The Chain of Destruction

This is the next installment of my mission to fix my bicycle.

Yesterday, my sweet Princess suggested that we meet at Adams Bicycle Shop so we did.

There, I met a brilliantly named mechanic called Freddie who worked with me to figure out what went wrong with my bicycle and how to fix it. He had that rare combination of intelliegence and kindness rarely seen in bicycle mechanics.

Looking at my cassettes, he agreed that they were stripped which is one of the reasons why things skipped. He admitted to trying to fix up older bicycles, and it just made things worse.

What most likely happened is that once I changed chains, I created a situation where the new strong chain quickly stripped the cassette teeth much quicker than the older chain which had aged along with the casettes.

Take home lesson for me is that if the chain skips, I will have a new front and a new back cassette ready to change before I bother changing the chain. I could have saved myself from such pain if I had done this.

I also ordered a new seat because I had destroyed the old one, probably by riding too hard. It’s tough being a strong, bad-ass cyclist. 🙂

I also ordered a new back tire. Freddie pointed out that the front tire had ridges on the sides which allowed it to perfectly line up with my light from Sweden.

Usually bike repair and especially going on about bicycle parts bores me to tears, but in this case, I was somewhat interested as this was a path out of the pain I face now where I have to climb a hill in second gear, and I’m even slower starting up from a stopped position.

Thank-you Freddie for cheering me up and giving me hope. Also, thanks as always to Princess.