Clickity-Snapity.
I was cruising at around 30 MPH, which isn't at all hard on the gradual descent on Eagle River Loop Road if you pedal once or twice. The gears were shifted as far they would go, in this case a 52-11. As I reached the bridge at the bottom, I continued pedaling steadily and flicked the paddle on my right shifter to shed a few cogs. Instead of the normal clickity-clickity as the rear derailleur moved up the cassette a couple gears, I was greeted with silence and a paddle that just kinda stuck out there. "Hmmm. That's not good." I pushed it back and tried again, and it separated, bounced off my knee, and skittered across the pavement. If shifter paddles had middle fingers, I think they would have been on display as it arced through the air.
My speed was rapidly decreasing as the hill kicked upwards, despite all of my 57 watts of peak power being brought to bear. Left with two choices (one of them being stopping), I shifted to the 36 in front and ground the rest of the way up to a turnaround spot. I now had two choices for gearing- one pretty hard for the upcoming hills and the other mostly unusable for the remainder of my ride.
Two thoughts ran through my head:
- Which dumbass thought a mid-compact would be a good choice for this bike?
- Which dumbass thought an 11-tooth cassette was necessary?
Unfortunately, the answer to both questions was, well, me. It wasn't a problem until now. Now it was a problem, especially since the front derailleur really made a lot of racket in a 36-11 configuration. Embarrassing.
I turned around and rode home after finding the paddle. It was broken in a way that pretty much made the whole shifter an expensive paperweight. Instead of being 20 times better than a single-speeder, I was now only twice as superior.
A couple days later I replaced the shifter with a spare from the parts pile. The whole exercise went better than I anticipated, so I didn't have to replace all of the other components (cable, housing, bar tape...) while I was at it. A little wrenching and ham-fisted adjusting and the bike was back in service.
Maybe the bike was just venting its frustration at being abused and neglected the last couple weeks, not to mention the two months I ignored it prior to that. I'll accept that. It deserves better.
I'll try to be a better owner in the future.
My speed was rapidly decreasing as the hill kicked upwards, despite all of my 57 watts of peak power being brought to bear. Left with two choices (one of them being stopping), I shifted to the 36 in front and ground the rest of the way up to a turnaround spot. I now had two choices for gearing- one pretty hard for the upcoming hills and the other mostly unusable for the remainder of my ride.
Two thoughts ran through my head:
- Which dumbass thought a mid-compact would be a good choice for this bike?
- Which dumbass thought an 11-tooth cassette was necessary?
Unfortunately, the answer to both questions was, well, me. It wasn't a problem until now. Now it was a problem, especially since the front derailleur really made a lot of racket in a 36-11 configuration. Embarrassing.
I turned around and rode home after finding the paddle. It was broken in a way that pretty much made the whole shifter an expensive paperweight. Instead of being 20 times better than a single-speeder, I was now only twice as superior.
A couple days later I replaced the shifter with a spare from the parts pile. The whole exercise went better than I anticipated, so I didn't have to replace all of the other components (cable, housing, bar tape...) while I was at it. A little wrenching and ham-fisted adjusting and the bike was back in service.
Maybe the bike was just venting its frustration at being abused and neglected the last couple weeks, not to mention the two months I ignored it prior to that. I'll accept that. It deserves better.
I'll try to be a better owner in the future.
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