Monday, August 16, 2010

That'll teach me to speak too soon

Just when i think everything is sorted something happens.
Steve and I got together this past weekend for another practice run and when we set out we noticed some unpleasant metal on metal rubbing noises coming from his bike. After riding a little further we decided it was best to head home and fix whatever the problem was. By the time we got back Steve was pretty sure the noise was coming from the pedals or the bottom bracket (the mechanics inside the frame that the pedals attach to).
We decided the best action was to completely disassemble that section and check everything over. Once I had taken it all apart we saw that a section of the mechanics (a ball racer) had almost completely disintegrated and the bearings were certainly not spherical anymore. This was quite a major repair. We spent the rest of the day removing all the parts and cleaning everything up.
Steve now needs to buy a completely new bottom bracket unit for about £15.
Hopefully we can have it all rebuilt this week in time for one last practice run at the weekend. Fingers crossed the repair goes well.

I suppose one thing to be grateful for was that this didnt happen after we had set off on the trek or it would have been really bad stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way of repairing.

No comments: