Chain Bang
Posted on Tuesday 28 October 2008 by Martin Hayman
BANG! Clatter-clatter-clatter! “Oh b*llocks!” (or worse).
Thus the exploding transmission announces itself, generally on a hill as you’re putting your back into it, sometimes tromping across a major road through a gap in the onrushing traffic.
It can be a comedic moment for the subject’s fellows, though the guffaws soon die on their lips when they realize how long it’s going to take to fix. Let’s face it, repairing transmissions with the tools we generally take out on the road isn’t the matter of a moment. And standing around in a sodden hedgerow while the subject wrestles with the bike is no barrel of laughs. Funnily enough, it’s happened on my last three CTC rides. I forebear to name the guilty parties – they know who they are.
Yesterday’s exploding transmission incident, on the Stevenage End of Summertime 100, was the worst. First a nasty wrench on a front change, requiring a chainlink to be wrangled back into place. Then the hill, with major sound effects. Ha ha, oh dear. Rear mech lower arm sheared. Gear hanger twisted (this on a titanium frame). Back to basics laddie, it’s a single-speed get-you-home gear for you: this ain’t gonna be easy with vertical drop-outs. First try the 48 x 19. Doesn’t work – chain slides off down the block. So now try the 34 x 14. No dice. Chain clambers back up the block and locks everything up solid.
After at least half an hour’s fiddling about, our posse is now very cold in its wet clobber and starting to risk a sensayuma failure, when, like a deus ex machina the organizer’s car appears behind us, hazard flashers on. The stricken bicycle and rider are spirited away to the nearest train station for a very relieved DNF. Thank you, thank you, Stevenage DA!
Now the previous incident took place on a much finer day, indeed the extravagantly warm last Sunday of September. We were storming up one of those steep pitches in the Chilterns near The Lee when a massive bang and some eloquent Irish cursing just behind me announced a major mechanical. The lad’s new Litespeed (Ti again!) had two cranks pointing in the same direction. With the limited tools available, this was going to be a challenge indeed.
Several set to, prying the new-model Shimano crank off its axle with as much force as could be mustered with a multitool. Was this what’s known as deleveraging, I wondered? I went off and dozed in a hedgerow for half an hour; this was not in the least disagreeable, and I had to be roused by the group (rudely, it must be said) as they took to the road again. The roadside repairs, as crude as they were, had worked on this occasion.
And on the third recent incident one of our number – a recent time-triallist even! – snapped his chain with a ball-breaking lurch as he surged across a busy main road aiming for the lane opposite. An outer plate had popped off the rivet, and the link had parted company with its fellow. This is a straightforward problem – nip out the damaged link, rejoin the chain – and we were soon on our way again.
Why this spate of problems with transmissions I wonder? Have they become more fragile? Do they need more care to assemble, or more frequent replacement, than of yore? One notes that the snapped chain happens to pros as well as well as amateurs; however I have yet to see any CTC member throw the bike over the hedge in a fit of petulance.
In the meantime, winter is coming. Check your chain and changers, pack a good multitool, and don’t forget the wet wipes and the latex gloves – filthy hands are a disagreeable consequence of emergency transmission repairs on the road. And if you can’t be bothered with any of this – just ride fixed.