Ouch!
I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago that seemingly every piece of equipment I used took a beating during the 2,700-mile Tour Divide mountain bike race. This is true particularly for the components on my mountain bike. Here is one example.
So I finally got around to washing my already mostly disassembled bicycle, including a rather thick layer of mud on the crankset. I was pretty astonished to see the condition of the chainrings—particularly the middle one. Click on the photo above and compare its condition to the much-less-used large chainring or the (very-often-used, but steel) granny gear.
Looks like this is one component I’ll have to replace along with the chain. There are more items I’ll have to replace or rebuild too.
Such as the pedals. The bearings are so shot that the pedals turn with more resistance than an Atkins follower displays when offered a donut. It makes me wonder how much they were slowing me down during the race. I think I can salvage the pedals by disassembling and repacking them with fresh ball bearings and grease, but we shall see.
