This afternoon I worked on upgrading/fixing my bicycle. I ride so much, parts wear out. I go through a bicycle chain and freewheel every year. This time I needed to also replace the middle chainring on my crankarm. The company apparently doesn't make that model of crankarm anymore. So last Fall I looked and looked and finally found on Amazon a chainring with the number of teeth I had, and wanted, that looked like it would work with my chainring. Things slowed down as the chainring supplier was not Amazon itself, and the supplier sent me the wrong chainring. It wasn't even close. Because it was from a supplier and not from an Amazon warehouse it took longer to get the correct chainring. Once I got the correct chainring it was Winter. In the meantime I used one of the other chainrings on my crankarm and waited until it got warmer.
Chains stretch over time and that is why they need to be replaced. A stretched chain wear on parts. A few weeks ago the other chainring wore out. Then I used the small chainring the past few weeks and this chainring was beginning to wear out as I waited for warm weather in order to replace the parts. If I knew this was going to happen I would have bought a new crankarm instead of just one chainring. Oh well.
It quit raining by afternoon today, and it was warm enough, so I decided to work on my bicycle.
I had to take the crankarm off. I have special tool for that. One side of the tool removes a bolt, and that worked fine. The other side of the tool then removes the arm from the bicycle bolt. That didn't work. One screws the tool into the threads on the crankarm and then one screws another part of the tool to pull/force the arm off the bicycle. What didn't work was the threads somehow had gotten stripped / loose and the tool would come off the arm instead of forcing the arm off. Eventually I used a hammer and a metal punch and pounded the arm off. Okay... not ideal, but it worked.
The replaced chainring was the middle chainring. I took the chainrings apart and cleaned them. When I put the new chainring on, it didn't seem to have a gap between the large and middle chainring. Huh? I don't know why. The chainring had the correct number of holes to bolt them together, but no real gap between the rings. I figured out I could put a washer around each of the five bolts to make a gap and then fasten the rings together. But the washers weren't quite large enough to fit around the bolts. I didn't want to find and put larger washers on the bolts. I decided to drill the washer holes larger. My drill bits are sharp. You'd think it would be easy to drill washers. No. I had to put the washers in a vice to hold them as I drilled. It was still difficult to drill the holes larger. The washers got very hot as I drilled. Finally I got them drilled.
When I put the third chainring on I also had to put washers on those bolts to create a larger gap. A least I had washers that fit on those bolts and didn't have to drill them.
Then to replace the freewheel. My freewheel remover tool didn't fit. Freewheel tools usually have four teeth for some freewheel models or multiple teeth for other models. This was a multiple teeth freewheel. But the tool would not fit. I thought it was because the nut on my wheel axle was in the way. To get the nut off was hard as it was inside the freewheel opening. One usually takes the freewheel off before trying to get the nut off. But I couldn't get the freewheel off.
I worked and worked and worked and finally got the nut off. Then when I used the freewheel tool I found it still didn't work. Huh? It should. What is going on? Then I finally remembered that maybe I had another multiple teeth freewheel tool. Or do I?
I went and looked in my bicycle tool box and found hidden in a container another multiple freewheel remover tool. This one worked. And I never even had to remove the wheel axle and bolt for this tool to work. Argh.
Why can't the freewheel manufacturers make only one way for a freewheel remover to work?
It was easier to replace the chain as everything worked as it was supposed to.
Now my bicycle works fine and there is no occasional chain slippage on worn freewheel or chainring teeth.
Then I had to put out a small hay bale for the cows to eat by sundown. Because it is muddy I wear mud boots. I can barely tuck my pants in the boots. Even so, somehow when I am around hay some hay gets inside my boots and on my pants that are in the boots. How? I don't know. When I take the boots off I try to do so outside on my porch so as not to track mud or hay in the house. Hay sticks to me so I try to rub it off. I was standing and using the other leg to rub on my pants to remove the hay. When I ride my bicycle my balance is 100% normal. When I stand my balance is not quite 100% normal. I lost my balance and fell. Into my storm door. I went through the glass window. No cuts as I was wearing my coat and gloves. But I had lots of glass to clean up from the porch.
In this world, things that should go easy, don't.
Argh.
Btw - no calves have been born yet. Come on cows, get with it.
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