An experiment failed today!
Nice weather seems to be settling in so I decided to take off the studded winter tires and put on some new 26x2 Duremes. Might as well add on some other projects: mount some Buddy Flaps, and check the chain tension. Ach, the Buddy Flaps went on a bit crooked! I have never been much of a precision craftsman!
The chain T1-T2 was up around 65mm... sure I could just tighten up the EBB, but my idea had been to rotate chains. The present chain is chain 3 which I already tightened once. So I went rooting around in my parts bin and pulled out chain 1 which was only on the bike a few months and got removed as soon as it got loose. But now chain 1 is totally frozen up! It doesn't look rusty, but almost every link is very stiff, and many are unbudgable. Ouch!
I guess somehow I need to get chains good and oily before storing them away!
Seems I need to inspect chain 2 as well!
A family size coke bottle full of used motor oil should do the job both for storage and seeing to it that that chain is properly oiled when you want to use it again.
The motor oil idea is from Jobst Brandt, and the coke bottle was a favourite of the late Sheldon Brown, bike mechanic extraordinaire.
Andre Jute
