Rode hard and put up wet

Time and effort were in in short supply for a long time; too long. I put many miles on the bike without some routine cleaning except for the occasional squirt with the hose.

There are a few places that corrosion has flaked the paint. The two top tube cable guides are probably the worst.

This is my favorite paint remover for all paint-on-metal stripping.  Don't get it on any paint that you like.

Here is one cable guide during stripping and after scraping...

I had this taped off but some stripper got under the tape and faded the logo. The bottom bracket area had similar issues and was stripped and scraped.  Here are the finished cable guides. 

Not really rocket science here.  I used 2 coats of flat white enamel then 2 coats of clear.

Corrosion is usually found under the tape on alloy bars and are ignored.

  Mine was no different.  A scrub was in order.

Business up front-party in the back

Here is a blast from the past. I did this conversion last year...

1X seems to be a viable option these days for most mountain biking.  I like the option of simplifying the setup on the bike and perhaps saving a few grams off the bike so I can gain more beer weight and call it even. Anyhoo - there were two options to go 1X when I decided to do it - replace the front ring with specific BCD or go with a spiderless single ring.  

I have the SRAM s1400 crank...

so I went with the spiderless option MRP Bling Ring (32).  This ring has an offset design to align the chain a bit better...

Installation was straight forward.  Remove crank...

Remove spider with appropriate star wrench...

Slap it all back together.  Reinstall chain minus 2 links and boom - done.  (ignore the temporary homemade chain keeper).

Chain alignment has not been an issue.  Its a little off on the inner most cog but it runs smoothly.  The SRAM X7 derailleur long cage is working OK.

Gearing is 32 up front with 12-36 out back.  Spins out at about 23mph. It is sufficient for all but the steepest climbing where you will suffer like a SS hipster, but for only a short while. Running a Paul's Chain Keeper now.