I am sporadically documenting my wrenching-adventures here.

10.04.2026

I am writing this update from inside a train, having left my bike in the bike-garage at the Central-station in Erfurt. There have been some frightening clicking/cracking noises coming from the bike whenever I was pedalling with some force. My suspicion that the root cause are broken ball-bearing in the Bottom-Bracket has been confirmed.

This means I will have to install a new one, and I hope the University Bike-Shop has some old spares that fit my frame. If i cant find a BB that goes with my Crankset I can also install a new Crankset, It would certainly be an upgrade, at least if I can find a sleek one.

I wrote a checklist of parts I want to overhaul or replace during lectures today and ordered it by priority levels. I am going to just work down said list, unless I find free parts for something further down already. The end goal is having a fully working commuter that I can also take on longer weekend trips in the 60 to 120km range.

23.04.2026

My bike is now fully rideable. I spent a few hours at the bike shop yesterday and installed a "new" front derailleur.

Finding one that fit my seatpost/bike frame and chainrings. I spent a good while digging through the spare part pile of the Shop, and when I had finally found one that fit I had to thoroughly deep clean every screw and bolt on it to make it work properly. There is still a bit of finesse needed to shift to the higher gears and not have the chain rub against the derailleur, but that seems to me like one of the quirks of friction shifting.

The next big step will have to be re-painting the frame. I already sanded off the old, shoddy rattlecan paint the previous owner disfigured it with. I dont want to faff around with installing new components on it if I have to inevitably take them off again in a few weeks. I should start ordering those Peugeot decals.