Last of the Cleaning

Today, I finished cleaning everything, including wiping down and de-greasing the frame in preparation for sanding. I cleaned up the external hardware on the rear hub and started to try to get at the bearings, but quickly got in a little bit over my head. I had hoped that the bearings would come out without the whole hub assembly coming out, but when I started to take off the bearing race, the whole hub started to come apart, so I veeerrry carefully pushed it all back together and tightened everything back down. The thing about the rear hub is that it's pretty complicated and seems to be working fine, so why fix it if it ain't broke? The brief glimpse I caught of the bearings, however, they seemed to still be pretty well greased, so I'm not going to worry about it. It all still seems to work after my little misadventure, but I won't know for sure until I put the whole bike back together.

If you really want to know how to take apart a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub, check out Sheldon Brown's guide on the subject. Maybe someday I'll give it a try.

All in all, I'm really glad to have everything cleaned now. I think the sanding will go pretty fast, so I need to go finally buy the primer, paint, and clearcoat. I also need to place my order for the new shifter and cable and such with Harris Cyclery. Exciting. I hope I can have everything put back together by early September.

No interesting pictures today, sorry.

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