Chapter 1: Bikes Ready?

June, 2017:

When Rob, my husband and favorite bicycle partner, was in high school his father, a mechanical engineer, insisted that he take an auto mechanics class. But Rob is a psychologist, not a mechanical engineer, and had no interest in working on cars, even as his father showered him with gifts of spare parts and tools for his first car - a Chevy Nova. By the time he sold the car the trunk was filled with enough stuff to rebuild the entire car, the good fortune of the amateur mechanic who bought it. And when we were packing up to move across country, Rob was still finding spare parts tucked away in his closet. 

To Rob's credit he is pretty good at detecting when something is amiss and the car needs to visit our mechanic. But bike maintenance and repair pretty much falls in my court.  

Earlier in my adulthood, I took an interest in bicycle mechanics. Once I took apart and put back together one of my bikes, cleaning the bearings and replacing the cables and brake pads. And while I've never built a wheel from scratch, I have replaced broken spokes and trued my wheels, even having to do it once on a bike tour. 

But lately I've gotten lazy and will take our bikes to the local bike shop, The Dover Cyclery for maintenance and repairs. The mechanics, Mike and Rob, have been there for years and I know I can trust their work.

I can trust their work but I can't trust myself to bring in my bicycle when it needs the work.

Last year, a couple days before leaving for our Prince Edward Island trip, Rob and I were out for a short shakedown ride with our friend Nancy. Almost home, Nancy mentioned that she had taken her bike in recently for a cable adjustment and the mechanic pointed out that she needed a new tire. And I got to thinking, I hadn't checked my tires recently. As soon as I got home, I looked them over and my rear tire was just about worn through to the inner tube. 

I headed immediately to the bike shop to get a new tire and while I was there I asked them about the wire sticking out of my shift lever. "Looks like your gear cable is about shot," said Mike. I should have been able to figure that out on my own. Along with feeling pretty stupid, I really did not have the time to change a gear cable along with everything else I needed to be doing to get ready for our trip. Thankfully, Mike said he'd be able to replace the cable right then. 

"Do you think you could replace the rear tire, too?" And he did both repairs while I waited.

So this year, I gave some thought to making sure our bikes were ready to go. We'd had them tuned up last November. I checked my tires. Rob checked his. He was going to need a new rear one, but not right away. We'd just bring along a new one, which is a good idea for a longer tour anyway.

Then a week or so before we were to leave, sometime in the middle of the night - my usual worrying time - I got to thinking about my chain. I brought my bike in the next day and Rob - bike mechanic Rob, not husband Rob - measured my chain with a chain caliper and said, "Yup, you need a new chain. And as stretched as it is, you're going to need a new cassette, too." (The cassette is the set of sprockets for the gears on the rear wheel.)

Dang. I love my gear setup. Do I really need a new cassette? Can you replace it exactly? Is there enough time to get the parts? And then I'm going to need a new cable and when it stretches it will throw off the shifting. 

Rob said, "We can get it done. It's not a problem."

I wondered how I could have let this go too long. "Isn't this something you would have checked when I had it tuned up last November?" 

Mike said, "I did call you and said that your chain was almost ready to be replaced and you said you'd wait."

And I had totally forgotten. Now they both know. Not only am I stupid. I have a terrible memory.

But I do have two terrific bike mechanics who are always willing to bail me out. That's Rob on the left and Mike on the right.

We never talked about disc brake maintenance and repair.