Serviced the pedals last night. They are solidly seized to the cranks, and didn’t have time to try freeing them, so removed the pedals from the in-situ spindles.

Gave everything a thorough clean, and replaced the bearings (happened to have some size matched bearings, originally purchased for the Fire Mountain headset, in my parts box), giving a liberal coating of grease.

One of the pedals is absolutely perfect in terms of friction-free and play-free movement; the first one I did has a mm or two too much play, so I’ll be tweaking that tonight. They were both incredibly graunchy prior to this, so a big difference.

Also chopped off the stubs of the pannier screw with a pound shop special junior hacksaw.. it’s pretty flush with the frame but needs a check for sharp edges.

I have a new chain and gear cables  on order; the cables being Muddy Fox from Sports Direct. These are £1.50 for inners and outers, so I bought four sets, leaving two left over as spares once those on the Wildcat are sorted.

• Bike Mechanics
• Raleigh Wildcat