Round Two

Last Thursday I took my newly reassembled bike to work.  Aside from being a bit nippy the ride in went pretty well.  The previously mentioned tire repair stayed true and some brake issues I was slightly concerned about didn’t manifest in the slightest.  The ride home presented an issue that made for a less than pleasant ride. 

For a little background I’ll say that the old bike has seen better days.  It also seems that most of my attempts to restore the old girl have hastened the downgrade of her condition.  As a result I have resorted to some measures that have reduced the functionality of some systems in order to maintain some utility. 

In particular I locked down the rear derailer, eliminating the ability to shift, but also preventing irritatingly random slipping in the drive train.  The remedy worked pretty well, until it didn’t.  A few miles from my destination the chain moved itself to the big chain ring which means every pedal stroke supplied the lease possible amount of propulsion.  This was annoying, and made for a slow few miles.

The fix was a pretty good idea except that it still allowed for a failure.  The problem was that I wanted to keep the chain in a middle position on the cluster of cogs to give me good purchase with every pedal revolution but without too much effort. Tonight I took the fix one step further by taking all of the tension out of the rear derailer, eliminating the possibility of any movement from the smallest of gears.  It will make for some hard pushing but after a brief test run down the alley it is very clear that it is also going to really haul.