Ride report… Long
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Productive day for me. Pressure washed the entire bike (which I almost never do), lots of soap, cleaned pretty much everything.
Took apart the BB, flushed the bearings, cleaned and re-greased everything before putting it back together - Definitely, definitely needed it. Don’t let yours sit if you haven’t done it!
Took off the fork, cleaned out and re-greased the Headset before re-assembling - there was a little spray in there, but I had it so greased up it probably would have been fine.
Pulled off rotors and cassette, pulled off my XD driver, and my end-caps / bearing covers on my hubs. Those looked fine to me, but they’re currently open to make sure any moisture evaporates before cleaning, and re-assembling. Looks like I won’t have to pull / re-pack the bearings themselves.
I do have to do all of the suspension pivots, but I figure those can wait a couple of days. Chain is dry but needs to be cleaned and re-waxed. One of my jockey wheels isn’t spinning so good so will probably pull and check those.
Looking like the conditions didn’t really leave me any worse for wear as long as I got everything cleaned out fast.
If your bike is sitting - get on it!
How does the Leadville 100 mtb corral upgrade work? Will Lutsen 99er finishers get an email saying their corral improved or is it something you need to reach out once you have a finish result?
Will need to reach out once they update the times.
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I’ve been in the Ontario north woods, so just catching up. I heavily greased the BB and wheel bearings before the race knowing there’d be wet conditions and I think everything faired pretty decently - I took them apart, cleaned and regreased and they seemed good. I’ll get my Fox fork rebuilt, it needed a service most likely. One casualty I didn’t expect was the Kogal Cross bearings in the jockey wheels, they’ve always coped well but not this time. I’ll contact Kogal for their wisdom.
I too made the podium and the coveted Leadville coin. I’ll defer to next year.
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Well I figured it was going to be the case. Wheel bearings front and rear, sprage clutch (Onyx Vesper), and BB will need at minimum a deep cleaning or replacement. top pulley on the derailleur is fine, lower is not, so going to replace those too.
Wondering if I should also have the shifter cable and housing replaced too, since they were submerged.
Yes.
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Figured as much. Will likely do the dropper cable and housing too, as it too goes round the bottom bracket. Yeesh, gonna be a big bill.
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Yup…just do it all. 
You probably won’t need to do the dropper cable. It’s not like it’s open down by the BB - it’s inside a housing. Basically only if you got mud / water in at the lever. But, same goes for your lockouts if you got water / mud ingress at your lockout lever. Personally, I’m not replacing them yet, but I am ordering the parts to make sure I have everything on hand. But, if you’re already having a shop do a shifter cable for mechanical shifting (wireless here) then you could just have them do them at the same time. It’s a DIY for me so not a lot of extra effort to go back and do them when needed.
I did have to do my lower jockey wheel as well - flushed and re-packed that with fresh grease. Upper is still spinning perfect so haven’t checked it.
Suspension pivots were also a mess with mud and dirt that had made their way in around the exterior of the bearings, and I found one bearing in my linkage that’s seized. Seeing if I can resuscitate it today or if I need to order a new one. Managed to slightly damage two rubber seals that I now need to order replacements for, but they’ll be fine in the short term.
Also - you don’t need to just replace everything. You can usually use a razor blade to pull off the outer bearing seal, blast out with brake clean, I then clean with a syringe of rubbing alcohol, then blow out with a compressor or one of those compressed air cans. Then re-pack with a good bearing grease (I use Kluber Isoflex) and put it back together. A lot of times this comes out better than new as well as cheaper and faster. So far this is what I’ve done for BB Bearings and the Jockey Wheel. It’s what I’m trying for the linkage bearing today, but I need to see if I can get the right snap ring pliers to get a retaining ring off.
Definitely recommend replacing the dropper cable and housing, and especially getting the mud/moisture out of any frame internal housing tubes/sheath. I had a spectacularly rainy/muddy race once where I didn’t do that and the housing was seized in the frame once the moisture dried out. I was able to pour hot water into the frame housing tube opening near the head tube and eventually loosen it up, but not without difficulty.
This is what pisses me off about the whole thing - zero appreciation from the organizers about the cost after the race for rebuild. We’re lucky in that we can do much of it ourselves and others can dig for advice here. There are hundreds of others who’ll put their bike in the garage and come back in a few weeks to find everything seized and a $500 bill from a bike shop.
I’m sending my fork back to Fox for a rebuild, I’ve decided. Ahead of schedule but prolly worthwhile.
I’d bet race organizers have a real appreciation for the challenge the conditions created for racers during and after the race. As racers themselves, they’d share your frustration about the post-race maintenance costs; it’s definitely a significant aspect to consider after such a challenging race. That said, they’re probably more appreciative they were actually able to pull it off.
They didn’t ask for or want those conditions any more than we did. Despite the historical rainfall leading up to the event, they did an amazing job ensuring the race could still happen. Their efforts were crucial in making the race possible. Personally, I think their hard work and dedication deserve a huge thank you.
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I see both sides of it. But I look at it this way - if they cancel, I’m out a lot more in AirBnB and flights than I would be in having a shop do all this maintenance for me, and I don’t get a Leadville corral upgrade (still TBD on that, but I should).
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, they didn’t forsee how bad it was going to be. But, I’m glad they held it, and I’d race it again. And still complain for that entire second half 
Quick trip to Home Depot this morning, picked up snap ring pliers, and was able to salvage the bearings on my shock linkage so they’re packed full of fresh grease and spinning smooth. Will still order replacements, but at least it’s usable and not seized for now.
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Wishing you the best on your corral upgrade!
So far, the only damage I’ve been able to find (without disassembling bearings - still need to learn how to do that) is my front lockout is toast.
Thanks - if they base the corral times on the same percentages, or just lower them by 30 minutes - I could actually score a two corral upgrade, but Tamira has said they’re going to be more stingy with corrals this year.
Bearing service: It’s actually really easy, much easier than replacing in many cases and can save a bearing or hold you over until you can replace. Get a razor blade and insert it right on the edge in between the seal (usually red / yellow rubber) and pry / pop the seal out. You want to make sure it’s in between the seal and metal bearing so you’re not damaging it, and pry gently because it has a metal backing that can warp.
Clean the seal gently with a q-tip or paper towel so you don’t warp it, Then, Blast it all out with brake cleaner from the auto parts store. I finish with rubbing alcohol from a syringe, then blow it dry with compressed air. Re-pack with Kluber Isoflex.
Good video here from BBInfinite, but I use a smaller / finer razor than he does.
This time around, I did this for the BB, Jockey Wheel, and Linkage so far.
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It’s definitely something I should learn, but TBH probably won’t pick it up for a few years. Two kids under 4 means my evenings are spent with dishes and folding laundry 
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I can’t like this post enough. The people putting on these races are usually trying their best and the reward is often a bunch of complaining from monday morning race directors. Good and bad decisions are made when putting on a race, but it’s all with good intent in my experience. And yeah, amateur bike racing events aren’t exactly the gold standard for event coordination and professionalism, but there is also little $ in it for the organizers. Nobody is getting rich off running amateur cycling events. Providing suggestions on how to make a race better is one thing, but most of it is just unconstructive complaining by folks who feel overly entitled by their race entry fee. Just my opinion, but I think people would be well served to spend some time volunteering at some races and/or get involved with putting one on.
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Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate their work and as @BCM said, “It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. Sitting in the taco shack that evening, locals shared that there were other options to the finish and my OnX Off-road app shows other options instead of the “B” route - don’t forget they closed off the logging area because it was a “quagmire” instead they send us through one. There was no guidance about what to expect in that “B” route stretch on the start line and lastly, all I read from the organizers is “it ain’t our fault” w no apologies and limited understanding. In one post one of the organizers said “here’s our other events so you don’t have to come to these either” - that’s not the attitude. My sympathy and complaints go out for the folks who don’t have home mechanic skills to save themselves a few hundred $’s and for the families stuck on the side of the trail hoping for a fun adventure while dads racing. I got my podium, coral placing and Leadville entry, all what I came for.
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Got lucky and the service manager at my bike shop set aside the whole day to service my Carbon Lefty (took forever to get the seal set) and go through all the moving parts. Clean and repack what can, and replace the stuff that’s just not right. 
that the bill isn’t in the zone of making me consider buying a Lab 71 instead of all this maintenance 