“The Things the People Don’t see entry#2, preventative maintenance?”

The before photo......


The cross season has been over for a month now (in Colorado at least), and I am now fully into the break period of ignoring the bike for a bit and enjoying the Nordic scene. For the first few years I lived in Steamboat I would hang my cross bikes in the garage immediately after States and deal with them in late March/early April. Over the years I have found that while Nordic skiing is great for my heart and lungs, my skinny runner legs struggle with the transition back to the bike. In the last couple of years I have tried to ride once or twice a week from mid-January on to try and keep some strength/muscle memory for the bike. I try hard to ride outside, as I only have so many matches to burn on the trainer, and those are typically reserved for late fall/early winter cold/snow during cross season when I’m trying to stay healthy and on good form.
So, feeling the desire to pedal some and give my twig arms a rest from the Nordy scene, I went to the garage to dial in my back-up cross bike. I literally haven’t looked at my bikes since I unloaded them after Nationals, where the gnarly conditions were well documented. The bike is set up as a single speed at the moment, and I wanted to mount up the bomber winter tyre of choice, the Nokian Hakkapiletta (studs!), before venturing into the icy winter. Much to my horror, I was greeted with a disturbing amount of white flakes covering the entire bike, and even crystals on the chain, rims, and spokes. Now, here in Steamboat, winter road treatment is limited to scoria (larger than sand – think small pumice rocks), and occasionally MgCl2 (Mag-chloride) on the main drag through town. It turns out that Kansas is almost the opposite. I never saw any sand on the roads while we were there, but did see tons (literally) of salt laid down everywhere. I did have the sense to wash my car when I returned, but alas neglected the trusty cycles which had successfully guided me through many laps of icy, muddy carnage and sketchy turns, dips, and ruts like I’d never seen before. My brakes were already seized to the canti-posts, and the cables could barely move through the housing. At this point I began to feel grateful that the frame is Ti, and resistant to these salty demons of corrosion. It quickly became apparent that a “wipe-down” would not even remotely get the job done, and a full disassemble, clean/lube, and rebuild was in order. Well, might as well dial in a frame re-furb while it is stripped, as my decals are hammered and top-tube nearly polished in appearance from thousands of dismounts over the last 5 years. The beauty of the Moots frame – 5 years old with 50+ cross races and can be made to look brand new.