The Bumble B Overhaul

Today I gave Bumble B a well earned overhaul & cleaning. It's been a tough week for the B as since All Night Monopoly Ride last weekend I haven't been able to do a proper maintenance cycle on him.
Since that ride the weather has been pretty crap. His had to deal with just about all the elements, wind, rain, icy snow, frost & salt on the roads too.

Today was his day for some TLC again

Cleaned up his rear cog, chain, crank-set, front hub & a surprise in another post.

As you can see from the photo below my front chain crank-set needs changing, the teeth look like they have been slightly "melted" in places.

As part of his major upgrade plan in the coming weeks I will be sourcing the new 2013 Brompton crank-set for him which has a replaceable chain-ring which needs no special tools to remove. The current one you have to remove the whole crank and arm, the 2013 version the ring itself is a separate and can be easily changed out.

Well worn crankset

Then I moved onto the rear wheel and took apart his rear cog and giving it a good cleaning, I already had a 14T rear cog I bought awhile ago but never used so I thought I'd put it on to see if there was any difference.

14T rear cog(New) & 13T (Old) rear cog

Rear Sprocket cleaned

Rear hub with cog removed and cleaned

All back together and no left over pieces >:D

14T Rear cog on clean rear hub

After that the front wheel and hub is easy, but DANG look at how mucky it gets, no wonder Bumble B was feeling slow. Once again I shall be upgrading his front wheel and getting the new 2013 light version which has a sealed hub, so no more mucky front hub cups :)

Mucky Front hub

Good cleaning and re-greasing and its running smooth again

Cleaned but slight pitted hub cups

This is something I do to Bumble B after bad weather for the most part if not atleast every few months. The big difference after a good overhaul is amazing. He runs so much smoother after a overhaul like this.

Go on give your Brompton some love, you know you wanna........and I had a little surprise for him after, check in the next post