Working On Gary With Mother

Took my regular bike out today.
Clear skies and a gentle breeze called me out before lunch so off I went.
I wanted to get back on my regular bike to make sure my issues with the Biopace rings were only on Gary Fisher.
So I worked on cadence for most of my ride, except today I pushed a higher gear.
I been working on cadence for about two weeks now and I can see some changes.
I'm able to hold higher revs for longer than I used to and what used to be pushing it now feels normal.
I think I'll give this another couple of weeks or so.
So after my ride, I decided to work on Gary Fisher, Gary for short, and fix up the cockpit a bit.
I took off those Ritchey(Rich for short) grips and put on the Specialized BG ones I took off the Barn Door. I also added some Rich bar ends from my spare parts box.
Here's how the bars look now:



All ready for a long shake down cruise which I hope to take tomorrow.
I put Gary up on the workbench to inspect the chain.
Still bleeding rust.
I think I'm gonna take it off and put on the chain that came off my old bike when I changed over to nine speed. It's still fairly new; I think I only put around five hundred miles on it.
Clean it up, drop some Chain-l No.5 on it and should be good to go.
So I'm standing there, looking at Gary, and notice I got a thing of Mother's Mag polish on my bench.
I wonder.
So I started on the front hub:



That puppy is pretty much gone.
Then I tried the rear:



Pretty much the same.
At this point, I'm sort of glad I can't reach in between the spokes on the flange. I mean if I could, I might still be out there polishing.
Wait.
Those spokes look cleanable.
Before:



After:



I did about half a wheel before realizing that I had gone insane.
That's the only word I can use to describe using mag polish to clean the spokes on twenty one year old bicycle.
I forgot to say that I also polished the rear derailleur, part of the front derailleur, one crank arm, and one canti on the rear.
I slowly put the rag and the Mothers down, I wheeled Gary to his parking space, locked him up, and went inside to watch Law & Order.
Whew!
That was close!
Order has been restored.
You know, while I'm sitting here watching TV, I bet if I took that wheel off, I could reach in between the spokes on the flange if I used a Q-tip.
Okay, maybe not.
I just hope I don't blind anyone with that one shiny spot on my rear hub.