The Bicycle: A Simple Machine

Actually, the bicycle is not a simple machine. For two reasons: it is made up of more than two simple machines so it is actually considered a compound machine and, as the following account will illustrate, a bike is just not that simple.

The bike I will be riding on my trip is the Marin. Here is a picture of it in the condition that it was received.

My plan was to clean up, tune up, and replace some of the components of this bike. The parts I wanted to replace were the wheels and the crankset. I felt I needed to replace the wheels because as you can see in the picture, the wheels have few spokes and are considered racing wheels. I need wheels with more spokes so that they are sturdy and reliable. Also, the crankset that came on the bike is a double crankset. That is, there are two gears in the front and 10 in the rear giving me roughly 20 different gear ratios that I can use for all the different terrains and headwinds I may encounter on my trip. That might seem like plenty, but for long climbs up mountains it would be nice to have some lower gears. I decided to replace this double crankset with a triple. It will give me 3 gears in the front and 10 in the rear. What could be so difficult about this?

I ordered all the parts from online retailers. While waiting for the parts, I prepped the bike so it would be ready when they were delivered. I cleaned the frame and removed some things.

Look at that dirt!

All gone. Also, this is a good shot of the double crankset. See the two gears on the left?

The triple crankset was the first to arrive. So came the task of removing the double. To remove a crankset I needed a special tool called a crank puller that was purchased for $15 at my local friendly bike shop. From their description of how to use it, and from the online video tutorials titled, "How to remove a crankset," I felt I was more than prepared. What a fool.

Well, you have to understand why I was so foolish. The directions for using the crank puller are rather simple. You screw the tool into the crank until the crank falls off the bike. What could go wrong? The directions are correct but, they do not specify the amount of necessary force to be applied in turning the tool until the crank does fall off. 

I thought for sure I was doing something wrong. Did I really need to hold the bike down with my foot while I used all my might and weight just to turn the tool 90 degrees? My arms were burning, I was out of breath, and I had to put on padded gloves for better grip. I reread the instructions and watched a few more video tutorials. They just turn the tool and the crankset falls right off the bike. Having no other ideas, I just decided to keep turning the tool tighter and tighter. Sure enough, the crankset fell right off. 

Now, the crank puller was screwed into the crankset which was no longer attached to the bike. The problem was removing the tool from the crankset! I had used so much force to screw it in, the same force was needed to remove it. After trying every angle, I was finally able get it free. This all took about an hour and a half and I was only half way done! I still had to remove the pedal arm on the other side.  Again, I was in disbelief at how much force was necessary but, it worked once and it worked again. Here's me attempting to remove the tool from the pedal arm after I removed it from the bike.

A video of this whole process would be priceless.

I spy a cat.

Here's the bike with no crankset.

Putting on the new triple crankset was easy enough to do. Just apply a little grease and tighten a couple screws and voila!

So shiny... Notice the 3 gears on this one?

The crankset has been replaced! Now, onto the wheels. The front wheel was easy. The rear wheel was more interesting.

There are two main companies that produce drivetrain components for bikes such as shifters, derailleurs, chains, cassettes, and cranksets. These two companies are Campagnolo, more familiarly known as Campy, and Shimano. Campagnolo is to Shimano as Apple is to Microsoft. Campy makes high quilty components that are less popular as they are more expensive. Shimano also makes high quality products but they also have a lower end line and are more prominent than Campagnolo. If you buy a new road bike from your local bike shop chances are it has Shimano components. Most importantly, the products of these brands are completely incompatible. For example, you should not use Campy shifters with Shimano derailleurs or a Shimano chain with a Campy cassette. Some people do, but it is not wise.

I removed the rear wheel. The cassette is the set of gears that are on the hub of the rear wheel. I now needed to remove the cassette from the rear wheel and put it on the hub of my new rear wheel. After that, I just had to put the new wheel on the bike and presto, I would be done. Not so fast.

I could not remove the cassette from the hub without the help of two more tools which I did not own. After another trip to the bike store for a lockring, a chain whip, and a quick demonstration on how to use them, I was ready. Once again, more force that I would have thought was needed but, I removed the cassette.

Let me remind you that this entire time, I have no idea what I am doing. I have never done any of these repairs to a bike and have no technical bicycle experience whatsoever. As a result, I was surprised when the cassette did not fit on the hub of my new rear wheel. After a few moments of disbelief trying repeatedly to slide a ring that obviously had a smaller radius than the cyclinder I was attempting to put it on, I began to panic more than a little. How could it not fit?!

It turns out that the hub of the wheel that I bought was only compatible with Shimano cassettes. I had a Campagnolo cassette. I didn't think to look at this detail when purchasing the wheels which I did over a week ago and now could no longer return them. My mind was racing for solutions to this problem. Could I switch the hubs of the wheels? How do you remove a hub? Am I going to need to buy another rear wheel? How much would it cost? On and on I went. I took apart the axle of the new wheel trying to remove the hub. I couldn't figure it out. I even took the Shimano cassette off of Blue and put it on the Marin. But, everything on the Marin is from Campy and it was not until then that I realized Shimano and Campagnolo components should not be mixed. I didn't fall asleep until 3AM that night. I was downstairs disassembling wheels, up to my elbows in grease, and on my laptop desperately searching for a solution.

My solution was to call the bike shop in the morning and see what they had to say. At first, the kind man at the shop told me I would most likely need to get a new wheel. Then, as if it had almost slipped his mind, he said that some companies manufacture cassettes that are just like Campagnolo cassettes, except they fit on Shimano hubs. Within 10 seconds I was on eBay looking at these cassettes. Amazing! This is exactly what I needed! I ordered one.

Ironically, I think that even if I had known what I was doing all along I would have still ordered wheels with Shimano hubs and bought another cassette. Campagnolo parts are expensive. Just a rear wheel with a Campy hub is actually more expensive than BOTH the wheels I had purchased AND the cassette. Life is funny that way.

While waiting for the cassette to arrive, I was inspecting the bike and noticed that I had inadvertently knocked the cable that runs from the shifter to the rear derailleur loose. So I grabbed some pliers and began pulling on it to create tension before I fastened the pinching screw on the rear derailleur. Whoever installed this cable only left about .5 cm of extra cable to pull on. I frayed the end badly. It was going to need to be replaced. So it was back to the bike shop for the third day in a row for some shifting cable. I did not need a special tool for this job. It was relatively simple.

Finally, the cassette arrived. I was glad to see that it slid right on the hub. Perfect fit! Now all that I needed to do was put the rear wheel back on and tune up the shifting and it was ready to ride! Again, not so fast. When I put the rear wheel back on the bike, I noticed that it was not spinning very freely. I walked over to Blue and flicked the rear wheel and it spun for nearly half a minute. The new rear wheel on the Marin would only spin for 10 seconds. What could be the issue?

After a minute on Google I had found my answer. Back when I was in a frantic state, I took apart the axle of this wheel. When I put it back together I had actually tightened some of the nuts too much. This is what caused the wheel to not spin freely. So I removed the wheel, removed the cassette, and loosened some of the nuts and put it all back together. I didn't loosen them enough. Did it all again, and I loosened them too much and the wheel could actually be jiggled slightly from side to side. After only about 10 more tries I got it right.

Now, I could finally focus on the last step: tuning up the shifters. There are four adjustments that can be made to both the rear and front derailleurs to get just the right amount of movement so the chain slides nicely up and down the gears. For someone like me who has no idea what he is doing and has to adjust the screws first just to see what they adjust before I can actually do anything constructive, this was not going to be easy. Not only was it not easy, it was maddening. The bike was completely put together, it was a beautiful day for a test ride, and I'm in the basement on my back trying to figure out why the chain keeps slipping on the third sprocket only when I shift up to it.

I never even attempted to adjust the front derailleur. I threw in the towel. I was overmatched and over-frustrated. Time to let a pro step in. I took the bike to a local shop and left it there for the technician to finish. It will take a few days but at this point I am more than willing to spend a few extra dollars to get this bike operable. Not to mention that there is a high probability that in all my efforts I may have put something on upside down or backwards. It is probably a good idea to have someone who knows what they are doing look at it before I ride it 3,800 miles across the country.

Some of you may ask, "Why not just take it to the mechanic in the first place?" That is a reasonable enough question. My reasonable answer is, "Well, if anything on my bike breaks during the trip, I have learned so much from this experience that I should be able to fix it." However the real answer is, if I would've just paid someone else to do it I would have never been so frustrated and stressed and overwhelmed and mad. I would've just been going to work and living my life while someone else was having all the fun. And because I did it myself, I will never be more proud once I get into that saddle and take her for the first ride.