Clean!

Today was a rest day, I had the day off from work, and the weather was nice. I took the opportunity to clean my bike. It's been about 350 miles since she was cleaned last, including one mildly wet ride. The chain was pretty loud on my ride this weekend. She was crying out for a good cleaning.

It always seems like such a chore to wash my bike and clean/lube the chain, but it's actually very relaxing and kind of fun. It takes me about an hour to do a thorough job.

I don't have a bike stand, so I lean my bike up against a wrought-iron quilt rack and hook the handlebars into the top. Works like a charm.

I washed her top to bottom, scrubbed the chain, cleaned the gunk out of the derailleurs and cassette, then lubed the chain. I also inspected the tires to make sure they're still in good condition. On our test spin afterwards, she was sooooooo smooth and quiet. Ahhhh.... I'm really looking forward to this weekend's ride now! Maybe I'll go extra slow so everyone can see how pretty she is. (Yeah, that's it. That's why I'm slow. Ha ha.)