Saturday, March 15, 2008

That Ain't Right


We were having problems with our thumb shifter of choice and the front derailleur gears, so we switched back to its original twist grip shifter. We also made true the rear wheel. I had a spill taking a tight turn at speed which seemed to make the back wheel off center but thankfully didn't "taco" the wheel. We also finally got around to installing the front brakes. All those cables now have made for a cable management nightmare. The tension on the collective cables is actually interfering with the Ackerman steering, preventing the wheels from righting themselves when in forward motion. So there's work to be done there.

We don't know if any of the above is related but I had a spectacular failure of the drive train today during more extensive tests, ranging further on the trike than before. I was pedaling up a slight incline feeling what would be a typical amount of resistance. I never felt the front derailleur or chain fail but one dragged the other into the crankset (which I don't know). I only noticed a problem when I could no longer pedal because a link of chain had become unriveted and was bent perpendicular to the rest of the chain and stuck fast in the chainring.

So a wee bit more work to be done on the drive train. I wish I knew what to ask advice about but neither of us knows how such a thing could happen. Anyway, here's the horror show. :)





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