My bike has had a shot chain on it for a few weeks now so I thought I'd be a clever bastard and get one cheap off Trademe. The mental picture of my nice new chain showing up and me just slipping it on the bike was awesome! Monday the chain arrives so I call my bicycle mechanic mate to see if he's around on Tuesday night as I'll need to use his grinder to shorten it. I grind two pins off the old one, pop the plate off and hurl it in the bin, loosen off the adjusters and give the back wheel a nudge in and drape the new one in place so I can measure (for the second time, I made sure I counted the links on the old one too) and grind it to lenght. So far everything is going well and I'm having fun.
I made sure to ask if I'd need a chain riveting tool or if it came with a snap link so I could do the work myself. We put the "O" rings in the right place and snapped the plate and spring clip in place, adjusted up the wheel and checked the chain-line by eye. PERFECT! Man I'm glad I didn't pay someone else to do it!
??? OR WAS I ????
My buddy wants a lift to Waterview so we get on and go, as we roll off the chain is clicking each time it goes 'round. I stop and roll the bike while looking at the chain, the longer pins on the snap link seem to just touch my chain gaurd so i bend it a wee bit and carry on.
This would have been the right time to re-check the whole setup in the light as by this time it was coming up 8:30pm but but I charged off full of un-justified confidence and the bike was going fine.
Fine until we're pulling onto the new link from the northern (having come from Albany) to the North Western and RRRVVMMMMMM the engine was revving free! I eased off and had the clutch in before I knew it and we rolled to a stop. First thing to check - the new chain, if only it was there to be checked! So we stroll off down the motorway and find the chain (easy) and backing plate for the link but nothing else. Now we all know how good a bike is with no chain and I had no idea what to do. I remembered I had called Frosty one time to ask some advice and that he lived close my place, I gave Frosty a call feeling like the cheekiest little asshole out, he answered and after messing with me for a while was happy for someone to come get a link he had so I could get home, I called my wife and got her to call him to get his address so she could go pick it up.
She called me back and said once he found out I was on the side of the motorway he said he'd go cos it was ridiclous to go fixing a bike on the side of the road in the dark, he was right of course but I didn't have much choice. He emptied all the stuff out of his van that was ready for the track day and came to get me. Because of where I was he had do the 1/2 Auckland loop, what a friggin mission!
In the meantime a cop pulled up to make sure we were ok, saw the chain sitting on the jersey barrier beside me with me eating my lunch from that day and had a chuckle, he was also obliging when my mate asked for a lift to Waterview and came off like a real good guy.
Waiting
Waiting
Waiting.....
and the cars that have been passing me stop. I wondered if there were roadworks and looked down the m'way but couldn't see anything. Then a white van with a police escort cruise up and there was roadworks so Frosty had been doing his darndest with the workers and the council with no luck. Then the same cop showed up and got him through, awesome! He turned out to know Frosty and Nodman (who more than a few of us know I'm sure) and they seem to have a bunch of good cops out there doing work to help people and get things done.
Off to Frostys
I thought he was going to drop me off at home and that would still would have been a mission for him but we head to his place where he checks the crank case is ok, cuts up one of his older chains and pieces together a link out of bits hiding (really hiding, like, he had to take ages to find them and by this stage I was feeling like I'd wasted so much of his time) put it on the bike and bagged up my other (new) one for me. He told me he's thrown a few snap links and the cop told my mate on their trip he'd thrown three and had the chain jam once at speed because of it.
Frosty recconed Cycletreads (www.cycletreads.co.nz) was the place to go to get the new chain riveted, they fitted me in at short notice and weren't rude like some bike shops, I guess they realise most people don't know as much as them and just cos someone asks questions it doesn't make them a dumbass. They checked the bike over to see that the chain hadn't taken anything out on it's way too and then found all the right bits to fit my chain and rivet the join together, all for a very reasonable price. I've been shopping around for a shop and they'll be getting my money from now on thats for sure.
The moral of the story is that you use the snap links at your own risk, that Frosty is an awesome guy who sorted me out way beyond a favour, he put himself out in a big way, unloading his gear prepped for the track day and staying up past midnight with his arms in grease after weasling his way past the road block that most people would have given up at and cutting up a usable chain to get me home. That Nodman is not the only good cop out there, Big thanks to that cop whoever you are. Lastly that there are bike shops with normal people in them who do an honest job, we all know we don't ride cos it's cheap, parts and good labour will always cost but you don't have to be talked down to, treated like your an inconvenience or have weido's on speed running around the store.
Last thanks to kiwibiker cos it's a place where you can chap and share and actually meet up with the members unlike most forums and I like to think that accountability keeps the billshit to a minimum!
Reply With Quote
....guess i will get around to reading the 1st post one day.
Originally Posted by FROSTY
Bookmarks