Steve Tilford

Rust is my nemesis. It is the arch enemy or rival of anyone that works on automobiles. Or any mechanical stuff that is exposed to the elements. Rust can, and does, turn a 10 minute job into a 3 hour + job in a matter of minutes.

I’ve had plenty of experience with rust. Enough to know that I’ll never own an automobile that has spent its previous life where they dump a ton of salt on the roads all winter. We do that here in Kansas, but it is infrequent. I wash the underbody of my car after each snowstorm melts away.

I spent a couple hours yesterday trying to replace two lug bolts on Dennis’ Caravan. To do this, you have to remove the brake backing plate to get the bolts out of the hub. Now this job has turned into replacing the wheel bearing.

The problem is that the bearing won’t come out of the arm. It is seized in pretty good. So far I have soaked it in rust penetrator for a couple hours and have hit is a zillion times with a sledge hammer. Last night I got a MAP torch out and heated it up pretty good, with no luck.

Man, is it frustrating. I’m heading over to Harbor Freight to look for a Hub Buster. It is a tool you mount on the lug bolts that gives you leverage to wack the thing off with a sledge hammer. If they don’t have one, I’m going to make one out of steel. I’m now sure that is going to work. Any suggestions???

Okay, this was just a little interlude to allow me to get back to level where I can think rationally again. There is nothing in this world that I don’t like less than rust. Okay, I don’t like ticks much.

It doesn’t really look that bad, right?

The new hub bearing. It is just rusted around the back cylinder.

Another Tucker sleeping photo.

I’m sitting here watching the Vuelta al Pais Vasco (Tour of the Basque Country) and was thinking that you can watch bicycle racing nearly everyday of the week nowadays. I’ve been trying to limit my time on the computer and am doing a pretty good job. I don’t really look at it much after the morning. I figure it is better to live life than to follow everyone else’s life. It seems like so much people do on computers now is to follow their friend’s lives. Kind of weird.

I have try to put my A cross bike back together today. It has Di2 electronic shifting and I have a really hard time going back to manual shifting after riding Di2. I just need bars and stem, plus cranks. And I have to seal up a couple wheels with tubeless tires. I’m doing an 100 mile gravel road race tomorrow in Lawrence. It is called the Gravelleurs Raid and it pretty hard. Tons of climbing. I did the race last year after torrential rain. This year looks good, dry, but windy of course. I’m riding 32mm Hutchinson Bulldog tires that are pretty bald from riding. I rode the same tires last year with no problem.

I finished Dennis’ van yesterday. I finally lowered the suspension some to get a better angle at the hub. I attached a brake rotor to the hub and got underneath the van and hit the rotor with a sledge hammer. It took quite a few wacks, but finally broke loose. After that it was clear sailing.

Trudi took a 17 hour ferry ride from Genoa Italy to Sicily. She is now sitting on top of Mt. Etna for a two week BMC training camp. She got to meet up with my friend Sara Dickinson, who lives in Genoa. That was nice. She is stressing a little about how much work she has scheduled the next three months, but that is always in flux.

Okay, want to watch the finish of today’s stage, then get my bike together. Queen stage of the race. Only a time trial left tomorrow. Super steep climbs. Glad it is Friday.