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

Re: My opinion

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Indeed. My thinking was, that that was obviously how the wheel had been on before -- as I'd have noticed if it was in the same place as the mudguard, as the superposition of charged elementary particles would have created a vast explosion -- and I assumed that must have been how it was supposed to be.

*thinks* I can't remember if the mud guard was easily movable, will see if that can be done. Nor am I sure if the breaks would need to be moved.

Re: My opinion

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

*thinks quite hard*
Brakes will probably need to be moved, but to somewhere they can still reach. I had a back wheel that had almost that problem, except that the spindle in the middle was the wrong size (duuuhhhh) and when I put it back on after fixing that, the brakes needed a bit of a fiddle.

Re: My opinion

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Also: no wonder it didn't bloody work.

Re: My opinion

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Well, it *used* to work. Gah.

Thanks for the advice, I'll let you all know what happens.

Re: My opinion

[ewx.livejournal.com]

IME mudguards usually fail by being too easily movable. I had to apply a drill to mine after some rivets failed a while back. (And then someone knocked the bike over with sufficient force to tear the mudguard, rendering my repair moot.)