Monday, November 2, 2009

Work Bike Drive Train Replacement

My work bike at 46 x 17 fixed. Surly Rear Cog at 1/8" with a new Surly lock ring.
New Rope. Sram Nickel PC-1 fits perfectly around the new teeth.
Miche 135/46 at 1/8" sort of hip.
The old thin 42 x 16 is gone. It performed well but how could it last, I installed it on my work bike 2 years past.
Once these parts get worn beyond a certain point they lose their effectiveness and become unreliable.
My order for new work bike drive train parts came in a week ago out at Ultimate of Mathews. I knew that the lock ring was going to be difficult to get off and I could not find my torch so I headed out to the shop seeking Matt's infinite kindness and mechanical wisdom. The knuckle busting lock ring tool was exactly useless like I already experienced so Matt re-fabricated a lock ring tool that was ratchet compatible out of something normally used on an old Truvativ part. Unfortunately I did not have my camera there to document the tooling experience that yielded sparks, tons of sparks. Anyways after the tool was created he put a really long bar on the end of the ratchet and the lock ring came right off. The chain whip on the cog was as useless as the lock ring tool on the lock ring so we put the cog into the bench vice(wheel attached) and then we turned the wheel in the correct but counter intuitive direction and off came the cog. With the new parts on my bike it is quiet and mechanically smoother than I remember. I love the feeling of riding a brand new drive train, it should last a few weeks at least. I will do my best to replace the chain more often which will give longer life to the other parts.

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