The Chainlink

I saw a middle-aged gentleman addressing a stiff headset today.  His technique was to pour motor oil directly from a quart bottle over the headset.

Top that.

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 I know I'm not the only one that thought of this....

Hello, headset!

like, what else did he do?

That isn't right?

Can I nominate myself?  I too often undertake projects, not just with bikes, that have only some tiny improvement as their upside and a whole lot of grief as their downside.  Just the other day I decided I wanted to switch the cassettes on two bike wheels.  I reckoned I could achieve perhaps six or seven percent faster speed with a few of my higher gears that way.  Whoop-ti-do.  Bear in mind that I never ride fast to begin with, so there was no compelling purpose to this.  

Everything began well.  I should have been suspicious when that first cassette came off the hub as easy as pie.  I thought I was on my way.  Of course, the second cassette absolutely wouldn't budge.  I couldn't move that lock ring a micron.  Some fool (me) had overtightened it by a factor of about ten.  I tried small wrenches, then big wrenches, then wrenches with extensions, then a chain whip, my feet, a big rubber mallet, and the aforesaid wrenches and extensions some more.  Have you ever hit your kneecap straight on with a big rubber mallet?  And then the other one?  It really hurts, in a quite Stooges-esque fashion.  Then I tried wedging the wheel against various objects to gain leverage, copious doses of WD-40, and swearing like a longshoreman (or like I would imagine a longshoreman swears).  After a certain point, I went into a kind of frenzy in which I was willing to destroy my fairly decent wheel as long as that %$&#ing cassette came off.  That only resulted in my taking a few more whacks from the mallet.

Finally, after THREE HOURS, and after discovering a yoga/Kama Sutra-like position in which I could bring all the strength in my now-quivering legs to bear, I loosened that lock ring up.  At first I wasn't sure it was the lock ring grinding and not a dislocated shoulder or elbow.  Or neck vertebrae.  I knew if I stopped moving, it would be a long time before I moved again.  I put the first cassette on the second wheel and put it on my trusty old Trek 730 Multitrack.  Or at least I thought I did.  Although I have done it many times, putting a rear wheel on a bike is still a mystery to me, kind of on the level of "What was Stonehenge really about?"  Ironically, I had now reunited the cassette and wheel that had been on that bike earlier in the year, when I had parted them for some now-obscure purpose.  Anyway, I tried shifting and found that when my shifter said I was in the fifth highest rear gear, my chain was on the second highest.  I was puzzled, but I undid my derailleur cable, got out my greasy Park Tool printouts, and redid the high and low adjustments.  I thought I was making some progress until I noticed that the problem had been caused by my utter failure to position the right side of the axle in the dropout.  That 1/4 inch made a big difference.  So big, in fact, that I had to redo the derailleur all over again.  I'm convinced that if I had put the stupid wheel on correctly in the first place, little or no adjustment would have been required.

In any event, after only five hours of misery, I was ready to ride!   I took the bike out and everything worked fine.  Unfortunately, the difference between the cassettes was so slight that the change didn't make any discernible difference.  I could have put on a different valve cap and felt it just as much.  I did notice a discernible difference in my back, neck, arms and legs for a day or two, however.

By the way, in my world I would consider this a moderate success, or at least a draw.  You should see the failures!                

      

AMEN! For me lately it's researching/reviews...

Jeff Schneider said:

I can identify with useless fiddling.  I spent a lot of time in my younger days worrying about precise adjustments - of everything - tire pressure, brake pad distance from the wheel rim, etc.  I wish I had spent more time riding and less time fiddling with things that don't matter.


Jim Reho said:

Can I nominate myself?  I too often undertake projects, not just with bikes, that have only some tiny improvement as their upside and a whole lot of grief as their downside.  Just the other day I decided I wanted to switch the cassettes on two bike wheels.  I reckoned I could achieve perhaps six or seven percent faster speed with a few of my higher gears that way.  Whoop-ti-do.  Bear in mind that I never ride fast to begin with, so there was no compelling purpose to this.  

Everything began well.  I should have been suspicious when that first cassette came off the hub as easy as pie.  I thought I was on my way.  Of course, the second cassette absolutely wouldn't budge.  I couldn't move that lock ring a micron.  Some fool (me) had overtightened it by a factor of about ten.  I tried small wrenches, then big wrenches, then wrenches with extensions, then a chain whip, my feet, a big rubber mallet, and the aforesaid wrenches and extensions some more.  Have you ever hit your kneecap straight on with a big rubber mallet?  And then the other one?  It really hurts, in a quite Stooges-esque fashion.  Then I tried wedging the wheel against various objects to gain leverage, copious doses of WD-40, and swearing like a longshoreman (or like I would imagine a longshoreman swears).  After a certain point, I went into a kind of frenzy in which I was willing to destroy my fairly decent wheel as long as that %$&#ing cassette came off.  That only resulted in my taking a few more whacks from the mallet.

Finally, after THREE HOURS, and after discovering a yoga/Kama Sutra-like position in which I could bring all the strength in my now-quivering legs to bear, I loosened that lock ring up.  At first I wasn't sure it was the lock ring grinding and not a dislocated shoulder or elbow.  Or neck vertebrae.  I knew if I stopped moving, it would be a long time before I moved again.  I put the first cassette on the second wheel and put it on my trusty old Trek 730 Multitrack.  Or at least I thought I did.  Although I have done it many times, putting a rear wheel on a bike is still a mystery to me, kind of on the level of "What was Stonehenge really about?"  Ironically, I had now reunited the cassette and wheel that had been on that bike earlier in the year, when I had parted them for some now-obscure purpose.  Anyway, I tried shifting and found that when my shifter said I was in the fifth highest rear gear, my chain was on the second highest.  I was puzzled, but I undid my derailleur cable, got out my greasy Park Tool printouts, and redid the high and low adjustments.  I thought I was making some progress until I noticed that the problem had been caused by my utter failure to position the right side of the axle in the dropout.  That 1/4 inch made a big difference.  So big, in fact, that I had to redo the derailleur all over again.  I'm convinced that if I had put the stupid wheel on correctly in the first place, little or no adjustment would have been required.

In any event, after only five hours of misery, I was ready to ride!   I took the bike out and everything worked fine.  Unfortunately, the difference between the cassettes was so slight that the change didn't make any discernible difference.  I could have put on a different valve cap and felt it just as much.  I did notice a discernible difference in my back, neck, arms and legs for a day or two, however.

By the way, in my world I would consider this a moderate success, or at least a draw.  You should see the failures!                

      

Jim, I wish I could nominate this for a "Best of Chainlink Post of the Year" award.

Keep up the good work.

Jim Reho said:

Can I nominate myself?  I too often undertake projects, not just with bikes, that have only some tiny improvement as their upside and a whole lot of grief as their downside.  Just the other day I decided I wanted to switch the cassettes on two bike wheels.  I reckoned I could achieve perhaps six or seven percent faster speed with a few of my higher gears that way.  Whoop-ti-do.  Bear in mind that I never ride fast to begin with, so there was no compelling purpose to this.  

Everything began well.  I should have been suspicious when that first cassette came off the hub as easy as pie.  I thought I was on my way.  Of course, the second cassette absolutely wouldn't budge.  I couldn't move that lock ring a micron.  Some fool (me) had overtightened it by a factor of about ten.  I tried small wrenches, then big wrenches, then wrenches with extensions, then a chain whip, my feet, a big rubber mallet, and the aforesaid wrenches and extensions some more.  Have you ever hit your kneecap straight on with a big rubber mallet?  And then the other one?  It really hurts, in a quite Stooges-esque fashion.  Then I tried wedging the wheel against various objects to gain leverage, copious doses of WD-40, and swearing like a longshoreman (or like I would imagine a longshoreman swears).  After a certain point, I went into a kind of frenzy in which I was willing to destroy my fairly decent wheel as long as that %$&#ing cassette came off.  That only resulted in my taking a few more whacks from the mallet.

Finally, after THREE HOURS, and after discovering a yoga/Kama Sutra-like position in which I could bring all the strength in my now-quivering legs to bear, I loosened that lock ring up.  At first I wasn't sure it was the lock ring grinding and not a dislocated shoulder or elbow.  Or neck vertebrae.  I knew if I stopped moving, it would be a long time before I moved again.  I put the first cassette on the second wheel and put it on my trusty old Trek 730 Multitrack.  Or at least I thought I did.  Although I have done it many times, putting a rear wheel on a bike is still a mystery to me, kind of on the level of "What was Stonehenge really about?"  Ironically, I had now reunited the cassette and wheel that had been on that bike earlier in the year, when I had parted them for some now-obscure purpose.  Anyway, I tried shifting and found that when my shifter said I was in the fifth highest rear gear, my chain was on the second highest.  I was puzzled, but I undid my derailleur cable, got out my greasy Park Tool printouts, and redid the high and low adjustments.  I thought I was making some progress until I noticed that the problem had been caused by my utter failure to position the right side of the axle in the dropout.  That 1/4 inch made a big difference.  So big, in fact, that I had to redo the derailleur all over again.  I'm convinced that if I had put the stupid wheel on correctly in the first place, little or no adjustment would have been required.

In any event, after only five hours of misery, I was ready to ride!   I took the bike out and everything worked fine.  Unfortunately, the difference between the cassettes was so slight that the change didn't make any discernible difference.  I could have put on a different valve cap and felt it just as much.  I did notice a discernible difference in my back, neck, arms and legs for a day or two, however.

By the way, in my world I would consider this a moderate success, or at least a draw.  You should see the failures!                

      

Psalm 23:5

Personally the amateur mistake I am most impressed with seeing is when the wrong side pedals are threaded all the way into the crank arms.

I cannot imagine how much work it takes to do that; I have given up on tasks so much easier than that.  If nothing else you have to admire the determination.

Threaded headset stack height.

I did it today.

Thanks for the nice comments, all!

I have a story that is close-- I am somewhat embarrassed by it. I have two Schwinn Suburbans. At least part of my rationale for that is so I can learn to mechanic on the one that is not being actively ridden. First thing this spring, I broke the axle on the backup bike. I had a spare set of wheels, and everything I could find indicated that a K-5 and S-6 rim were the same. So one day, I removed the rear wheel with the broken axle, removed the nice puncture resistant Bontrager tire from the wheel, put that tire on the K-5 wheel with moderate difficulty, and put everything together again.

A quick ride indicated that the K-5 rim was not the same, and the brakes worked poorly indeed. Oh well, I was planning on taking the wheel I removed to an LBS to repair the axle, and while they had, I would have them toss a spare tire I had on. I got the wheel back, and was completely mystified, as the wheel locked up when I put it on. I've changed rear wheels maybe a half dozen times, so I walked it to a different (also closer) LBS to see what I did wrong.

I'd done very little wrong, but had gone from a 27 x 1 1/8 tire, to a 27 x 1 1/4 tire with some tread, creating a fender/reflector clearance issue. The puncture resistant tire is still on the K-5 wheel, and I still haven't fixed my clearance issue on the other bike.

Still learning by doing, right?

I've seen this.  It's like, man, that had to take forever.

Last week I saw my neighbor and his helper friend swapping a stem and handlebars from one Schwinn to another.  Never mind that the stems were both of different sizes and that they left the wedge in the old steer tube.

I was like, "I don't think that's going to work..."

Early on in my days as an aspiring mechanic I was able to get a lock ring on a one piece crank to turn counter-clockwise by using a cheater.  I lost my threads. 


notoriousDUG said:

Personally the amateur mistake I am most impressed with seeing is when the wrong side pedals are threaded all the way into the crank arms.

I cannot imagine how much work it takes to do that; I have given up on tasks so much easier than that.  If nothing else you have to admire the determination.

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