Maintenance, continued...

Tried without success to find some handlebar tape that would do better than what I have, especially since these bars seem to flare out wider a few inches from the stem. They're the standard 26mm at the stem, but are bigger than that elsewhere. That would explain the tape coming up short consistently. Enough on that - will live with it and retape as needed.

Park Tools cone wrenches arrived, and overhauling the front hub was a breeze. The whole process came back to me once I got started, having done that numerous times on other bikes. Got it back in the fork, tweaked a spoke or three for trueness, adjusted the brakes, and it's ready to roll. The rear hub presents a new problem. It's a freehub, as opposed to a freewheel, and I've never met one of those before. First problem is that the cassette has to come off to overhaul the hub, and I don't have the right tools - again. Considered taking it to a LBS, but decided instead to drop $20.00 for a set of tools consisting of a cassette lock ring remover, a chain whip, and a chain tool. Not a bad price, so I'll give it a rip and try to learn how to do this. So now I'm waiting again...

Handlebar tape

The handlebars are retaped. For now. I have about zero confidence that they'll stay that way for long. Why do they always make those rolls so short? And why can't you buy one continuous double-length roll like you used to be able to? I used to buy two, waste some, but always had enough to do a very good tape job. With these short rolls, that's no longer possible, and finding the optimum wrap to both cover everything and have enough to reach the end is a lot tougher than it needs to be.

Waiting...

Ordered cone wrenches from Performance, since the make-do tools I'd always used on the old bike were not going to fit. Went cheap, with Spin Doctor wrenches, which arrived quickly. Unfortunately, they were too thick to fit on my cones, and also not of consistent thickness. The 16mm was thin enough to fit, but I needed the 13mm, which was too thick. Not very high quality. Sent them back and ordered the Park Tools set instead. And now I wait. About the only thing I can do in the meantime is to retape the handlebars. Pulled off the old tape last night, tried to remove as much adhesive goo as I could (from tape added underneath, and at points of unravelling on top), and will retape as the spirit moves me. Not one of my favorite tasks, since it seems like I never quite get it right without several tries.

Got Adventure Cycling maps for Northern Tier route through NY, just to see what they look like in an area I'm familiar with. Also ordered the Green Mountain Loop set, since part of it covers the NY side of Lake Champlain. I'm starting to look at that route breakdown again, and it now looks like an 8-day trip, with 40-50 miles per day, and a day off in the islands. Not gonna happen, though, unless I get off my butt and get on the trainer...