lethargic_man | Monday, November 10th, 2008

I had my chain and gear cassette replaced two or three months ago. Both the bike shop and the Bike Doctor who comes around work had recommended, strongly, I did this after a year; in the end I waited a further year without incident. When they did the work, they also replaced the chain ring, which had become completely worn. (That explained why the chain kept falling off the inside edge of it.)

Unfortunately, this led to the chain repeatedly falling off the outside edge of the new chain ring: between the chain ring and the chain guard. So I took the bike back, and they took out the spacers they'd put in (and didn't charge me for it), and all was well... for a few weeks. Then the chain fell off again, and got so thoroughly jammed between the chain ring and the chain guard that it took me a good five minutes to get it out, in the process bending both the chain ring and chain guard, which meant that it's been happening repeatedly again since.

I took my bike back to the bike shop today, and the mechanic (appropriately named Ezra) put a new chain ring on, frowned at it, spent a good while searching through catalogues, announced he wasn't happy replacing the chain ring without the chain guard, but couldn't find the latter listed anywhere—he's going to have to 'phone the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative tomorrow, and then replaced the original chain ring.

And then told me my derailleur was out of kilter, and fitted a new one. Which means I'm now on my third derailleur in two and a bit years, grrrr! I asked him was I just incredibly unlucky, or was I damaging my bike without being aware of it. He said probably a bit of both, and asked if I'd had my bike racked with others. (Answer: no—the bike racks at work are far enough apart I don't think it's a case of other bikes falling on mine.)

*sigh*

How often do you (