Golden spanner award.

[jack]

I removed the chain guard, gear wire attatchment, chain and back wheel, and couldn't see anything obviously wrong. I put them all back again, and found that the wheel was tilted into the frame, and I couldn't take the nuts off again because my ersatz spanner from the bike repair kit had finally worn away at the corner. Taking the time to walk to B&Q and back, with an adjustable wrench, I redid that. It superficially worked -- the wheel span, the pedals turned the wheel. Then I tried to tighten it up.

To put the wheel not touching anything it has to be screwed tight with the axel half way up the slot in the frame. I thought I had it, then it slipped when I tested any weight on it. There are innumerable nuts and washers on the axel, together with the wheel and the sprocket[1], and when I looked it didn't feel right. But it seems possible I can get it fixed myself. However, I won't be cycling tonight.

The other thought is that my munged bike is in the shed with a twisted frame, but has a presumably servicable back wheel with non-hub gears and trimmings; I don't know if it's conceivable at some point to transplant this, ending up with a monster in the shed with ever more broken parts.

[1] I still can't believe that's a word.

Comments

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Because the whole construction is different. As someone else (apologies for forgetting who it was) explained, the gears work in a completely different way, and the other moving parts of the bike are set up to allow for that. Well, not your front wheel - that's independent, obviously. But if you replaced the back wheel of your ailing three-speed with one from a derailleur bike, you'd also end up replacing the pedal mechanism, probably the brakes (because three-speed bike wheels are almost always thicker than on derailleur bikes, as those hefty hubs look odd on a thin wheel), and heaven knows what else. It's a long while since I did any serious cycle maintenance, for obvious reasons, but I still remember enough to know that that is a job I wouldn't have even thought about tackling... and I used to strip down the bike and overhaul it pretty regularly.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, fair enough. I do also have the old brakes... :) No, point taken.