Paragon Maintenance

I've had the Paragon out of play for several weeks.  First, the headset had been creaking and driving me nuts.  Upon disassembly I found the lower bearing was pretty cruddy.  I had already disassembled this cartridge bearing and repacked it once, so this time I ordered a new one.

Ellen and her kittly slippers help with

headset bearing replacement.

Next up, my SRAM type 2 rear derailleur is one of the first ones made.  It was actually back ordered when I first tried to purchase.  Over recent months I've noticed it simply has way too much tension on the chain, making shift to larger cogs really chunky sounding.

I talked to the SRAM rep at Manatoc and he said there is a known issue with early production models.  Thanks to SRAM's excellent customer service they sent me new one.  Actually they did one better and sent me an X0 rear derailleur to replace my X9.  Upgrade!

 New rear derailleur installed.

In the process of working on the above mentioned items I thought about my tubeless wheels.  I'd never topped off the Stans sealant since first going tubeless. When I shook the wheels I could no longer hear it sloshing around.  Yep, time to top off.  I made a bit of a mess but it's all good.

The syringe should make it easier, now that

I know the technique to avoid a mess.

It has been quite fun riding the Karate Monkey while the Paragon has been in pieces.  Getting some front suspension again will be nice.  Interestingly, I've not missed gears too much.

 Ready to roll again.