Tales From the LBS
Welcome to yet another installment of how my Local Bike Shoppe is awesome.On the way to work I noticed Jamie making a distinctive creaking sound that wasn't there before, preceeded by a definite un-smoothness when going from pedaling to braking.
Upon further inspection I noticed that the chainring could be wiggled with my fingers; the axle (or whatever that bolt is that goes through the bottom bracket. I'm no bike mechanic, obviously) was definitely loose in there.
"Shit", I thought. "I bet that means it's ruined. My massively massive legs have gutted the French bottom bracket Gordon found for me." I played around with it a bit more until I was semi-confident it wasn't going to fall out on me and continued into work.
I then made Kasey rush me to P-Towne where I found James just closing up for the night. Being the awesome human being he is, he turned the lights back on and got down to business. I do this to him more times lately than I'd like to say. Compensation is coming my friend, yes it is.
Not only did he properly... mess... with... the cone thingies in the bottom bracket, he even had to manually create a tool to do so. We couldn't find the correct sized wrench, so he took one that was just a mite too small and ran the grinder on it until it fit, as seen above. How's that for service?
Heading home, I had virtually no creaking and no axle-moving-ness. I put some torque on it once and did feel a weird slip once I got to my apartment. I got down on the floor and attempted to lift myself up using the pedal and saw that the crank arm was moving independent of the chainring. That explained the left-over creaking and the movement I still felt.
I busted out my Alan wrenches and tightened all the bolts (apparently someone had snugged them, but not tightened them down) and now Jamie is back to her silent goodness. I rode her into work again today, and everything was perfect.
Let's see Performance Bicycles stay open late and hand-tool a tool to fix your problem. Little local shops fer the win.
- David
posted by BuddhaDave at
7:56 PM
3 Comments:
I keep trying to go by there, but find them closed. Is there a good time to find them open? Lately I've been supporting Conte's in Norfolk (Josh is great), but like to spread the LBS love around. Especially since I work and sometimes bike commute to P-town.
Scott Cramer
They're (usually) open Tuesday through Saturday, from about 10 to 6.
I've been into Conte's a couple times; Josh did a great job truing my wheel and fixing my rattlig headset.
Yea, he's playing my Jedi master as I attempt to convert this 86 Peugeot Corbier 10 speed (found on side of the road near ODU) to a fixed gear/ss. I've been lucky so far in that the French seemed to have gone pretty much standard British/ISO by 1986; just replaced the bent fork so far. Everything else seems reusable. Just need a new rear fixed/free hub and I can step into the gaping maw of wheelbuilding.
Scott
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