Saturday: I took the
Racing R** tyres off and fitted a
Nobby Nic to the front and a
Rocket Ron to the back. Took three attempts to get
Ron up, as it turned out he had a cut and a hole, so those had to get patched. The freehub fell off,
again, so I took the opportunity to clean it out and put some proper DT Swiss hub grease into it, rather than the old B'Twin Teflon stuff I used last time.
Found this in the front tyre that came off...
Sunday: Took the rear wheel off the gravel bike so I could get the 50t Garbaruk cassette off, so stripped the handlebars in preparation for replacing the broken brake lever.
While I was at it, I dropped the fork so I could recover the bottom headset bearing, as it's FUBAR. It says
Cane Creek 52mm on it, I was hoping for a bit more info is it a
52mm x 40mm x 7mm 45°/45°,
52mm x 40mm x 8mm 45°/45° or a
52mm x 40mm x 6.5mm 36°/45°...?

Either way, it took a while to get it out, as it was pretty welded to the inside of the head tube.
Then it was back onto the Scandal, where it took far too long to service the clutch on the XT rear derailleur, but again, I took the opportunity to use the proper Shimano grease, rather than the B'Twin stuff. The after-market Garbaruk cage also took a while to fit, which leaves me with the distinct impression that I didn't tension the old cage properly after I last serviced the clutch before the WRT; which probably explains why the derailleur would occasionally stick forward when coming off the largest cog, causing the chain to fall off.
The gear cable was knackered, so I was going to replace both cable and outer, but it turns out I didn't have enough outer, so I just chopped a cm or two off each end to get rid of the knackered bits. Eventually I got enough tension into the cable that the top jockey wheel stopped catching and everything seemed to index up and down without issues. I also swapped out the front and rear brake pads for new, as the front ones were pretty worn.
Two and a half hours later than planned, I headed out, and rode to High Lodge and back. I had planned to run around the Blue and Red routes, but due to being late, just filled up my water and headed back. Apart from one cog in the middle of the cassette making a bit of a noise, it all seems to work; apart from the chain falling off if I back pedal when in one of the large cogs. I'm assuming the chain line isn't quite correct, so might have a look at that tomorrow. It's noticeable that the tyres are slower on the tarmac than the ones I just took off, but the increased confidence that I'm not going to just fall off at the first sighting of slop, is worth it.

There are theories at the bottom of my jargon.