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December 24, 2006
A bicycle update
As you know, I had the bottom bracket on The Mighty Schwinn replaced on Friday. So now, rather than metal rubbing on metal as I pedal (boom chuck-a-lucka) I actually have some ball-bearing action working.
I'm sure that pedaling is smoother, there's less friction, blah blah blah, and that for the same amount of effort I was exerting a week ago, I'm getting more return in the way of speed today. Of course, I have no way to measure this, and I don't know that the extra oomph I'm getting now is so much that it's even measurable.
It does seem that during these last two days that my average speed is higher. But, that could be the wind, the lack of wind, the fact I do squats and have more leg strength, Christmas magic, the line of coke I snorted pre-ride, the variables are just too many. Or, I could be wrong.
All in all things seem $35 better. Which is what I paid for parts and labor.
I am not one to stand up on the pedals as I crank up a hill. I prefer to stay seated as I'm not sure I have the coordination to pedal standing up. I also have a bit of fear associated with the chain jumping and causing me to groin bash whatever that part of the bike is called running between the handlebars and seat. It might be called the neuterer.
Yesterday, as I pedaled up one of the few hills I encounter, the chain slipped. And then it slipped again. After a few more slips I decided the bike was trying to shift from the smallest sprocket to the next smaller sprocket. I figured I'd live with it until I got home.
A mile or two later I decided I'd hop off the bike and look at things more closely. I figured that the new bottom bracket (remember, it's a different model than the old assembly) changed the front-sprocket / rear-dérailleur geometry and that an adjustment of some sort was in order.
I figured it would be wisest to wait until I got home, read up on what to do at Sheldon Brown's website, and proceed from there. After all, I could always get by without the smallest sprocket. At least until I got home.
But, then again, I had a couple of screwdrivers. How hard could this be? There were only a couple of screws, and I'd done stuff like this all the time when I was a kid.
Back before index shifting.
The way index shifting works is that as you move the shifting lever it clicks, indicating when the bike should shift into a new gear. If you want, you can quit pedaling, shift to a click, and when you resume the bike will find the next gear without any further shift-lever piddling.
After 15 minutes I'd made enough adjustments that the chain would actually shift entirely off the front sprocket, and I'd reduced the rear sprocket assembly from 6 usable gears to 5; I'd lost the smallest sprocket.
At the end of the ride I got some more tools out and decided I was actually going to have to release the cable going to the rear dérailleur and reset it. Naturally, my socket set didn't have a socket in it that was small enough which meant I was going to have to do some digging.
You do remember the picture from my workbench from last week? Don't you?
I knew the socket I needed was smaller than 10 mm. What I didn't know was if what I needed was going to be ASE or metric. The bike is about 20 years old and since the metric system was invented about 20 years ago I figured it could go either way.
I eventually found what I needed, released the cable and reset it, turned some more screws (trying to undo what I'd done as I probably shouldn't have touched the screws I'd messed with -- resetting the cable and piddling with a knob I could've tweaked with my fingers would have probably been enough).
Today, all was well.
(Now, as I think about it, I can't imagine how changing the bottom bracket could goof up the rear dérailleur. I think I've got some bad science working above. Still, if nothing is wrong with part A, and Part B is changed, and then Part A gets funky, you have to wonder if the fix to Part B didn't tweak Part A a bit.
There is a printer at work that was jamming when print jobs of several pages were sent to it. I changed two rollers -- it isn't rocket science, they snap in and out -- and now the printer jams before even one sheet prints out. I've talked with a tech on the phone about it, a guy I've known for 10 years and is familiar with my skill level, and he can't imagine I did anything to make it worse ... neither can I. Still, it worked somewhat, I stuck my hands in it, it doesn't work at all now.
It could be coincidence.
Both things.)
Posted by delmer at December 24, 2006 4:39 PM
Comments
Merry Christmas Delmer! Sherry, the boys and I send our love.
Posted by: Darrell at December 25, 2006 11:55 AM