Took a detour on the way home from work today. I stopped by the bike shop to pick up my bike. They had it overnight, and gave it a tune up today.
One of the perks of buying at this particular shop is that they give two free tune ups during your first year of ownership. I had it tuned up last spring, before the Armadillo Classic ride, and with a century staring me in the face, I wanted to make sure the bike went in again.
I’ve been concerned about its reluctance to shift from the small to the large chain ring, and it looked to my untrained eyes that the brake pads needed replacing, but otherwise, I expected the tune up would be routine.
It was. However, they did find that one of my brake cables had become corroded, so they replaced that. It turned out that the shifter cable to the large derailleur had lost some tension, so they tightened that up. They replaced the front brake pads, which were worn down even more than I had figured.
So, a few bucks for the cable and pads, a few more to install them, and I was out of there for less than 20 dollars. The mechanic who rang me up suggested I change my shifting routine. “Be sure you hold the shifter in until the chain completes its move to the large ring,” he said. “That’s a big jump it has to make, and it’s not just a simple click.”
Makes sense to me, although I thought I’d been doing that lately. No matter. I’ve got the bike back, and when I get home tomorrow, I’ll put it through its paces and see what kind of results the tune up actually delivered.