Went out to the garage at lunchtime, and did a bit of prep on the Tricross – fitted a handlebar extender so I’d have a bit of space for lights, bike computer, eTrex mount and whatnot, gave both shifters a good squirt with GT85, gave the top right brake lever the same treatment. Put some lights on, ready for a run out after work.
So 3:30pm came around and having togged myself up in full winter cycling gear, prepared an oat bar and a bidon and all that, I walked out to the garage. It started to rain. I decided I wasn’t having it so I went back in the house. But half an hour later I glanced out of the window and not only wasn’t it raining, but the sun had come out! Fortunately I hadn’t bothered to change so I got the Tricross out and did a medium-short length Twycrosser. Interestingly the roads were dry-ish only two miles from home.
Cold out there but an enjoyable run out under the stars. Nice crescent Moon clearly visible and an unusually bright Venus tonight.
The brake lever does feel a bit rough still and you can still get it to jam up the rear disk if you pull hard enough, but you can unjam it by pushing the lever the other way! So there’s that. In practice though I just won’t use it.
More positively, the left gear shifter behaved properly throughout so it looks like the GT85 treatment has cleared the fault. I suppose I should spray a proper solvent cleaner up there first. I’ll give it a few more goes to make sure it’s flushed out the gunk and dirt properly anyway. Still no sign of the squeak from the rear so I think that’s cured now, must definitely have been the brake pad rubbing. And the bike computer is calibrated nicely now. Recorded the 23.40 GPS-recorded distance as 23.38. Good enough.
Anyway .. 323 this month which is over target and 145 more than this time last year.