I started the morning by purchasing a pair of shifter cables, one with housing, the other without. Bought some at the LBS here in Carson just to support them. Their prices may be overpriced compared to other bike shops around the South Bay, but at least by buying small stuff, that should be enough to keep them in business. =P

$1 difference between the housed cable and the one without it. Figured i might as well finish the job i started, I went on cleaning the front derailleur since the rear one was already cleaned from yesterday. After that was done, I decided to clean the chain too. So much grime. Seriously. The old towel I used is literally covered in black dirt junk from the many years the bike was used. Guess the previous owner(s) never did regular cleaning maintenance. Now was the time to change that and make the bike look fresh how it once was. =]

Soon enough, the chain was almost clean after using some steel wool and the towel with the chain lube/cleaner, thought it was appropriate to clean the crankset as well. With the help of Heather, I was able to get this done rather quickly (even though it did take a good while to clean in between the teeth).

Took off both chainrings with the 5mm allen wrench to clean them. You can easily tell that the inner chainring has been used more than the outer one. =P But even so, both are dirty and need to cleaned.

Cleaned the cranks as well. Rockin’ the Sugino GLP stuff as my crankset assembly. ;] Definitely cleaner now.

Thanks to the steel wool, you can see the difference between clean (left) and dirty (right). The difference is as clear as night and day.

Ah yes, can’t forget to take a picture of my trusty sidekick with her passion to have things super-duper clean. Here is Heather, finishing up the bigger chainring i started earlier with the towel. After seeing her clean the smaller chainring with the towel and chain lube, compared to my method with just the steel wool, the job was actually done faster and cleaner. After doing what I can with the steel wool, I asked her if she could use her special skills to clean in between the teeth. =P Thanks Heather!!! =]

Alas, here is the finished product. Clean the allen screws just to stay true to the cleaning theme of the afternoon. I’m really impressed of how the crankset looks now. Awesome.

Earlier in the day, i was comparing the rear derailleur to the pictures online as reference. I was under the assumption that it was the derailleur that was bent but after intense comparing and contrasting between the pictures (honestly, it took about 5 minutes. lol), i went back to the bike to look at the frame. It’s actually not the rear derailleur that’s bent, but it’s the hangar where the derailleur mounts on. Usually I thought it was the hangar that some  rear derailleurs would have that would be bend but from the looks of it, mine is. Took the rubber mallet and hit it for a good couple of minutes but that didn’t suffice. I need a metal hammer to do the job. I even used a 2.5 lb. weight to hit it. Unfortunately, it only moved to the left (in reference to the picture) just a bit.

Of course, here is my Suntour Cyclone front derailleur. Super clean, but that won’t make up for the joint that’s broken. =T It still functions fine, but I’m unable to limit the movement of the derailleur moving inward (i think?). I plan on maybe super gluing it and see how far it goes. not sure if it’ll be able to tolerate the pressure from the return spring though. If not, i might just use this as is or find another front derailleur to use.

Although I bought the shifter cables, I wasn’t able to install them because I still wanted to try temporarily fix the front derailleur and bend the hangar for the rear derailleur. Plus, I couldn’t find the wire cutters until later on. lol

I’ll definitely keep you updated. Shifter cable installation should be coming up tomorrow (or today now since it’s already midnight).