Sunday, September 30, 2007

Hurricane Chain Mgmt Woes

I'll be the first to admit the chain management on Sarah's Hurricane is pretty awful. It works and that was my goal for this riding season. She has been able to ride it virtually trouble free after my ziptie and electrical tape repairs, but it won't win any awards. In my defense the bike was bought well used and the current state of affairs is a big improvement over the way it was when we received it. I would have done something about this sooner, but a typical repair scenario of this magnitude will require lots of parts lying on the floor for at least 3 weeks - maybe longer. I need at least a week to ponder and mock up some solutions - of course I have to take the whole chain off to do this so the bike will be off the road. Then I need to order some parts from the US. They have to arrive and I'd double that time to allow for me changing my mind and ordering new parts - or the vendor sending me the wrong/incomplete parts. Then another week to hold up the parts against the bike and mumble to myself while figuring out how many zipties I'll need and where to strategically apply the electrical tape. The actual execution of the repair job will likely take only 30 minutes at the very end.

Sounds crazy, but I've played out this scenario enough times to just accept it! So knowing this I'll wait until the snow is on the ground to start so Sarah can ride her bent as much as possible. With any luck it will be working again by the time the ground is clear in March...=-)



1 comment:

Mark Hastings said...

I have that same hurricane and broke my last two sets of the newer planet bike fenders. Do you remember what kind of fenders are on that bike?
That chain looks like mine did when I bought my bike used.. oy what a pain.