After a winter of daily commuting, my trusty steed was a little worse for wear. I cleaned it up, lubricated things, and gave it new tires (slicks for city streets) a couple of weeks ago, but that only emphasized the grinding noise when I pedaled and the fact that the bottom bracket was wobbling just a little more each day. (The bottom bracket is the "axle" between your pedals, the thing that connects them to the frame and to each other. If you can grab a crankarm and wiggle that "axle" even a little bit, you've got a potentially big problem.) Plus, my rear wheel was so out-of-round from the poundings of the city streets that I felt like I was riding a clown's bike—instead of traveling a straight line, my bike sort of wobbled down the road. So the other day I stopped into the bike shop to see if they could fix all those wiggles and wobbles by tightening the bottom bracket and truing the wheel. One hundred dollars later ($$!), I've got a brand new bottom bracket and a straight wheel. The amazing thing is they did the work while I waited! That's a lot of money for a bike repair, but in the big picture it's a small price to pay for feeling almost like I'm now riding a brand new machine.
