The Chain Gang Cycle Tours

The Big Dartmoor Cleanup

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With the Dartmoor Challenge only days away, and with almost no preparation on the training side, it becomes even more important that the bike looks the part.

Apart from looking good at the start of the ride, and attracting admiring looks from other riders, a clean, smooth drive train gives me my best shot at actually completing the ride, so there’s a powerful incentive for me to get on with this job.

Today’s jobs are the chain, the rear derailleur and the rear cassette.

I started with the Chain Cleaner, a wonderful piece of specialist equipment. You open up the chain cleaner, fill it with degreaser, clamp it round the chain (middle chain ring, 3^rd smallest sprocket) . . .

. . . and start turning the pedals. After a few dozen turns it’s worth wiping the chain with a cloth, but basically you keep spinning the pedals until the chain looks shiny new.

Next is the cassette. You need some special tools here, which make the job very easy. Without them you’ve got no chance: chain whip, cassette removal tool, and either the correct spanner, or an adjustable. Holding the cassette still with the chain whip, insert the removal tool into the cassette locking ring and turn anti-clockwise.

Then it’s like magic. The locking ring unscrews and you just remove all the sprockets off the cassette.

We get a close-up of some pretty serious dirt here . . .

. . . but if you’re able to separate the sprockets the job of cleaning them, with a cloth and more degreaser is an easy one. Be careful, between each sprocket is a spacer, to ensure the indexing works correctly. Don’t lose any, and I’m afraid they have to get cleaned too.

Once all the parts are clean, it’s time for reassembly. Each sprocket has an outside and an inside, and an extra large spline so that provided the writing is on the outside, you can only put the sprockets on correctly. Careful to put the sprockets and spacers on in the correct order, and as the cassette is reassembled you’ll notice there is a very specific pattern to the sprockets. They’re not the same all the way round, and they’re not symmetrical. They have special features to help with smooth gear changing and dirt dispersal.

Put the wheel back on, and your bike has been truly transformed.

I put the chain cleaner on one more time to make it squeaky clean.

Very Important. Remember, there is no lubricant at all on the drive train now, so you must lubricate your chain again before you ride. But does that look beautiful or what?

Next step, the Chain Set, and the derailleurs, but we’ve made a great start.

Bike Maintenance

A funny subject this. I love messing about with bikes, and one of the most satisfying parts of our bikes tours is when a wheel gets badly buckled. A brief inspection reveals 2 broken spokes, for you, my friend, the war is over. Not a bit of it!

Out with the chain whip, out with the cassette removal tool, the large adjustable spanner, and the spare spokes. With spokes fitted, the wheel is still bent to buggery, so it’s time for the trusty spoke key to true the wheel up. The trick is tiny adjustments – a quarter turn at a time, tighten to pull the frame towards that side, loosen to let it off to the other side. Always loosen rather than tighten where you’ve the choice, and before you know it you’ve got a beautiful straight wheel again, and you’re ready to roll.

The reason I love this repair is because people are so impressed by it! Straightening a wheel is pretty straight-forward, but it looks like a little piece of magic. As a guide, if you’ve messed up a couple of things, and your sheen is beginning to tarnish, there’s nothing like a buckled wheel to make you look good again. Even Mac was impressed with my wheel-truing in the Dordogne, and as he’s about the best bike mechanic I ever met, I felt flattered indeed.

So on our bike tours in France and Italy, all our guides have a massive bag full of tools. We almost never need them, but we have re-built a headset by the side of the road, and we have used a crank-extractor before now. But what is the coolest bike tool of all? The answer is the Chain Wear Gauge. What a beauty. It looks like a 6-inch ruler with 2 spikes sticking out of each end. One side is calibrated to .75% wear, the other side to 1%. Starting with .75%, you put one of the spikes in the gap between one of the links. If the other end plops down into another link, rather than standing proud, your chain is wearing out. Flip the gauge over to the 1% side. If the gauge still falls into your chain, time for a new chain sharpish!

Here’s a picture of a wonderful Chain Wear Gauge. How cool is that? They cost less than a fiver at wiggle.co.uk, but there is a slight problem. You get your cool new Chain Wear Gauge. Turns out your chain is very badly worn indeed, and all the manuals say you’ve runined your drive train. New chain, new cassette, new chain rings. £4.99 for the gauge, £90 for the new cassette and chain. That’s what it costs to be cool.