusting the shifters and disc brakes to within a whisker of perfect. I managed to put the new vinyl decals on the outside of the fork, but the rest remains to be done. The bar wrap is blindingly bright. When the decals are done, I will post a picture. Tammy got some new handlebar grips and a bottle holder that matches her helmet.
We were done by four and picked up pizza at 4:15. The only scary part of the weekend was when I was taking off my pedals on day one. When the nut suddenly loosened, my hand and forearm hit my exposed chain ring. I’ve got a nice tattoo of cuts that are starting to heal. Something to remember the weekend by, I suppose.
Back to work tomorrow.
Updated
I have finished applying my new decals to my bike! It’s interesting how much the decals and bar tape can make it look different.
