:laughing:

I'm in a bad mood and it's mainly due to my bike, my best friend and British weather.
You know how the hangers for the rear mech are designed to fail to protect the frame? Due to the Derbyshire terrain and my recklessness and impulsive behaviour, the hangers keep getting bent one after the other. So yesterday I fitted another one on but the sprocket derailer still didn't move and gave no response for a gear shift.
The problem was that the housing for the gear cable had sheared off and there was an unsightly splaying of steel wires coiling around like the hair of Medusa. I ordered a new gear cable and hanger yesterday from our beloved local merchant Mr Harry Hill, but the gable came with no sheathing.

Anyway, I got the housing for it this morning and attempted to fix the sprocket derailer. BEAR IN MIND THIS TOOK HOURS AND I WAS IN THE POURING RAIN ALL THE TIME. Haha, you think, whilst you chuckle thinking what a soft little pussy I am complaining about a bit of rain and wind, smirking to yourself that it's nice and dry where you are and nonchalantly look over your shoulder before re-opening the porn tab to see that a fourth figure has joined the party but the gender of which is indeterminable.

Anyway, the problem is I'm going on tour tomorrow on a ride that will last hundreds of kilometers and will go over the most hostile terrain England has to offer, and I'm going to look a bit daft in front of the lads when I can't do my patented Salami Sideflip on the bike "because there's something wrong with the gears".

Not to be deterred by your mocking laughter, I proceeded to detach the mech from the rear hanger, insert the new sheathing on the new cable, adjust the bearings, reattach the rear mech and adjust the cable to exactly the right length so it now works perfectly.

Huh. How does that make you feeel, to know that I have succeeded in spite of your scorn, and despite being as wet as a drowned rat, I have managed once more to keep that hacking-iron of a bike I got in 2007 from falling apart? Huh?

colour me impressed. I literally did this weeks ago, in 80 degree weather and mere minutes granted.

Either Salami went crazy, or Flyingpig learned how to spell. :laughing:

To be fair I kept discovering more and more problems with the bike, and when I'd got all the replacements this morning it took me half an hour to get the gears working again. But yep, that in essence is a half an hour job anyway, but the number of things that had gone wrong since the last service was unbelievable. I also had too many defective tools, not to mention a socket wrench designed by the devil himself.

If all else fails blame it on the tools. I do it all the time. :beer:

:laughing:

So true! Everyone seems to have the toolbox from hell!
Also annoying was the absolutely terrible advice given from the shop, which must have taken me an hour to figure out was making things worse and another hour to put right.

In fact, I have a good mind to get a picture of the appalling mess the rear mech had got itself into. The main spring needed replacing, so I was searching around in my toolbox for one that fitted for twenty minutes, and then I just couldn't get the cable to provide enough tension. In the end I had to tighten in by increments, which got me covered in oil. Lets just say they were bad enough that all the letters on my keyboard have now been blackened out.

A good mechanic never blames his tools Fred.

Chillin' at home today sending in some applications and finishing an online profile for a restaurant in Washington DC.