A Simple Mechanical Chore and 30 Days

I completed a simple little maintenance task this evening with the help of a friend. I few weeks ago, I sprung for a White Industries single speed freewheel. I went to swap the existing Shimano freewheel for the White Industries unit this past weekend only to discover a small, but significant, gap in my tool arsenal.

A quick post on Bike Love remedied this, however. After work I rode over to pick up a loaner FR-6 and after dinner tonight I got to work on the freewheelectomy.

The FR-6 fits in a vice and the wheel (or rather the freewheel) locks into the tool like so. A little counter-clockwise pressure and the freewheel was freed in seconds. This would have been essentially impossible to do with out this specialized little tool, but it was piece of cake with the right tool.

With the old freewheel removed, I cleaned the threads, re-greased the hub and White freewheel, and carefully threaded the new freewheel onto the hub. The whole operation took less than 10 minutes and the purring of the White freewheel is pure magic. Thanks, Steef!

On an unrelated note, the 2011 30 Days of Biking challenge starts on April 1, no fooling. I love the tag-line: We Ride Our Bikes. Every. Friggin'. Day. The point of 30 days is to get on your bike, even if it's just around the block, every single day of the month. This is more about making riding your bike a part of your life than going for mileage or anything macho like that. I registered for it today and will be encouraging others to do so as well. Molly really enjoyed this challenge last year and we are looking forward to it again this year. Give it a shot - it's easier than you would think, unless you have to travel, in which case it's pretty impossible, but still worth trying.

I'll do some status reports in April about this, but probably a day-by-day account, since nobody needs that noise.