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Monday, July 24th, 2006 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manI HATE CHAINS AND DERAILLEURS!!!
I spent over a hundred pounds getting my bike sorted out at the start of the year, including replacing the derailleur twice. I'd have hoped after that it'd have stayed working for a while, but today, on the way to work, it was chittering against the chain the whole time. I took it to the bike shop on the way back, and they said it was slightly out of alignment, but the earliest they could book it in for repair was on the tenth of August. I asked if it was something I could do myself; they said not unless you know what you're doing.
So I set off for home, and half a mile later the chain falls off the range wheels as I'm changing up range—something that's been happening quite a bit of late (possibly a case of a missed stitch in time). I try to get it back on without stopping, but the whole thing snarled up and the mechanism seizes up as a loop in the chain gets carried back to the derailleur.
At that point I thought I was going to be wheeling the bike home. Turns out it's not quite that bad, but if the derailleur was slightly out of alignment before, it's positively wonky, if not bent now. I can't get up to top gear without going over a bump, and I daren't go down to first for fear of the thing getting caught up in the spokes.
*growl* Everything I touch, I break. :-(
*sigh* Oh well, I ought at least to be thankful for small mercies: it looks like the bike might still remain usable until I can get it in for repair. (And with a thirty to (uphill into the wind) thirty-seven minute bike commute, as against fifty to (more frequently) sixty by Tube each way, and with no option this time of borrowing Michael M's bike (as he's in Israel) or my brother's (as he's using it to cycle to work himself), that's something to be grateful for.)
I spent over a hundred pounds getting my bike sorted out at the start of the year, including replacing the derailleur twice. I'd have hoped after that it'd have stayed working for a while, but today, on the way to work, it was chittering against the chain the whole time. I took it to the bike shop on the way back, and they said it was slightly out of alignment, but the earliest they could book it in for repair was on the tenth of August. I asked if it was something I could do myself; they said not unless you know what you're doing.
So I set off for home, and half a mile later the chain falls off the range wheels as I'm changing up range—something that's been happening quite a bit of late (possibly a case of a missed stitch in time). I try to get it back on without stopping, but the whole thing snarled up and the mechanism seizes up as a loop in the chain gets carried back to the derailleur.
At that point I thought I was going to be wheeling the bike home. Turns out it's not quite that bad, but if the derailleur was slightly out of alignment before, it's positively wonky, if not bent now. I can't get up to top gear without going over a bump, and I daren't go down to first for fear of the thing getting caught up in the spokes.
*growl* Everything I touch, I break. :-(
*sigh* Oh well, I ought at least to be thankful for small mercies: it looks like the bike might still remain usable until I can get it in for repair. (And with a thirty to (uphill into the wind) thirty-seven minute bike commute, as against fifty to (more frequently) sixty by Tube each way, and with no option this time of borrowing Michael M's bike (as he's in Israel) or my brother's (as he's using it to cycle to work himself), that's something to be grateful for.)
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-25 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-25 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-25 06:19 pm (UTC)