Who's a clever boy then.................?

[ThePainInSpain]

Left the house at 9:00 this morning hoping for a pleasant couple of hours on the bike. The sun was up, the sky was a clear cloudless blue, the forecast was for a max of 25c, so aimed to be back by mid-day, before the heat (and the wind) had built too much.

Was having a few problems getting the gears to shift, which turned into the gears not shifting at all. So back home to try to sort it.

The cable to the rear derailleur had frayed and would not move at all.

2 choices, fix it myself or put the bike in the car and drive the 20km to Decathlon and get them to fix it.

I opted for the former, although had visions of me taking the bike, in bits, to Decathlon for them to put it back together.

Managed to work out how the shifter came to bits, and how to get the cable out. Could I get it out of the outer casing, no way. In the end I had to cut the cable to get it out.

Decided to try the LBS in the next town, about 13km away, so zipped off on the motor scooter. Having checked first what the price in Decathlon was (€3.95). Got to the LBS, €1, so bought two.

Got back home, put the bike on my Lidl's stand and had it all back together within 5 mins. I slight adjustment of the tension and it's working and shifting better than before, Went for a quick test ride........................perfik.

Can't believe how easy it was to sort.

I put on new brake blocks a couple of weeks back, I'm getting quite pleased with myself in my dotage.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Well done, there'll be no stopping you now. You'll be stripping and replacing headsets before you know it!

 

[Hilldodger]

 

[Cyclopathic]

Well done, there'll be no stopping you now. You'll be stripping and replacing headsets before you know it!

I think I'd rather do a headset than cables. Cables are my achiles heel and always seem to give me gip, so congrats to T.p.i.spain on that fix.

 

[scouserinlondon]

I'm going on the freebie fettling course at Evans next week, I need to learn some basics. Looking forward to it.

 

[cyberknight]

Nice !

it certainly gets easier as you gain in confidence, i just installed a new rear mech at the weekend and it runs sweet after a little furtling, admittedly i had to take it to the LBS for a bit of tweaking as it was pulling at a different ratio to the old one.

In all it cost me £4 for their time , it was a second hand "nice " mech i had in storage so i saved myself a lot of cash by doing what i could, they even showed me what needed to be done for future reference.

 

[Dayvo]

Can't believe how easy it was to sort.

[QUOTE 1366307"]

That's what I've always found when it comes to bike maintenance - the idea of doing something is that it will be difficult and won't work, but the reality is that it's all pretty easy really.

[/quote]


Heny Ford said that 'If you think you can do something, or can't do it, you're probably right!'

Just get stuck in!

 

[JonnyBlade]

I've just started upgrading my bike from shifters to breaks to cranks etc. Well done to the OP, I know how good it feels

 

[Pisquee]

There are loads of how-to guides on YouTube if people want to see how it's done, before and during doing it themselves.
(not just for bikes either - pretty much all DIY!)