Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
How many miles ago did you replace the chain? The trick with chains is to replace them before they wear the cassette and chain rings. It’s often cheaper to replace the chain a bit earlier than to wait till everything else is worn.
For the headset it’ll be the lower bearing assembly. Without mudguards, on wet days or riding through puddles / floods, you’ll get dirty water thrown up onto the lower bearings. Eventually it’ll get past the bearing seals and you’ll get a mix of old grease, water and mud. That’ll create a grinding paste and you’ll end up with stuff oozing out including bits of rust. Rust is likely the cause of the orange look. Mudguards avoid this problem, but understand not everyone like guards.
As above cranks, it’s likely the chain rings needing replacement. It’ll be the chain ring you use the most needs doing. Other one may be ok, but you won’t know till new chain on.
Derailleur with some cleaning and generous soaking or lubing can probably be freed up. They are simple mechanical affairs.
4,500 miles for a set of disc pads sounds reasonable. Get in the habit of checking remaining pad thickness reasonably regularly though. Them wearing out should not come as a complete surprise.
You need to decide if you want to do any of the work yourself. If so what, and do you want to buy the parts from the LBS? You likely won’t save on cost of parts (buying from LBS) if you do it yourself, but will save cost of labour, at expense of convenience.
A good tip after particularly wet rides is to just give the derailleurs and drivetrain a wipe with an oily rag. Then spray with a light oil. Spraying a rag then wiping just as effective. You can also do bolts if you wish.
For the headset it’ll be the lower bearing assembly. Without mudguards, on wet days or riding through puddles / floods, you’ll get dirty water thrown up onto the lower bearings. Eventually it’ll get past the bearing seals and you’ll get a mix of old grease, water and mud. That’ll create a grinding paste and you’ll end up with stuff oozing out including bits of rust. Rust is likely the cause of the orange look. Mudguards avoid this problem, but understand not everyone like guards.
As above cranks, it’s likely the chain rings needing replacement. It’ll be the chain ring you use the most needs doing. Other one may be ok, but you won’t know till new chain on.
Derailleur with some cleaning and generous soaking or lubing can probably be freed up. They are simple mechanical affairs.
4,500 miles for a set of disc pads sounds reasonable. Get in the habit of checking remaining pad thickness reasonably regularly though. Them wearing out should not come as a complete surprise.
You need to decide if you want to do any of the work yourself. If so what, and do you want to buy the parts from the LBS? You likely won’t save on cost of parts (buying from LBS) if you do it yourself, but will save cost of labour, at expense of convenience.
A good tip after particularly wet rides is to just give the derailleurs and drivetrain a wipe with an oily rag. Then spray with a light oil. Spraying a rag then wiping just as effective. You can also do bolts if you wish.
Last edited:
