Bike maintenance silliness
This past Sunday morning, I changed my rear cassette in anticipation of that afternoon's race on the hillside at Mount Pleasant winery. I took off the the 25 tooth cassette and slid on a 27 tooth as a replacement.
I've been around long enough to know that I shouldn't be making last minute changes to bike setups. This even crossed my mind as I was making the change. But, I was blindly confident in my ability to make such a simple change. What could go wrong?
After the Womens race, I jumped out on course for a little reconnaissance. When I shifted higher up on the cassette the chain was skipping and hopping around. Eventually, it would find its proper place but shifting was basically crap. This was not the race to have trouble shifting into those higher gears.
Thankfully, I was smart enough to bring along the gears that I had removed earlier in the morning. Sometimes being cautious pays off. I rode back to the car to change my gearing back to the 25 cassette, as a light rain had begun falling again. I took the wheel off and, sure enough, the last few cogs were wobbling around on the freehub like it needed another spacer. Off came the 27... on went the 25... but there was a problem. The last cog would not fit on the freehub. What? How? I pulled the cogs off and put them back on again. Once again, the 12 tooth cog would not fit. What the hell? Meanwhile, the rain keeps falling and I keep getting more wet.
Like a fool expecting a different result, the cassette came off and went on again with the same result. By this time, my frustration level reached its peak and I decided to just race with a poorly shifting bike. Someone up above was looking down on me and the bike actually performed reasonably well.
Skip forward to yesterday morning. I was going for a morning CX ride and thought I would give one last try to get the 25 tooth cassette to work properly. Sure enough, the darn thing went on with no problem at all. No problem except for the fact that, once I put the wheel back on, the chain was now skipping badly on the rear derailleur pulleys no matter what gear I was in. Now what was the problem!
I was stumped for a few minutes before noticing that the upper pulley was not turning. I popped the wheel off again and tried to manually move the pulley. This didn't work much better. The pulley would turn about half a revolution and stop. Back and forth, back and forth, I moved the pulley trying to figure out the problem. I saw some grass wedged in the derailleur cage but it didn't appear to be enough to completely seize a derailleur pulley. With no better idea, I got a small screwdriver and poked and prodded at the space between the cage and the pulley. I pushed out a couple clumps of the grass but the wheel still was not turning. Eventually, I must have freed up something and things began to run more smoothly fifteen minutes before I had to leave for my ride.
I've had enough of stupid, little, annoying mechanical issues this week. Time to focus on Jefferson Barracks this Sunday and the State Championships next weekend.
I've been around long enough to know that I shouldn't be making last minute changes to bike setups. This even crossed my mind as I was making the change. But, I was blindly confident in my ability to make such a simple change. What could go wrong?
After the Womens race, I jumped out on course for a little reconnaissance. When I shifted higher up on the cassette the chain was skipping and hopping around. Eventually, it would find its proper place but shifting was basically crap. This was not the race to have trouble shifting into those higher gears.
Thankfully, I was smart enough to bring along the gears that I had removed earlier in the morning. Sometimes being cautious pays off. I rode back to the car to change my gearing back to the 25 cassette, as a light rain had begun falling again. I took the wheel off and, sure enough, the last few cogs were wobbling around on the freehub like it needed another spacer. Off came the 27... on went the 25... but there was a problem. The last cog would not fit on the freehub. What? How? I pulled the cogs off and put them back on again. Once again, the 12 tooth cog would not fit. What the hell? Meanwhile, the rain keeps falling and I keep getting more wet.
Like a fool expecting a different result, the cassette came off and went on again with the same result. By this time, my frustration level reached its peak and I decided to just race with a poorly shifting bike. Someone up above was looking down on me and the bike actually performed reasonably well.
Skip forward to yesterday morning. I was going for a morning CX ride and thought I would give one last try to get the 25 tooth cassette to work properly. Sure enough, the darn thing went on with no problem at all. No problem except for the fact that, once I put the wheel back on, the chain was now skipping badly on the rear derailleur pulleys no matter what gear I was in. Now what was the problem!
I was stumped for a few minutes before noticing that the upper pulley was not turning. I popped the wheel off again and tried to manually move the pulley. This didn't work much better. The pulley would turn about half a revolution and stop. Back and forth, back and forth, I moved the pulley trying to figure out the problem. I saw some grass wedged in the derailleur cage but it didn't appear to be enough to completely seize a derailleur pulley. With no better idea, I got a small screwdriver and poked and prodded at the space between the cage and the pulley. I pushed out a couple clumps of the grass but the wheel still was not turning. Eventually, I must have freed up something and things began to run more smoothly fifteen minutes before I had to leave for my ride.
I've had enough of stupid, little, annoying mechanical issues this week. Time to focus on Jefferson Barracks this Sunday and the State Championships next weekend.
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