Peddling home yesterday I hit a massive six inch curb jump, and when I tried to get on the gas after the landing, my legs spun away without any affect on the bike. Dropped chain. Lame.
I pulled over onto the halfassed side walk, flipped my bike over, and dug my multi tool out of my back pack. I tried to loosen the set screw for the ebb so that I could tighten up the chain, but it wasn't budging. "I'll just hit it with some PB Blaster when I get home." I thought, and replace the loose chain on the rings.
When I got home, I started soaking the screw in penetrating oil, but when I tried to break it free again, it still felt like it was welded.
How stuck was it? Ask the 4mil on my multi tool:
Notice the helical twist. It h'aint supposed to have that. I didn't know an allen wrench would twist so much.
I tried heating the screw, pounding it with a hammer, and drenching it in more PB Blaster. After twisting another hex key and not getting the screw to move, I remembered the elderly hexes I had grabbed from my grandmother's house. I put it in, and although the screw was still solid, the allen refused to bend. Good old 60's steel.
I slotted my mighty lacrosse stick of leverage over the tiny but stout hex, gave it a big push, and with a crack, the screw broke free.
There's nothing four feet of leverage can't cure.
(bad screws disgust me)
Once I had the thing out, it wasn't apparent why it was so stuck. I'm guessing road salt was to blame, but in any case, when I put it back in, I slathered it with tons of heavy grease. Hopefully, I won't have to deal with that again.
The people who say single speeds are maintenance free don't ride them enough.
3 comments:
I may have to take back my comments about your small arms after seeing they were strong enough to twist metal...then again maybe not, they still don't fill out the elastic of a cycling jersey!
Do they make allen key replacements for multi-tools or do you have to chuck the whole thing and buy a new one.
Dude its a medium jersey. For the last time, my massive biceps would be ripping out of a small.
And the 4mm still works fine, so I'm not going to worry about it. I actually snapped the chain tool on that thing as well, and crank bros just sent me a new one, so I have two of them anyway.
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