Bike Fixes and other updates

 Fixing my bike.

For a while now the main bike I have been riding the Ozark Trail G1 had some issues. I have put close to 4,000 miles on it since I have owned it and none of those issues were bad enough to not ride it. That changed a few weeks ago. Shifting started to be very sloppy in the rear and I already knew the issue was the jockey wheel on the derailleur. I was ignoring the issues it had for a long time because the shifting was fine and there were not other issues with it. When I first got this bike I wanted to see how long I could run it on stock parts with out replacing things other so I was also seeing how long I could let this issue go. Yesterday I took off the jockey wheel and put on a replacement. The damage was worse than I thought and I really should have replaced it sooner. 

You can see in the poor quality picture that it looks okay enough from a glance but once I took the screw out to replace you can see how bad it really is. 

This is what happened when I took it off of the derailleur. The middle of it fell out and was so chewed up from being broken that nothing was going back together. I will note that it is a cheaply made part and it looks like there was not any kind of bearing in it or if there was all of the balls fell out long ago and it was just working becuase of luck. Its not like the chain was going to fly off or anything with this being broken but the bike shifting fine with it being this sloppy did supprise me. The debate I had when replacing this was replace with a new derailleur or just buy a jockey wheel. The price for a 2 pack of jockey wheels are about 5-20 dollars and a replacement derailleur is about 15-25 dollars. I picked up a pack of 2 jockey wheels for 5.99 and figured they were going to be cheap garbage but better than the current one. Going with a jockey wheel I would not have to mess around with the cables or index anything I would mostly just have to tune it up slighly instead of messing with everything. 

The new jockey wheel is not a fun looking but you can see it has a bearing in it and its not broken. It took a total of 10 minutes to replace the part and most of that time was me taking photos and making sure I did not get my hands covered in all the grease that was on the chain. 

All in all not a bad fix and the bike is riding well again. The shifting is working perfectly but I noticed another problem happening after I took the pictures. Its hard to see but you see the rust on the chain in a few spots. I already replaced the chain prior because it was rusted and stretched this one only seems to be rusted and not really stretched out yet. 

One last bike fix that I have to get done is the front wheel. After making sure the jockey wheel moved and things worked I decided to test the other moving parts of the bike and found another issue. The front wheel is not smooth when rolling. This could be because its full of gunk or just needs more grease I am not 100 percent sure as I would have to take it apart and that could end up leading to me finding big problems or not being able to get the wheel together again. I do have other bikes I could ride and would not stop my morning rides but I would be sad to not ride my cheap fun bike. I also do not want to have to spend much money on it so if I take the wheel apart and find that bearings ground up things inside of it and I have to replace the whole thing I would be better off replacing the whole bike. A wheel is not really that expensive but neither is a new Ozark Trail G1. 

Other Updates

Even though the bike had issues I have been riding every day for still. I also decided to roll the dice and eat things like lettuce again. Right when I was starting to get my diet back in order there was an issue with lettuce and it was causing health issues for people. I was staying away from it and sticking to other healthy things but I really do enjoy a salad for lunch. Its harder to over eat when its lettuce, carrots, and cucumbers or what ever. I will end up over eating if my lunch is other things. Either way I was eating okay prior but I started back up with salads and getting more protein into the diet. 

One of the ways I was getting more protein was going to yogurt and I love greek yogurt. The store near me had my favorite brand of greek yogurt on sale when I went but the sale price was 8.99... The store brand regular yogurt was 4.29 and the tub was the same size. I figured how bad could regular yogurt be. I can not eat it at all. I have been forcing myself to eat it because I purchased it and I am not the type of person to waste something I purchased but it is so very very bad. It was so bad that I was at another store and they had another unknown to be brand of greek yogurt available and I was very hesitant to buy it. I did end up bying it becuase it was 3.99, its the same size as the other two, and if I have to I would just suffer through it like the prior one. Well I have to say the greek yogurt from Aldi is fantastic. Not quite as good as the brand I like the most but its so close I might not be able to tell which one is which in a blind tasting. 

I also decided that I am done with Coke Zero. I love fizzy cola drinks like Coke but always hated store branded and off brand things. They just never tasted correct at all and not they do not taste like coke but they tasted like the factory run off or something. The economy is not awesome right now and I coke zero for a 24 pack near me is 15.99 a 12 pack is not much better at like 8.99 each even if you buy two get one free its still not worth the price. Aldi has Summit Cola Zero Sugar for ballpark 4.99 a 12 pack so I gave it a try figuring it was going to have the same off taste as all the others. To my supprise it does not tase bad at all. It does not taste like coke zero and I would not want it to but it does not have that weird off putting taste that every other non big brand name soda seems to have. So I will be buying Summit Cola from now on and saving money. 

As for getting back down to the 150 LBS range I am still far off. I have lost a few LBS since the last update but not many. Its tougher this time to lose weight than it was when I first started this journey. I know I can do it and I can lose the mid section fat again but with things the way they are right now its going to be a bit slower and that is fine. This is not a race and was never inteded to be a race its a journey and it will have detours, pitfalls,  and slowdowns but it will keep on keeping on. 

I am off to plan out a deeper post about cycling in my area and the benifits and problems with it. Thank you very much for reading have a wonderful day!