Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
Bikey tune-up, a new horn, and a flat
Around the 650 mile mark, the bicycle started doing some weird things. Mostly around shifting -- shifting got harder.
So, I started poking around, and realized that, with the amount I've been riding in the rain, the ol' drivetrain has been basically washed free of lubrication, with road grit deposited in its place. Hmm, that might have something to do with it!
I made a temporary fix by shooting some WD-40 (I know, not the right choice, but it's a quick fix) into the rear derailleur and shifting through all the gears a few times. I'm glad I've got that bike stand at work. Much better now.
Then, the next day, I noticed that my shifter was behaving strangely. It has an index-finger trigger which upshifts, and then a thumb lever which downshifts. The trigger was working fine, but the thumb lever would sometimes just get stuck, and not spring back. This made it difficult to downshift again, such as when coming up to a stoplight. I kept having to downshift, then wonder why I couldn't downshift any more, then spring the thing back with my index finger so I could keep going.
I figured (correctly, as it turns out) that the shifter was low on lubrication, so I tried the WD-40 trick again. This didn't work so well, and even after I got the little cover off and shot the oil exactly where it needed to go, it just wasn't working. Obviously, it needed to come apart and get some grease in there.
Now, I'd never seen the inside of one of these shifters, but it obviously had a spring inside it, so I had a certain amount of trepidation that I'd open the thing up, and it would go SPROING! Springs and pieces everywhere!
As it turns out, that fear was at least partially justified.
The very first thing I did, in pulling off the cover, was to fumble the little tiny black screw the held the cover on, and see it dissappear somewhere on the ground. Hmm. The ground which is covered with little tiny black spots where people have dropped chain grease. Damn! Fortunately, it only took about 10 minutes' searching before I found it, where it'd skittered off a few feet and hidden under a table (naturally).
Next, I got off the central nut that was holding the whole shifter mechanism together. Amazingly, I didn't drop anything else. Feeling emboldened, I started pulling out pieces, and was immediately greeted by the sickening SPROING! I'd been dreading. Nothing flew out, fortunately, but I knew a spring had just unwound, and I didn't have any idea how much pain I was in for to get it back together.
I got everything apart, and surveyed the damage. It looked like I'd just pulled apart the world's weirdest clock. There was a heavy (well, heavy for a clock anyway) spiral spring, the two control levers (one of which had a spring-loaded pawl swinging aimlessly), a sort of central bushing, and two hair-fine washers. I didn't actually get all that out at first, thinking I could put it back together with some of the parts in place -- wrong, as it happens.
I had to remind myself several times, "Someone put this together in the first place. There's got to be a reasonable way to do it." It's easy for me to get into the mindset that I just have to put it together exactly the way it came apart (ie, if you take off pieces A and B, you can't take out piece C in order to aid putting it together). This is not correct, and after 15 minutes of fiddling with the spring and the thumb lever, it became clear that I was making no progress.
Pulling out the other lever was the key, and with that in hand, I was able to put it together in such a way that it seemed to work correctly. I even remembered to get some grease in there (which was the original goal before I got sidetracked by figuring out reassembly). It only took two tries before it was back together, and even seemed to be working right. Amazing!
Only half an hour had elapsed. After I felt that SPROING! I figured I was going to be standing there for hours. I happily put it all back together, and wiped off the excess grease I'd gotten all over. Back in action.
The night before I tried greasing the shift lever, I was huffing and puffing my way home in the final stretch. This is about a mile of "main" residential street, where a lot of intersections have yield signs for cross-traffic. I was approaching one of the yield-marked intersections, and I saw a car coming up on an intersecting path. I had right of way, so I kept plugging along, but kept my eye fixed on the car, and my hands on the brake levers. This is exactly the kind of situation where bicyclists get killed or injured, so I was ready. I thought of yelling to get the driver's attention, but decided it probably wasn't necessary.
I watched the driver slow down for the yield sign. She craned her neck around and looked up the street, away from me. Nothing. She looked back forward, and instead of continuing the turn, her head stayed forward, and the car started moving faster. I slammed on the brakes (probably 15-20 feet from the car at this point) and came to a stop 5 feet before I would have T-boned it. I yelled, "HEY!" at the top of my lungs, which is my sort of default "horn" noise.
The driver's head spun around, and she tapped her brakes. Her hand came up to cover her mouth, her face a perfect mask of "Oh my god!" horror. She sped off across the street.
That was the point at which I decided I really did want a horn. So that night I ordered one of these air horns, which arrived yesterday morning. I got it installed on the bike (I really have to take a picture -- that bike is more gadgets than bicycle at this point), and ended up giving a lot of drivers a quick "Hey, I'm here" double-honk on the way home. It's definitely loud enough, although I wish it wasn't such a high tone.
I would have used it this morning as well, but when I got out to the bike, I was greeted by a flat tire. My first "real" flat, I suspect, since that rim tape solved my flat-every-two-days problem back in October. I was already running late, so I decided that it wouldn't kill me to ride the motorcycle in this morning. I guess I'll have a flat tire to fix over the weekend. Hopefully the tire isn't too damaged.
On the other hand, I realized that I've been basically riding a bicycle every day for a couple of months. That's pretty gratifying.
Posted at 11:12 permanent link category: /bicycle
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater