I have done some strange things in my life but this is right up there with the strangest.
I have a very basic mountain bike. Yes, it has disc breaks and gears but it does weigh a ton and isn't a top of the range super duper model. I mainly chose it because it is pink and black and I wanted something other than the child's bike that I had had before then. It was a definite step up and opened up a whole new world of adventure in the shape of single track and off road riding that I had never before experienced and which have I discovered that I love. Sadly however, it is a little bit overwhelmed by what I am asking it to do at the moment! Under normal circumstances this wouldn't be a problem but, these are not normal circumstances. Yes I know a bad workman blames his tools but the bike really is giving me some trouble.
The reason I have this bike is because of my past history. I get fads. So when I suggested to my husband that I would like to try an adventure race and entered a Questars event 2 1/2 years ago he thought it was a passing fancy. Yet another fad. (How wrong can you be?) Consequently, he didn't want to fork out lots of cash on something that would last 5 minutes and the join the heaps of detritus from the other hobbies that I have had over the years. In fact he wanted me to borrow a bike. I had a little go on my sister's hybrid and said that actually I really rather want my own mountain bike. So, we took a little trip to that well known bike and car parts shop and acquired my bike. And for a while I had the best bike among the ladies I roe with. But, that just shows that we had a really low quality bar to start with. They all got better and nicer bikes over time but I carried on with my old faithful and really loved it. However, I think the love affair may be coming to an end...
It is beginning to frustrate me. The gear levers get tighter and tighter the farther I ride. This is an intermittent problem, some rides it happens and some it doesn't. Bu there are times when I have had to use my whole hand to change the gears rather than just a thumb. Now, if I was going down or up a steep but smooth road that would not present a problem but try doing that on a gravel track at 35 km per hour and the need to have two hands on the handle bars becomes more obvious.
So this weekend I cut short my ride because the bike gears were misbehaving and Ross spent his Father's Day with the bike up on the maintenance stand trying to sort out the gears...again.
But the thing that is exercising Ross the most about my bike is that it doesn't go as fast as his. You might say, "Well just peddle faster." It is not as simply as that. I am in the top most gear, peddling flat out down a hill and have got no more 'push' left in the pedals. In other words, I have run out of resistance and he and many others I have ridden with are pulling away from me, not yet having reach top gear on their bikes. It is so frustrating.
I keep hearing from Ross, "Change gear!"
My rather terse reply, "There are no more gears to change into, otherwise I would..."
We have had several theories about this, one is that it is because I am smaller and weigh less but the latest one had something to do with my teeth.
Not the teeth in my mouth, obviously, but the number of teeth on the front cogs of my bike. So right up there with some strange things I have had to do is counting the teeth on the front cogs of my bike.
I came home from my son's school sports ay to be greeted by this request from Ross to count the teeth on the cogs of the bike. WHAT??
Other mothers will have gone home, made a cup of tea, put on a load of washing, started making the dinner. Not I. No. I got home, lifted my bike out of the shed. (And that is another thing, why have I , the shortest adult in our family got to have my bike up on the highest rack?)
Anyway, I lifted the bike down and contemplated the mechanics of counting the teeth. I decided to tip the bike upside down. That done, I started counting the teeth on the big cog. It seems a fairly simply thing to do. Right? Wrong!
I squatted down next to the front cassette. Cogs are round. The teeth all look the same, greasy and if I am honest, a little mud splattered. How do I mark where I started and how do I get to the teeth that are now underneath and thus out of sight? I tried putting my finger on the tooth I was starting on and counting from there. That worked until...I ran out of teeth and had to rotate the pedal to get to the ones at the bottom. That meant moving my finger that was marking where I had started. Blast! I had to begin again.
After the third attempt, I finally found a little identifying mark on the cog that I could use for a starting place and proceeded to count,
42 teeth on the big cog.
Now I had to move the chain off the middle cog but, the gear levers are on the handle bars and the bike is upside down, so I can see the cogs. I am contorting myself trying to remember which lever would operate the front derailier. (Knowing left from right has never been my strong point) I finally worked it out and flicked the gear lever to shift the chain. Amazingly, it worked. I didn't need to move it with my whole hand. (Good old wd40 and the application of a screwdriver by Ross yesterday must have helped)
I was onto this counting teeth thing now, locating an identifying mark on the middle cog I counted the teeth quickly. I repeated the process for the littlest cog.
34 on the middle cog.
24 on the little cog.
Job done. I sent a text to Ross and backed it up with a phone call. Maybe this would be it, I have the wrong number of teeth and I just need a different set of front cogs with more or less teeth. I have no idea of the mechanics of this. I listened expectantly to the silence as I passed on to Ross the number of teeth I have. Surely this was it, problem solved?
Guess what?
"Hmmm," says Ross. The number of teeth is not the problem."
Apparently that is standards configuration for a mountain bike.
"I will have to think again," says he.
You are joking. I went through all that palarvar for nothing!
Perhaps it would be better if we took a quick trip to a bike shop. I know just the model I want. Hydraulic disc breaks, 27 1/2 inch wheels, full sus...I can dream can't I?
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