Saturday, August 16, 2014

Reluctant Handyman Strikes Again

      I have told a few stories about my limited handyman abilities. I accidentally got myself into a job the other day.

     I have been finding my that my cycling is more challenging so I watch for things on the bike  to make it easier. Last year I was riding on low tires which took much more effort. So the other day I was looking for dragging brakes, bent wheels or anything else that would slow me down. 

    I looked at the swing which moves the chain from the big sprocket to smaller sprockets. I noticed that the swing  may have been rubbing on the chain. I looked at it and thought it would be easy to make an adjustment. Just shorten or lengthen the cable like the brakes. Wrong!

  I shortened the cable and tried it. The chain went off the front sprocket. That's not right. I lengthened the cable. I couldn't get into the lowest gear. Okay I'll get smart. I'll put the chain just off the slide on the big sprocket. That didn't work. How about line the chain up with the slide on the small sprocket. It's still badly screwed up. 
Two adjustment screws and joints

The slide that swings and moves the chain from one gear to another.

    I began to slowly realize that this job was more complicated than I thought. I had neglected to notice the four movable joints in the slide. I had neglected to notice the two adjustment screws on the top of the slide. I hadn't noticed the adjustment screw on the gear shift. 

   Now what have I done? I've made myself a big mess. Aha! The Internet! On to the computer and look up Shamano swing adjustment. There it was! A step by step method to adjust the swing slide. 

   Chalk one up for the Internet. It got me out of a jamb.

   Do you use the Internet for information to repair things?