Trudge, trudge, trudge...

My legs are hurting... on a Wednesday.  That's atypical.  They were hurting yesterday as well.

All I did was ride 38 miles on my garvel bike on Monday... so obvs still getting used to such a machine that my body doesn't remember how to pedal is having an affect on me.

Gears are hard.

No, the bike is not for sale.  Put your money back in your pocket.

Speaking of advanced technology (and some not so advanced at the end of this post), a benevolent benefactor sent me this in return for some time I'd spent "advising" him about bike stuff.

Keep in mind, all sorts of people ask me for advice from time to time.  I expect nothing for my time other than their total allegiance if I run for political office in the future.  I don't mind being remunerated with beer, but an ultrasonic parts cleaner goes above and beyond, in terms of appreciation.

I've wanted to purchase one for years, but you know when you don't feel like you don't deserve something nice?  My chain of choice (KMC X9 SL) uses a quick link that can be used over and over (some are not supposed to be opened/closed more than once... but who listens to "rules"), so I've considered a cleaner in the past to get the absolute cleanest chain ever.

Then I get to the money part and then do I really deserve one and can't I just spend my time scrubbing my chain... or doing this:

I did all that. It took a fair amount of time. I made quite a mess.  After the chain was entirely clean, I soaked the whole thing in Squirt Lube. Essentially, it's hard to get lube where it needs to be by just drizzling it on like we all normally do.  It doesn't readily get into the rollers and on the pins, the most important parts friction-wise according to bike brainiac Silca Josh.

After that, I had the smoooooooothest drive train for so long.  It was noticeable.  I ended up doing it all to my Vassago Meatplow V.8 as well.  Same results.  So good.

But when it came time to do it all over (it lasted a very long time), I didn't have the wherewithal to do it all again.  The time and effort put in did give me marginal gains (even if it was just that sweet feeling of a completely smooth SS drive train), but not enough so that I'd keep doing it just to continue bumble-farting in the woods as I'm doing right now.

So back to scrubbing with some sort of kitchen brush and using whatever degreaser I bought the last time I was in Bike Source buying chamois lube and staring at shoes.

Until this cleaner showed up... sorta.

It did sit randomly on my bench for almost two weeks before I took the time to find it a permanent home.  It didn't help that it came with a manual with lots of wordy words either.  When I finally started reading, I discovered I could skip over the parts like "DO NOT USE WHILE BATHING."

So like any dumb male, I just plugged it in and started pushing buttons.

Seen here is my boring tarck bike chain, because the two times I used it on my sexy gold KMC X9 SL chains, I was too excite to take pictures. 

The SRAM PC 951 doesn't shine up so pretty, but since work pays for my wearable parts, I can't justify making them pay for super blingy parts.  Oh yeah, I'm in the process of getting my tarck bike back up to snuff because I also can't justify riding my garvel bike to work every day forever.  The Fastest Bike in the World has been ignored too long, and also I don't wanna lose my tarck skills.

Where was I?

Anyways, I cleaned both of my MTB SS chains, dunked them in lube, and will continue to do so in the future.  It's pretty effortless to have optimal chain performance, so why not?  I just love hearing my little cleaner buzzing in the other room doing all the hard work for me.

Also...

Obviously it works on other parts.  I was gonna scrub all these 34.9 seat collars with a toothbrush to get them ready to sell when I remembered the parts cleaner.  Five minutes and bueno.  Now I just need to put the effort into posting them for salw... and then answering stupid questions... and being asked to drive a half hour to meet up to hand off a $10 item...

Where I'll end up suggesting that I just leave it in my front yard, you come find it, leave a $10 bill in a pile of leaves... because that seems more logical to me.

Yes that new saddle and barely used handlebar from the garvel bike need to be sold as well.  Such a PITA for so little return.

Oh, one other thing.

Where have these been all my life?

Although I have nitrile gloves on my workbench (bought more for the purpose of cold weather riding than bike maintenance), I would rarely elect to put them on... because I'm dumb and also mebbe care about the earth or something.  It wouldn't be until I had grease under my finger nails and all manner of solvents, grease, lubes, gunk and whatnot on my skin that I'd realize I shoulda gloved up a half hour ago.

But I very much despise single use items.  All of them.  I have such a hard time inviting them into my life.

But these gloves?  So nice.  So grippy.  So not expensive.  So used so many times already... although usually donned after I start getting my hands greasy already and seeing these just sitting on my workbench staring back at me.  Bad habits die hard.

Do yourself a favor.  If you work on your own bikes (or other's), get some.  Now.  Don't wait.  I'm sure the way the "industry" is going right now, they're going to be the new toilet paper or 26" tires or inner tubes or bikes in general of all kinds and price points.