Maintenance Woe

As mentioned in my last post, the Rocket is in the shop. This is taking longer than I originally thought.

Saturday afternoon I took my bike to Skyline Cycle in Ogden (really great people there). I took some time to discuss my desire for lower gearing with the owner. After some discussion he talked me into changing the rear casette from an 8 speed, 11-28, to an 8 speed, 11-34. He said he could get it done by Tuesday, as well as look over the bike and make sure everything was adjusted just right. So I left the Rocket.

When I got home I started working out the numbers. I currently have a range of 113 to 28 gear inches. The new cassette would give me a range of 113 to 23 gear inches. While all the gears would be ever so slightly lower, I would only really have one lower gear. So I called the shop and told Charlie that I had some concerns and asked her to have Matt call me.

Matt was just too crazy busy to call me so the boys and I went out there yesterday evening. Skyline was still busy, but not nearly as crazy as Saturday afternoon. Matt and I had a chance to talk extensively about what I wanted. He found a crank set that I could afford. The Rocket comes standard with a 62-52-39 crank set. The standard road set is a 52-42-30. Changing the crank set gives me 95 t0 21 gear inch range. This is quite a bit lower. So Matt ordered the crank set. It is supposed to be here Friday, or perhaps Monday. So the Rocket is still in the shop.

I also looked at adding the cassette to the mix. That would give me a 95 to 18 gear inch range. That is just about as low as most people can go and still keep up enough speed to stay upright. If the crank set isn't enough I look into changing the cassette as well.

So now I wait and try not to be a pest. In the mean time, keep the wheels down and be safe out there!!