I’ve been quiet over the past couple of weeks as I’ve struggled with the aftermath of a self-inflicted mechanical, something that I really should know better than to have allowed to have happened. I was able to get home with no trouble, but when I hit a roadblock in sorting out the problem, I got in a bit of a funk.

I’ve spent my evenings since eating and drinking too much, and ordering expensive accessories. Meanwhile, I put off searching for the bits I needed to put the bike to rights. That finally came to an end today, but I’ll tell the story from the beginning now.

Sorting out the shifting

Hornsby’s shifting from the very start has been good, but not great. I knew there was more to be done here, particularly in terms of keeping in gear on the lowest gear (largest cog) for hill climbs. This came to a head with the Tour de Tohoku, where I was adjusting the shifter cable tension on the fly with hilarious results. On that occasion I was able to get in a rideable state through trial and error, but I knew I had more work to do.

While I was pondering the shifting issues, two things occurred to me. The first was that the rear wheel wasn’t fully seated in the dropouts, and the second was I hadn’t checked the derailleur hanger alignment despite having recently got the gold-plated (not really, but could have been for the price) ParkTool alignment gauge.

On the first point, I’d struggled to get the wheel into the rear dropouts whenever the occasion arose. I finally recalled that the rear triangle was designed with in-between spacing, allowing anything from 125mm to 130-something hubs. So as a first step, I removed the wheel and gave the rear stays a tug in each direction to add a bit of spread. After that I was able to fit the wheel much more easily.

With the wheel back in the frame and further back in the dropouts, I then removed the derailleur and mounted the alignment gauge. The hanger was off by a surprising amount. I applied force to the alignment gauge gently, knowing the hanger was essentially part of the frame and not a replaceable item as on Kuroko. But I was soon pleased with the results.

With the wheel in place and the hanger straightened out, I spent some time adjusting the derailleur. There was a bit of noise yet but it shifted into all gears and showed no sign of jumping off the lowest cog up to the adjacent gear, as it had been. Happy to have that done, I got the bike down the elevator and dressed for the ride.

Slow learner

The ride started out quite well and I was happy overall with the shifting. I gave it a half-turn more tension and all seemed to be great. When I reached Meiji Jingu, I had to work my way through throngs of people who had turned out to see the famous ginkgos turning yellow in the fall — a bit premature still.

I continued on past Akasaka Palace and then sped downhill to Akasaka Mitsuke. It was on the climb to Nagatacho that followed that disaster struck: while I was shifting to the lowest cog, I overshot and the chain ended up in the spokes. I brought the bike to an immediate stop and walked it to the curb.

I’ve done this before and it was nearly a ride-stopping disaster. On that occasion I’d broken two spokes outright and mangled several others, and it was only the quick and competent response of a mobile mechanic that allowed me to continue riding. This time I was going much more slowly and had come to an immediate stop, so I was hoping there wasn’t too much damage.

Safely on the sidewalk, I had close look. There wasn’t any immediate evidence of damage, and I was able get the chain back on the cogs with no problem. I fiddled a bit more with the adjustments and then messaged Nana I was on my way home following some bike trouble. It just took me a moment with the GPS to find I was only a couple of blocks from my usual route back home, and so I headed in that direction, taking it easy until I was sure of the bike. Hornsby was fine and I got home without further incident.

Discouragement

I had all afternoon to have a look at Hornsby, so I got her out to the Workshop in the Sky and got the rear wheel off. I had to remove the cogs to have a good look at where the chain had come against the spokes. That was a moment’s work, but in the process naturally I dropped everything and spent a minute searching around on the floor for all the parts.

With the cogs off, it was readily apparent that some of the spokes had been notched a bit. But there were no bent spokes, and the notching doesn’t look severe. I think the spokes should be fine — they’re thicker than the ones that failed on Kuroko, and the wheel overall is stronger. With the inspection done I set about replacing the cogs.

And then when it came time to screw in the lock ring for the cogset, it wouldn’t hold. I could tighten it to a certain extent, and then it would pop and I was starting all over again. I pulled out the ring and had a look at the threads, and I couldn’t see any issues. Ditto the threads on the freehub, as far as I could tell. There wasn’t any spacer washer for the lock ring. I thought there should be, but search the floor of the workshop as I might, I couldn’t find one. Nor did I think that alone should cause the slippage I was experiencing.

Discouraged, I gave up for the day. I spent the next day searching for replacements for the lock ring and for the freehub, but I didn’t purchase anything.

What I did purchase meanwhile

Garmie has been getting worse and worse lately, taking several minutes to find satellites (during which time I’ve usually already cycled up to 1km), and more recently beeping constantly to report that the it’s lost all satellite contact. Following the loss of the charging port cover, it’s gone nuts during a couple of rides in the rain. I was looking for a replacement cover, but the most recent behavior of constantly losing satellite contact was the last straw for me. Some of this is shown in the bizarre wiggling at the start and finish of the ride route above.

Garmin’s newest top-end model is the 1050, and it’s not cheap. I had a look at the features and there are a lot of things aimed at group riding and social media connections, none of which interest me. The 1040 offered a good savings over that, while providing increased battery life over the 1030. I ordered one and it arrived this morning. It’s just slightly larger than the 1030, a few grams heavier. At first I thought it was slimmer, but then I realized they’d just taken a page from the MacBook Air design and tapered the edges. Set-up was easy with a QR code that linked it to my phone app and hence my Garmin account, but the initial sync took ages.

I also ordered a new pair of cycling shorts. I’ve been having issues with the old Sponeed shorts leaving my skin a bit raw — the very thing they’re supposed to prevent — and so it was time to find replacements. Unfortunately the only thing I could find in my size came from the US, and they’re not cheap. I’m going to have a good long ride to see how they perform before buying any more from the same vendor.

Unfunk this lock ring

While I was stewing in a funk about making a bone-headed adjustment error which would allow the chain to end up in the spokes, and the added inability to reassemble the whole thing, I came to a realization: I was using the lock ring that came with the SRAM cogs, but ring was screwing into the Shimano freehub, not the cogs. I should have some spare Shimano lock rings around, and that might resolve the issue.

I had to empty out a good bit of the toolbox before I found an old Shimano cogset that I could filch a lock ring off of. And yes, it had a spacer washer. I applied some grease and after no more then two or three tries I had it all threaded together and tightened down.

This time as I put the wheel back in the frame and adjusted the derailleur, I paid extra attention to the low limit screw. I tested it a few times to make sure that the chain would not come off the largest cog into the spokes, but at the same time the chain would stay on the cog (not slipping to the next-largest cog) under load.

I’m hoping to get out for a ride tomorrow, but that will most likely be with Kuroko. So it may be another day or two before Hornsby gets put the the test.