My Typical Bike Project

I recently started rehabilitating my 15-yr-old city bike. It's going the same way all my home maintenance or any other such projects go. I first bought a new rear derailleur and new cassette & chain. Of course, new cables also required. I discovered I couldn't get the cassette off because I only had a campy removal tool (for my other bike) and not a shimano one. So I had to order that. At some point, later than it should, it occurred to me I was replacing an integrated shift & brake lever with just a new shifter. So I ordered a brake lever. Which arrived in time for me to realize I also needed brake cables. I cheerfully bought the wrong kind of cables. Why the world needs more than one kind of brake cable, I still don't know.

By now the cassette removal tool arrived, which allowed me to discover I was attempting to put a new 9-spd cassette onto a 15-yr-old hub that's too short as it was designed for 7-spd cassettes. Fine, this is the perfect opportunity for me to learn the craft of wheel-building. Fortunately, I thought better of this approach, and just ordered a new wheel. Later, I thought to order a new tube and tire. Later still, I thought to get rim tape. Getting the new wheel completed was disproportionately satisfying.

I put the derailleur on, put the brake lever and shift lever on, put the wheel and chain on, and started routing the shift cable. Turns out I have no tool in the house capable of cutting shifting cable housing. By now I am a platinum customer on wiggle.co.uk (not making that up). They were happy to sell me cable & housing cutters. I also got new brake pads. There was quite a bit of wear on the original pads, to understate a bit. They are yellow. I'm going to put yellow handlebar tape on as well. I will be a trendsetter -- no one else wraps mountainbike handles with cork tape. There's probably a very good reason for this that I no doubt will discover disastrously.

Anyway, it's all getting very close to complete now. But the front wheel is looking a bit shabby... as is the frame. Hm.