The Ironclad Upgrade

I've been wanting to upgrade my "Ironclad" bike for a while. I call it this because of all the steel upgrades I've put on it have made it really heavy and also a homage to the old battleships since it feels so smooth when I ride it almost as if I'm sailing on water. Incidentally, I also use it for my incredible garage "sailing" quests to find stuff to build things.

I learned from Sheldon Brown's website that if you want to replace the drive train on a bike, you should do all the components at once, and mine are well overdue. What happens, is the chain wears out and begins to stretch and then does not mesh correctly with the gear teeth causing them to wear down faster and then you just get a negative feedback loop. It was time to buy some some shiny new parts for once instead of using scrap!

Firstly, the cassette:

I'd been searching forever for a place to find steel sprockets (just read my other post here) and I found it at last at a bike shop called Mark's in Rancho Cucumunga which I accidentally found on a quest for King Louis XIII where I was actually looking for the Old Town Baking Co. since I'd seen their bread at nearly every independently owned grocery store in the greater Los Angeles area.  I also found these new pedals and clips at a garage sale.  To string it all together, a shiny new chain! Now I don't have to worry about this bike breaking down for a long time! I just need to remember to anoint it with holy oil every now and then...