Cyclokairos

… is maintenance, at least according to the Pete Seeger quote at the start of Stuart ‘Whole Earth Catalogue’ Brand’s latest book ‘Maintenance: Of Everything. Part 1’. I was expecting some bedding in with The Other Green Bike, and the first ride threw up a spongy front brake and some ghost shifting / chain skipping. The bite of the brake was easily fixed with a few anticlockwise turns of the brake lever barrel adjuster to tension the cable. I hoped similar tweaking of the down-tube and rear derailleur barrel adjusters would solve the shifting problem. It didn’t and the second ride had the same issue. In fact the issue went to whole other level of maintenance.

The rear derailleur ended up in the rear wheel. Never a good place for it to reside. Two broken spokes, others damaged, a snapped chain, a bent hanger, and a rear derailleur sheared in two. I was riding slowly at the time (don’t I always nowadays?) and came to a stop without being pitched over the handlebars. The limp-home mode of single speed wasn’t an option, as the wheel was so far out of true it would jam up against the left chain-stay every revolution. Luckily I was at the back of the peloton when it happened and I was soon swept up by the broom wagon and back home in no time at all.

The cause? That skipping chain flipping the derailleur cage into the spokes? A damaged or stiff link causing the skipping? When repairing the bike with a new chain I noticed the teeth of the derailleur’s guide pulley touching those of the cassette cogs when in a low gear. Turning the B-screw all the way in was of no help. The issue was too long a chain. The lack of tension wasn’t pulling the derailleur far enough away from the cassette. Removal of a few links and the problem was solved. Was the original chain too long, and the meshing of teeth what sent the derailleur wheelwards? 

In addition to the new chain, the other repairs were fairly straightforward: two new spokes and truing the wheel; realignment of the derailleur hanger; shortening of the outer and inner gear cable (it was way too long on the first build); and, purchase of a new derailleur (a Shimano Ultegra RD-6600–long cage and 10 speed; not bad looking but I prefer the SunXCD one).

The drivetrain of The Green Bike and The Other Green Bike are now almost identical—friction shifted Campagmano/Shimanolo.

Whatever the cause, it could have been worse. In ‘Maintenance: Of Everything. Part 1’, Stewart Brand recounts The Golden Globe Race of 1968. A month into the race, Robin Knox-Johnston noticed his boat was taking on water through gaps in the keel. With the damage five feet below the surface, he couldn’t hold his breath long enough to secure cotton caulking in the gaps. His solution: a seven foot length of a one-and-a-half-inch wide canvas strip coated in Stockholm tar with caulking sowed on one side and tacks every six inches. For the first gap, it took two hours to hammer the tacks in place. Concerned about the canvas being ripped off he also cut and nailed a strip of copper over it. Being in shark-infested waters, he wore a dark shirt and jeans to hide his pale body. A shark did turn up; he shot it dead and paused awhile until he was confident no other sharks were around. I think I had the easier of it.