It is just about Spring again and my bike needs work!

 Riding with out fully checking over my bike.

I have been riding just about every day again now that most of the snow and ice has melted. There is some black ice on the ground in the morning from all the snow melting into paved trails so I have to take it a bit slow but even then it is only a few spots that are left to really worry about. I have been a bit cautious after falling a few times on ice that I could see so my rides are a little slow but that is okay I can put the fat bike away for the season and ride the gravel bike now. Last week I did a lot of riding and I am happy about it. 

There is one problem with all this riding that I did not think about when I got on my gravel bike again. I checked the tires by just squeezing them and not putting a pump to them and assumed the rest of the bike was fine with no issues. As I was riding I was hearing some grinding sounds and notice a bit of rust on the fork. After the Saturday ride I had the time to take a look at my bike and see what all the noise was and if the fork was rusted or if a bolt rusted and dripped onto the fork. To be honest I expected some of the bolts to rust I do not care about riding my bike in the pouring rain or in the snow with salted roads so rust is inevitable...

First off I looked at the rear where there was some grinding going on and for the most part that was due to me not washing the bike off after riding it through some packed gravel and there was sand in all the sprockets. As I looked closer I noticed that there was some brown colors underneath the sprockets. I tried to get a good picture of it but it was hard to take it as the phone did not want to focus in there and setting it to manual and holding a light was not something I wanted to fiddle with. Either way you can see the discolored parts in the space between dork disc and biggest cog. I have yet to take off the wheel or take apart things to take a look at how bad it is in there but from what I can see its mostly a light rubbing with something abrasive and grease it up after situation. Though I will have to take it apart and really figure out what is going on soon. After I looked the back I needed to check the fork out. 

You can see in the hole on the far side that there is rust coming out of that hole. I do not know what that hole is doing there I do not know what could go in there or attach to it mabye its there incase the fork gets water in it and thats where it drains out? That seems like a very strange thing to say or think about but looking at how the rust is running down the fork water is leaking out from there and dripping down the fork but I do not know where the water is getting in from. I did not take off the wheel or take the fork out to really look at that either yet I just wanted to look over the bike before riding again and thinking about what I might need to do to make sure my rides are safe. As I looked at those parts I notice one other major thing that had some rust and I am much less okay with this part having rust on it. 

The front chain ring has rust on the bolt that you use to take the cranks off... This does not cause issues with the ride itself but if I am going to grease the rear why would I not check the bottom bracket too? That is going to be a bit hard to do if this bolt is rusted to the point where I have to hammer in a tool to remove it. I know that its a thing you can do but I would rather not do that. Also if the hammer trick does not work and this thing is stuck in there what do I do angle grinder off the whole thing and just replace it? I mean at that point I might as well just buy another Ozark Trail G.1. This is the conundrum of buying a bike that is so cheap its not just that the parts are a bit lower end its cost to replace just makes you think replace the whole bike instead of the parts. There is a sunk cost issues when it comes to something like this bike. Speaking of that there is one more thing I need to replace the tires. 

After all the other check overs I figured that I would check the tires last. I have ridden them for 1500 miles or so at this point and I figured they were going to need to be replaced soon becuase of that. The front tire is a little better than the back and that is expected so I just posted the back tire as an example of the wear they have on them. This is still a rideable tire and there is plenty of side grip but the tread in th middle of the tire is almost all done and that is where the problems will start. This could be part of why I was slipping out as much as I have been recently. The ice is the main problem and not like you would get much grip even if these were not worn but it felt like there was even less grip than there should be.  

This brings me to another point I brought up about the cost of this bike. Replacing the wheels is something I have to do and would have to do regardless of the bike but the cost of okay tires is around 50 dollars a tire and I could cheap out if I wanted to and go with 20 dollar tires but I bet those 20 dollar tires are bad and not worth putting on a bike. For this point I will make up some tires and say 30 dollars a tire so 60 dollars for both. Then there is replacing the freewheel if it is too rusted, so 20 dollars should get a similar one to the one on there. There is also the bottom bracket and the rust issues going on with the bolt on the cranks could be 20 dollars or 100 dollars lets just make up another perfect situation and say it cost 40 dollars to fix that. It might cost 120 dollars to replace parts that are worn from one season of riding and a new Ozark Trail G.1 cost 240. If I had to replace one more part on the bike its the same cost as the bike to repalce parts. Should somone get new parts or just replace the bike at that point? Also yes the parts that I would put on the bike will be better than the parts it came with but its one of those odd questions I thought about. If this was a 2000 dollar bike I do not think I would think about replacing the parts and just do it but because the bike quickly cost the same as repairs when does it become a sunk cost? 

What will I do about the repair costs? 

For me my thoughts have not changed that much after buying this bike and knowing what the problems will be with it. The cost of the parts does not really bother me that much as I will get new better parts and that was part of the plan for it to start with. Only upgrade parts when parts get worn out or need replacement was my thoughts when I bought the bike and that is still what I am thinking with this. If I bought a 2000 dollar bike I would still have to replace these things as if I rode the same way I have rode this bike. All of the issues from this bike have been from me not paying attention to things or riding in conditions that are not good for a bike. It just stings a little when replacing the parts cost the same as the whole bike and I enjoyed riding the bike with its factory parts. I am going to have to take everything off the bike and give it a good cleaning as well before replacing anything. So my pland for now is take everything off, clean the bike fully, replace the tires, and ride it until either things get worse or something else brakes. This might seem odd as I know things need replacement but its not like the parts are past the point of no return now the bike still goes and it seems safe enough so far. This way I can also replace parts over the next riding season and at the end of the season have a bike that is nicer than the start of the riding season. Last if things start to look like I have to replace everything now then I will just buy another bike and use this as loaner bike or rain bike. I would not ride a new bike in bad weather and only take this one out in the rain or light snow and still be happy with that. That is part of the good with buying a cheap bike I can care less about it and be very happy getting more cycling in. 

I am off to repair my bike and continue the journey! Thank you very much for reading have and wonderful day!