learn something new every day

Posted Wednesday, May 26, 2004, at 03:39PM by Eric Richardson

I just took my bike in to the Manhattan Beach REI Store to get a chain skip looked at. Under load, especially in a low gear, the chain'll sort of pop out and then back in. Really annoying when you're pushing it. I thought the chain was old and needed replacing, but they thought it still had some life in it and think a derailler adjustment will clear it up.

They studied my bike pretty hard, though, obviously a bit confused by it. It's a Novara Ponderosa. Turns out it doesn't really have any of the stock gear on it, though, so the shop guys think someone just got a Ponderosa frame and stuck on random pieces they had around. That degrades a bit the deal I thought I had gotten, but really the bike does exactly what I want it to do, so that's what matters. I asked the guy whether the stuff was nice, crappy, whatever, and he said the front wheel was nice. Heh. I bought that myself. I don't know if that means the shifters, etc, are crap or just the front wheel really is that nice.

Anyway, they kept the bike and I'll pick it up Friday.