Monday, February 9, 2009

My Rear Derailleur...

Fixed, I think... Maybe?

Ok, so this past weekend I threw my bike up on my Topeak PrepStand Pro Bicycle Repair Stand and armed with my trusty Topeak Hexus 16-Function Bicycle Tool, and an article about repairing my rear Derailleur form the latest issue of Bicycling Magazine, I went to work.

(Wow, that's a lot of product placement in one sentence ;-)

On Wednesday evenings I run into fellow cyclist/neighbor/friend Ed at our daughters Gymnastics class. I told him of my rear derailleur issues and he mentioned that maybe my rear derailleur hanger might be bent. I read the Bicycling Magazine article and I was reluctant to disconnect anything. It didn't look bent, but I know that even the slightest misalignment cold cause my gears to skip. So I kind of just used my hand to move the whole rear derailleur into what I thought might be the correct position. I really don't think I exerted a lot of force on it. I really don't even think I did anything. I cycled it through the gears and no more skipping. Hmmmm..., I guess I did the absolute minimum and fixed it.

On the Trainer

This morning I got on the bike trainer and noticed that I didn't notice anything wrong with the way my gears were shifting back there.

I guess the true test will be when I get back on the road sometime in the spring.


1 comments:

Glenn_in_MA said...

It's beautiful when a self-repair works, especially with minimal adjustments...but for me the typical result is more down time and a tool thrown against the wall!!

You were right about the post-thaw road conditions...I'm seeing some massive potholes in my area. :-(