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About a week ago, I noticed that the cable housing for my rear derailleur was wearing out at the connection point to the derailleur. Yesterday I had the presence of mind to dig out an extra shift cable and housing to bring in to work, but I couldn't find the cable cutters anywhere!
...it turns out I left the cable cutters at work, in order to work on one of the bikes for the Bicycling course.
Anyway. The work day wound up being hectic all day yesterday, because I have students getting ready to turn in full drafts of their First Full Scientific Paper, and they are busily working to resolve all kinds of issues with all the different bits and pieces that go into a full manuscript. By the time I could catch my breath, it was 6:15, so I thought to myself, "Well, not a problem, this cable housing replacement should only take a couple of minutes."
...If you do any of your own bike maintenance, this storyline is already predictable.
The offending part, before replacement:
Do you see that bit of split metal surrounding the black cable housing? That is an aluminum cable housing ferrule. When trying to remove the cable housing, I discovered that it had chemically welded itself to the rear derailleur.
I don't have a drill in my lab, but I do have a Dremel, so I eventually wound up Dremeling out the derailleur as best I could with an undersize Dremel drill bit. By then, 30 minutes had already elapsed, and I was more than ready for dinner. So I eventually got things to enough of a "good enough" point that I could limp home.
This is the second connection point that I've had to Dremel or drill out on this bike so far. The winter salt has not been kind. I should just take up the local bike shop on their winter bike cleaning special just to ensure that SOMEONE takes the whole thing apart, cleans it, greases the threads, and reassembles it, because I can never seem to make the time to do it myself, and the end result takes more time and is an even bigger and more expensive headache for me to deal with.
Oh well.
It is only now that I can see that shifting had gotten ludicrously sluggish; it isn't perfect now but it is so much more crisp and responsive again. So that's something.
--
Right now it's Mouse Season around here. Prior to this year, I've gotten lucky and none of the mice found my office. I have not been so lucky this year.
Apparently the bodies of roadkill monarch butterflies are delicious, but the wings are not:
Apparently succulents are also delicious:
To my dismay, the mouse saw right through my efforts to protect the Lithiops, and it is no more:
The mouse also determined that height is but a small impediment and saw fit to eat the entire jade plant, which used to look like this:
I feel like a mouse that eats my succulents deserves some special form of punishment, but I'm loathe to set out snap traps.
...it turns out I left the cable cutters at work, in order to work on one of the bikes for the Bicycling course.
Anyway. The work day wound up being hectic all day yesterday, because I have students getting ready to turn in full drafts of their First Full Scientific Paper, and they are busily working to resolve all kinds of issues with all the different bits and pieces that go into a full manuscript. By the time I could catch my breath, it was 6:15, so I thought to myself, "Well, not a problem, this cable housing replacement should only take a couple of minutes."
...If you do any of your own bike maintenance, this storyline is already predictable.
The offending part, before replacement:
Do you see that bit of split metal surrounding the black cable housing? That is an aluminum cable housing ferrule. When trying to remove the cable housing, I discovered that it had chemically welded itself to the rear derailleur.
I don't have a drill in my lab, but I do have a Dremel, so I eventually wound up Dremeling out the derailleur as best I could with an undersize Dremel drill bit. By then, 30 minutes had already elapsed, and I was more than ready for dinner. So I eventually got things to enough of a "good enough" point that I could limp home.
This is the second connection point that I've had to Dremel or drill out on this bike so far. The winter salt has not been kind. I should just take up the local bike shop on their winter bike cleaning special just to ensure that SOMEONE takes the whole thing apart, cleans it, greases the threads, and reassembles it, because I can never seem to make the time to do it myself, and the end result takes more time and is an even bigger and more expensive headache for me to deal with.
Oh well.
It is only now that I can see that shifting had gotten ludicrously sluggish; it isn't perfect now but it is so much more crisp and responsive again. So that's something.
--
Right now it's Mouse Season around here. Prior to this year, I've gotten lucky and none of the mice found my office. I have not been so lucky this year.
Apparently the bodies of roadkill monarch butterflies are delicious, but the wings are not:
Apparently succulents are also delicious:
To my dismay, the mouse saw right through my efforts to protect the Lithiops, and it is no more:
The mouse also determined that height is but a small impediment and saw fit to eat the entire jade plant, which used to look like this:
I feel like a mouse that eats my succulents deserves some special form of punishment, but I'm loathe to set out snap traps.
