I am a mechanical god!

[Little yellow Brompton]

Hear me roar!

Up until a few weeks ago I have always steered well clear of taking the rear wheel of the Brompton off, even going so far as taking it to The Bikeshed* in Cardiff to change a tyre! The Brompton's rear has lots of ping****its attached to it and it looked like to much greif to even try. I had a puncture just beofre the Dunwich Dynamo and as I knew I was not going to be using the Brompton that week decided to change the tube. I did and it was easier than I thought.

This afternoon when washing the bikes I noticed a broken spoke on the rear ( Yes I am a fat bastard, I break Brompton spokes) , so whipped out the wheel and broke open the bag of spare spokes . Then realised I needed to take off the shield , becuase the broken spoke was on the drive side ( Yes I am a fat bastard, I break Brompton spokes) , so off needed to come the sporockets and the circlip and of course it went "ping****it" behind the freezer , where all sorts of 8 legged monsters live . Eventually after much swearing a sort of straight(ish) spoke was manouvered into place and tourqed up, ping****it was found, sprockets put back ( after rotating them X times to find the one way they would fit) and even the ping****it slipped in easily.
So bike all nice and clean, newly lubed chain replaced, wheel back in place! I AM A MECHANICAL GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I saw the shield on the workbench! :-(





No a very local LBS to me being 25 miles away , but they are only 2 miles off route for the comutte and are very very good

 

[MontyVeda]

...

Then I saw the shield on the workbench! :-(

...

doh!

BTW... what's a ping****it?

 

[Arch]

doh!

BTW... what's a ping****it?

ping is the noise the thing makes as it springs off, and **** it is what you say when it does....

 

[Arch]

A friend of mine's Dad had a fancy for a tricycle, so my friend got hold of one, a Pashley in need of a lot of work, including straightening the frame and welding in a brace, which my friend did. So, one evening he was sanding down the welds, and I helped to clean and reassemble the headset. Now, when my friend dismantled the headset, one ball bearing fell out of the upper race, and vanished on the shed floor. He looked and looked, even swept the area and examined the sweepings, but no sign. Given the general state of the tricycle, we decided to just put the race back on, one ball short. It's mainly a doing-up project, and my friend's Dad is unlikely to ride it much, if at all.

So, I cleaned the top race, greased it, and replaced the remaining balls, then put the top part back on the steerer, and screwed it down. When I'd done that I turned to my friend, who'd moved over to do something else, and said "OK, done. And you know what, if I look down now and find that ball bearing, neither of us will be able to just leave it, I'll have to take it off all over again to replace that ball." And he laughed and I laughed, at our joint OCD.

And then, I looked down by my feet.

Yes. One ball bearing, sitting in splendid isolation, on a piece of floor that had been swept. I swear I looked at that very patch of floor when he told me about losing it.

(And yes, I re-did it)

 

[apollo179]

How did you torque the spoke up and how dfid you know what torque to tighten it up to.
Personally i think id be inclined to leave the sheild of till i had to take it to bits next time.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

How did you torque the spoke up and how dfid you know what torque to tighten it up to.
Personally i think id be inclined to leave the sheild of till i had to take it to bits next time.

Ear!

 

[Theseus]

Ah, the great circlip hunt. One of the many uses of the workshop rag is to put over them to limit their spells of freedom.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

Ah, the great circlip hunt. One of the many uses of the workshop rag is to put over them to limit their spells of freedom.

I woudn't have minded , but knowing of the propensity of pingfukits to fly off into oblivion I deliberately turned the hub around so that it would ping to me not away. It did, off my gut and awaaaaayyyyyyy!

 

[apollo179]

Ear!

Gotcha. If you got it right then you are truly a mechanical god.

 

[SlowerThanASluggishSloth]

So bike all nice and clean, newly lubed chain replaced, wheel back in place! I AM A MECHANICAL GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!

Then I saw the shield on the workbench! :-(

That's a fine story, well-told!

 

[Arch]

Here's an opposite of godness.

I was once fitting a front mech to a bike, working on the floor, and while wiggling the sprung cage by hand, managed to trap a finger between it and the seat tube. Not very painfully, just held firm.

My mobile was out of reach, charging, and the landline also out of reach, because I couldn't easily stand up and hold the frame. I spent a few minutes convinced that I would actually die of starvation, and wondering how long it would be before anyone noticed, before I summoned the strength to lift the cage one handed with my free hand, and release the finger.

 

[Cyclist33]

I helped a mate swtich some tyres on his mtb yesterday, to Conti Verticals. He did the back wheel, I did the front. All was well - the old tyres came off with just a single lever, the new ones went on without even that. I got my track pump on the go and was feeling pretty smug, when there was a sudden BANG, rubber and plastic shot off in different directions, and the inner tube had a shredding great hole in it that would have made the Titanic proud.

I'd left the tyre lever in place and this had opened up enough of a gap for the tube to burst through. D'Oh! Ho much of a prat did I look!

Stu