Mechanical mayhem

Last week the postman apparently tried to deliver a parcel but I was not in. I would take the time to debate this fact and generally moan about the quality of the post around these parts, but I shall save that for another day.

Since the PO do not re-deliver, a trip was required down to the sorting office to pick up said package. It’s not far off, and it was a reasonable day so I hopped on the ole 2 wheel cycle and toddled off down the road. I was just approaching the depot when the pedals stopped turning, but not because I stopped pedalling. Oh no, it was as if something got jammed in it, and it stopped rather abruptly.

Fortunately the wheels kept turning, giving me a chance of not falling off. Never has it taken so much concentration to un-clip the clippy (clipless grr) pedals but I didn’t fall off in the end. On examination it seemed the gear had come totally out of alignment. I twiddled enough to fix it and allow me to get home with the package, but couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

Today I decided to try and sort the problem, and started playing with the gears in the kitchen (no garden y’see. Plus it’s raining anyhow). Things looked to be getting better when snap the gear cable snapped. Grr.

A quick trip to the ye olde bike shoppe and I arrived back £2.00 less well off, and holding a new gear cable. Now, I am one of those people who can look at a practical situation and see exactly what needs done. I can formulate the best way to get it done and usually I’m pretty close to being right. The problems arises when I stop the planning stage and enter the doing stage. That’s when 99% of the time things go wrong. I can royally screw up anything DIY or engineering related. And usually I do it with style.

But, and I know you’re going to be disappointed, it was incredibly easy and I had it done and working in 10 mins. That’s not to say when I ride it that it won’t blow up spectacularly, but at the moment, lying upside down in my kitchen, it’s working like a charm. Exciting stuff, eh?