Talked with an old school mechanic at the co-op last weekend and it messed with my head

So I was down at the Bike Kitchen in Denver on Saturday helping with a tune up event, and this guy named Joe who's been building wheels since the 80s comes over while I'm struggling to get a derailleur indexed right. He just stands there for a minute, then says "you're fighting the cable instead of letting the spring do the work." Honestly, I had to stop and think about it because I've always been so focused on cable tension that I forgot how much the derailleur wants to move on its own. He showed me this trick where you back off the tension completely, push the derailleur to the highest gear by hand, and then tighten the cable just enough so it sits neutral. Took me maybe 2 minutes after that to get perfect shifts on 9 speeds. Anyone else ever had a random stranger drop some knowledge that totally changed their routine?

2 comments

2 Comments

max_jones29d ago

Man that Joe sounds like a real one. I had almost the exact same thing happen with an old timer at a shop in Portland years ago when I was chasing a ghost skip on my SS conversion. He just watched me for a minute then said "your chainline is pissed off" and showed me how to flip the cog around. Fixed it in 30 seconds. Stuff like that is gold because no youtube video or manual will ever teach you that feel. Its like the difference between reading about how to tune a guitar and having someone show you how hard to actually turn the peg.

the_kevin29d ago

Three summers ago I had an old dude at a bike co-op tell me my bottom bracket sounded like "a bag of rusty hammers in a dryer." He was right, obviously. Changed out the bearings and it was silent. Still think about that line every time I hear a noise I can't place.