I seem to be doing very badly with various repairs and fixes I’ve embarked on recently.
The first was discovering I had managed to unwittingly trash almost the whole (let’s be honest, the WHOLE drive train) drive train of my bike. I’d been working on the setup/adjustment of the derailleurs after a problem some time ago, and was getting better at setting these up, so much so that the whole thing has been trouble free (as trouble free as this system can be) for weeks.
I should have known better.
When I decided the mileage was enough to signal a maintenance check to see if anything was worn enough to warrant replacement – I found that measurement of ALL the components indicated everything was worn to almost TWICE the recommended limit where it should have been replaced. Looks like I learned, and mastered, the adjustment procedure so well I had been gradually compensating for the massive level of wear – hidden only by the fact that all the parts had worn together.
This all came to light when I popped a new chain on, and it would barely stay on the cogs.
Now the bike is lying dead, as it seems that there are plenty of adverts, but no stocks (anywhere in Glasgow at least) of the cassette needed. If I was in Edinburgh, I could nip out to the shops. I may catch a bus. As for the crankset – I could probably get that quicker from abroad! Fortunately, it may be worn, but not yet failed, so I have some time to choose something nicer.
Maybe a small cycle shop nearby has the very thing sitting on a shelf, but the days of spending hours visiting them are gone (that said, the last one that was actually nearby closed a couple of years ago) – all I know is none of the online bike sheds in the Central region have them. I even tried the west coast too (that’s how I eventually found one in Edinburgh).
Even the mighty Amazon failed this test, with all the matching items coming up with their wonderfully informative “This item’s not in stock, and we don’t know when or if it will be” message.
This is insane – it’s not as if it’s a specialised item.
It’s obviously an evil ‘Big Business’ plot to make me buy a new bike.
But supply problems are not my fault – although the reason for needing those supplies yesterday obviously is.
My real attack of chronic ‘DUMB’ came to maturity today, after I decided it was time to fit the chrome water heater referred to in this post properly.
I had to start this in two steps, first cutting a mounting hole for the base and electrical wiring, then work out a suitable collection of plumbing fitting to connect it to the cold water supply.
While I haven’t actually screwed this up (yet!), I did get caught out by the fact that I can’t move most of the fixtures to get to the place where the water connection for this tap sits below the sink back.
I thought I could overcome this with some careful measurement, and making up the required additional plumbing on the bench.
The idea had been to ‘T’ the completed pipework into the existing feed, then just attach the new tap – job done.
I should have known better, but could only see, or feel, parts of the system with one hand or the other.
When I tried a first fit of all the loose pieces, I discovered that while everything was going to go together as planned -all the pieces were going to land in places where it would be impossible to reach with a spanner, and tighten. Even the spot where the ‘T’ landed ended up being on the same spot the plumber had fitted a coupling back in the 1930s – so he could just make two connections when the units were installed then.
Wish that had all been obvious BEFORE I made up the parts and could see where things were going to land – but at least the problems were obvious when the parts could be seen in place.
Guess this will need a Plan B, and some more fittings, as I really don’t want to use any of those nasty looking braided flexible tap connectors that are so common today.
I think the pipe bending spring set will be seeing daylight soon.
Secret Scotland 