Bicycle Maintenance

I’m riding home yesterday after my sodden morning commute and slowly but surely, my chain begins to feel more and more slack. This strikes me as weird; it’s brand new and I’ve already shortened it once so that even in the unadvisable small/small combination, the links aren’t hitting the chainstay. Are the springs in my derailler going? Seems unlikely, but what else could it be?

Soon, I can no longer backpedal; any attempt to do so kicks the chain off the cogs, and then after another mile or so, I have to keep pedaling constantly in order to keep the chain tension constant so that it doesn’t skip off; it’s like riding a fixed gear, although not so elegant.

I keep stopping to noodle with the derailler; it’s still tightly screwed to the hangar; so whatever’s going wrong, at least I don’t have to worry about losing the part.

By now, I can’t even shift, so I limp home on the smallest cog and bring the bike downstairs to see what’s going on.

I release the gear cable and remove the derailler from the bike. After poking around on it for a bit, I discover that the upper jockey wheel, over which the chain normally runs, is completely stuck—it doesn’t spin at all.

Eureka! (I think.)

I remove the jockey wheel, clean it, grease it up, and put it back on the derailler: now it spins freely. The derailler goes back on the bike, the gear cable is reattached, the chain put back on and given a light treatment of lube. I do a bit of readjusting of the gears, which are now shifting smoothly up and down.

The chain is plenty tight and my bike is ready again for the road.

The repair took about half an hour, afforded me the satisfaction of figuring something out and fixing it, and was entirely free.

In a car, I’d still be waiting by the roadside for AAA.