Transmission Trouble

My poor LHT sat in the kitchen with the wheels off for a couple of weeks, like a Camaro next to a double-wide.

As I mentioned yesterday, I worked on it last night, and it’s rideable again.  I’m having issues with the transmission.  On a car that spells an expensive fix.  Technically, you can get a very expensive bicycle transmission, but I’ll leave that to others.

My transmission issues center around my front derailleur.  Normally it’s a simple thing to shift to one of the three front chain rings.  Lately, I haven’t been able to get it to shift into the smallest, leaving me without my “steep hill climbing gears”.  Even racing Gravel Grovel, I had some issues, but was usually able to get the shift to happen after several attempts.

Usually this issue can be fixed with some simple adjustments.  That wasn’t the case this time.  The derailleur wouldn’t move far enough inward, even when disconnecting the cable and the limit screw made no difference.  Pushing the derailleur inward with my finger will make it go far enough.

I assumed this was just mud, muck, and other crud mucking up the works.  I cleaned everything the best I could and re-lubed.  It made no difference.  I stopped at OYLC on the way home from work today confident that they could fix it.  Even after soaking the derailleur in a cleaner it didn’t function properly.  Okay, the new one is on order and I’ll have it next week.

I have a gravel ride coming up on Sunday.  I guess if I really need the “climbing gears” I’ll be stopping and pushing the derailleur with my finger again.  It’s either that or scavenging parts off of one of my other bikes.

I went grocery shopping on Saturday.  I bought quite a bit of stuff (including beer!).  I hauled it all on the Big Dummy from several miles away.  I often go to Kroger which is less than a mile away, but I prefer the ValuMarket at Mid-City Mall.  I escaped the madness just as a beer festival that I didn’t know about was beginning.  I bought more than I intended and load it all so that nothing fell off was a challenge, but I like challenges.

I made it home without losing the load.  In addition to the six-pack strapped to the deck, there’s another (Schlafly Coffee Stout) in the bag.

I could have hauled more if I had used the wideloaders, but that’s all I needed this time around.