I guess it was last week I was talking about how my bike fell over, and the derailleur was somewhat damaged, so I took it in the shop. I got it back, but it still wasn't really acting right, so I left it there again, perhaps on Monday. After talking it over with the mechanic, he agreed it was probably that the front ring was worn out, as I almost never shift out of the middle gears (or rather the middle ring). I wasn't expecting it back until Thurs., as they needed to order the part, though they called me late on Wed. (around 5:30), saying it was ready. As the shop is only open until 6 pm, I had to wait until after the electrician wrapped up (another adventure in itself!), and then I went and retrieved my bike. I probably wouldn't have bothered, but as I was off to the TSO that evening, I went in to work in the late afternoon, since I had to go downtown.
Anyway, the mechanic said that he had replaced the front ring and the chain. I think the cassette on the back tire was still fairly new, so they left that alone. (At least he had noticed the skipping, and it wasn't just in my imagination.) But he had found a used derailleur that was in better condition than mine(!), so they replaced that as well. Over the years, pretty much all the components, including the seat (after one was stolen), brakes, shifters, tubes and recently the rear tire casing have been replaced. (Indeed, I had yet another bike light stolen after a quick trip to 401 Richmond, so I had to buy another one of those as well!) It's possible that the only original components (from when I got the bike back around 2012) are the frame itself, the mud guards and the very beat up rack for my pannier. I was thinking about the Ship of Theseus paradox lately (as it is discussed in the book version of Mickey 7, though not necessarily in the movie). Is this really the same bike or not? I suppose if I ever have to replace the frame for some reason, at that point I would say it is no longer the original bike.
This reminds me of a particularly annoying "concern troll" on Linked In, who popped recently and who was going on and on about how bicycle advocates were not honest about how much repairing bicycles would cost over the life cycle of a bike, completely distorting the cost and basically ignoring the much higher auto maintenance costs, even if these are somewhat lower for EVs. And then not content with this, he had the nerve to say that cycling advocates were ignoring the carbon costs of the bananas that fuel cyclists (in some promotional material). There really isn't much to do with these folks, who are likely just AI bots, than ignore them.
Anyway, the bike chain still slipped a little bit going through gear shifts, though it was working much better. I did find, however, that the middle ring seems to be just a bit smaller, and I was ending up in the upper gears all the time, compared to how I am used to riding. So I have started to shift up into the largest ring more often. One interesting side effect is that it seems that I have shaved about 5 minutes off of the trip downtown (as well as from my house to Woodbine). I guess it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks, as I have done this much shifting in 10+ years!
The downside, however, is that I thought I was on the larger ring and was downshifting, and I was in the middle and shifted to the smallest ring. The chain completely jumped off and ended up jammed between the ring and the frame! It took some time but I was able to free it and get it back on the ring. That was extremely concerning. I had to rearrange my schedule, but managed to stop in at the bike shop on Sat. They said there was no damage to the chain, and that I should just try not to do that (sort of like the old doctor's joke) and to shift a bit more gently. I think if I keep to the middle and largest rings, I should probably be ok. However, there was one more time when I was going between the upper and middle ring and I was coming up to a light, so didn't have a lot of time for the shifting to take place, and the chain jumped off again! This is far from ideal, and maybe this is just a sign that it is time to think about buying a new bike. But for now, it seems to be working reasonably well.
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