Having been woken at 5:45am this morning by DDWT Junior, I guessed it wasn’t going to be the easiest of days and how right I was. With the lack of sleep making me grumpy to say the least, my patience was far from that of a saint and perhaps in retrospect I should have left putting a new chain on my bike to another day.
According to all sources that I’d read – in print and on the web – the task of fitting a new chain to a bike was a relatively easy one. Well that certainly wasn’t the case with me. It took me the best part of 2 hours, after first getting the chain length wrong and then managing to damage one of the links due to not aligning it properly with the rivet extraction tool (below).
After finally getting the chain on, I took it for a test ride. The top gears were fine, but as soon as I changed into the middle range the gears started to jump. Bloody great. It was time for a cup of coffee and a sanity check.
Having re-counted the links (again) I changed the chain length as it was 1 link out. My 2nd test ride was no better than the first I’m afraid. I was cheesed off to say the least and decided that it was now best to just leave well alone, until both my mood, patience and luck changed.
I now find that doing some further digging on the internet – via the cracking BikeRadar.com forums and Park Tools repair help website – that in fact the problem *could* lie with the rear derailleur. Having now watched a video and read about it, it seems a little tweak here and there might solve my jumping gears problem.
If it doesn’t that I fear that it could be time for a new cassette and chain ring. I hope I’m wrong though.
Unfortunately, DDWT Junior seemed to bear the brunt of my mood and now (as always) I feel guilty as hell for being so snappy with him. I’m sure that I will ‘feel it’ for far longer that he will though, so at least that’s something I suppose.
I know one thing, tomorrow is definitely going to be a better day and one which will be spent away from the confines of the house and garden. The change of scenery will do us all the world of good. Oh and a good nights sleep of course 🙂
