Lesson Learned

While watching TV a few months back a commercial for one of those reality “caught on film” shows caught my attention. The slow motion clip was of a downhill racer who’s bike simply came apart as he was flying down a hill. He bit it hard and the bike tumbled the rest of the way down the hill. This incident probably could have been avoided had the rider simply inspected the bike before he began his decent. I have recently learned this very valuable lesson for myself. Fortunately my lesson didn’t end in the destruction of my bike and a trip to the hospital in the ambulance.

During my last couple rides I had been experiencing a few creaks, squeaks, groans, and component malfunctions. I’ve listed a couple of the symptoms below along with my reasoning for dismissing them.

• Creaking noise coming from the bottom bracket - I simply attributed this to typical wear and tear and figured it would soon need replacing. After all, the bike is a year and a half old.
• Chain skipping / Auto shifting. I’ve never been very talented when it comes to the adjustment of rear derailleurs. Assuming that I had incorrectly adjusted it I just kept on pedaling.
• Difficulty getting clipped out – I’ve been having issues with the SPD type clip and muddy conditions lately. The trails were wet during my last ride and I just figured my pedals and clips were getting packed with mud and clay.

After having so much trouble with the chain skipping / auto shifting I decided to take another look at the rear derailleur. Reading the step by step adjustment procedure on www.parktool.com I began re-adjusting the rear derailleur. After a few turns of the adjustment screws and barrel adjuster I was confident that the derailleur issue was solved, however, during my adjustment tutorial I had noticed that the pedal felt “wobbly”. Looking into this strange finding I noticed that a few pieces of the pedal were missing. Specifically the nut that secures the outer edge of the platform to the inner portion of the pedal. Technically the pedal can still be used but I don’t think it’s a good idea to have exposed parts so I purchased a new pair.

The next day I was planning on going for a short ride around the hood just to get some miles in. Since my new pedals weren’t in yet I decided I was going to borrow my wife’s pedals. While trying to take my old busted pedals off I noticed that my crank was loose! It was so loose that could slide it back and forth through the bottom bracket. I quickly decided to cancel my ride and work on the Bike…again. I threw it up on the stand, took the crank off, and inspected everything for damage. Fortunately there was none. I re-greased everything and re-assembled it. With a few turns of the crank I verified that it was now tight, however, it revealed another issue. The rear derailleur adjustment was off again.

It was then that I realized that all of these issues could have been avoided had I simply done a little routine maintenance. The bottom bracket noise was a result of the loose crank. The rear derailleur auto shifting was due to the side to side sliding motion of the crank. My issues with clipping out were due to my broke pedal. Yes, I felt really stupid after this epiphany!

I need to start paying more attention to every creak, squeak, groan, and component malfunction. However small they may be, they are all symptoms that need to be addressed as soon as they present themselves. I need to start thinking of my bike as a person. When my wife starts displaying symptoms of a cold or a flu we make sure she goes to the Dr. When she falls and sprains her ankle we make sure that we address the issue whether it’s just icing it or having a Dr take a look. If these issues aren’t addressed she could end up with serious permanent damage. Things aren’t very different when it comes to my bike. Fortunately nothing had to be damaged for me to learn my lesson, especially me!