Post Season Teardown, Assessment and Budget.
862 views · Published 26 November 2015 · 5:28 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: Spindatt · 2015 · Sports
For me here in Nova Scotia, Cyclocross season has come to an end with our final double header weekend at York Redoubt, a great venue that treated me to my first ever top ten finishes. Maybe I’m finally getting there... Now typically once cross season is over, a lot of us with dedicated Cross bikes will give our bikes a spray down, then into storage they go, ignored until next fall when the season starts up again. In my experience of going this route, I will end up coming to a bike that isn’t ready to go for the season, and it’s too late to lay a budget out to get it back to a season of racing shape. In this video, I want to share my process of tearing down and assessing the damage that the season has done to my bike, and putting together the shopping list to get it back to racing condition in an order working its way up in mechanical involvement. - Drivetrain - Cables - Brakes - Wheels - Bearings - Soapy Wash The first section I want to assess is the drivetrain. Mud, grit and dust can be extremely hard on our chain/cassette/chainrings. I know this chain is fully worn out, but a way to check without a chain checker is to shift into the small cog, and pull at the chain on the chainring. If there is excessive lift of the chain from the chainring, like it is here, replace it. The cassette and chain wear out together, so count on that in the budget as well. Check the jockey wheels in your derailleur for any sort of friction as well, I had replaced mine not long ago, so they are good. Cables go through a lot of abuse through a season. Water and dirt can make their way in corroding and creating friction. Friction compromises indexing in your shifting and ruins smooth braking. For the ease and low cost of replacing cables, I recommend to just budget for it. Brake Pads are an easy check. Mud on a brake track basically acts as sand paper and increases wear quickly. If they are worn past the wear bars, put them on your shopping list. Check for play in your hubs bearings by grabbing the wheel while in the dropout and move it laterally. If there is clunking, consider a rebuild or replacement of bearings in your budget. Also, if noise is excessive during rotation, like mine, consider the same. Check the brake tracks for wear, if excessive; it might be new rim time. Grit is hard on bearings, and can ruin them in a hurry. If your cranks aren’t turning perfectly smooth, and there is any crunching noise heard, that is your sign it is time for replacement. Upon removal of my crankset, I can easily feel the friction in the Drive Side bearing. The same can be said about the headset bearing. Mine is in rough shape, not turning smoothly at all, and upon removal is actually a bit rusty. So both bearings will be added to the rebuild budget. So because I was actually tearing my bike down as I assessed everything, it is in a really good position for an extremely detailed cleaning to get any trapped grit or dirt out of everything and ensure a new feeling bike come rebuild time. So what is kind of damage is this assessment going to do to my wallet; - Chain/Cassette $100 - Cables $25 - Brake Pads $10 - Hub Rebuild $10 - Bottom Bracket $50 - Headset $50 - Bar Tape $30 In total, my budget is going to run around $275 +/- depending on what kind of shopping around I do. $275 is a very manageable amount for even myself as a student to pick away at for a full year, instead of scrambling last minute to get things gathered and fixed before the first race.
