Much Needed Maintenance

I really don't inspect my bike as much as I should. Look at the the teeth on that chainring, no wonder the chain kept slipping and in some cases, coming off the bike when I apply hard pressure.

So instead of getting my bike serviced like normal, I decided to tackle this myself. It's going to be fun right?

Create shopping list from my Favourite Online Store Let's Ride EVO.

• Shimano Chainring (outer) - groupset Tiagra 105 2x10s 110mm 50T
• Shimano Chain - groupset Tiagra 105 10s CN-4601
• Chain Oil - Finish Line Cleaner & Lubricant (instead of normal chain lube which I have). Used this to remove the factory packaging grease and to lubricate the new chain.

I've always thought chain oil/lube is over-priced, still do, but it's one of the must have item we need to help maintain our equipment. I have seen other people make there own and after seeing a few "recipes" I'm going to make my own soon.

Anyways, these items arrived after 4 days from ordering, time to replace the parts. I forgot to mention, I replaced the chain because you should. Now today I was thinking hey, maybe I should've done the cassette, it's half the price of the Chainring. Oh well.

Everything was going well

• releasing the quicklink on the chain, removed chain from bike (kept the quicklink)
• removed both the outer/inner chainrings
• didn't a quick cleanup of frame
• installed new outer/existing inner chainrings
• aligned new chain next to old chain to determine length, then used the chainbreaker part of my multitool to remove the pin.

Until now. The multitool broke. I never liked it anyway, it felt bulky, heavy and cheap. So back online to buy a dedicated Chain Breaking Tool.

4 Days later it arrived. This felt sturdy in the hand and worked great with little effort.

Back to work

• thread new chain onto bike and joined the ends using the quicklink
• and yes, I put 1 drop of oil on the inside rollers of every link because that is the right way (not spin the crank while "pouring" oil on the chain as it zooms along).
• re-attached the cables to both the deraileurs because you should before this next step
• indexing the gears, took like 5mins and now we are done, time for a test ride

Terrible day but had to get out there to test this new setup!

Quick 8.51km ride in the rain, it felt good but can't wait for a better day!

My Gear

• Huawei Band 10 Watch (heart rate monitor)
• Samsung Galaxy A33 5G (HuaweiHealthApp for Android: GPS Mapping)