bike shop: good and bad

my bike chain came off this weekend during my ride. i would have eventually figured out how to put it on, but a friendly mechanical engineer (score!!) stopped and helped me get back on the road much faster than i could have done it myself.

so today, even though i have a fever of 100.8 and feel like teh crap, i really wanted to get the bike fixed. i had called yesterday (when i showed no signs of illness) and they'd assured me they could have the bike ready for me by saturday.

so hops took it down (it fits in her car, not mine) and they told her they could make no guarantees at all. bleh. that upset her, rightly so. then, 3 hours later, they called me and said it was done!! the guy on the phone was more than a little surly, and entirely impatient with my lack of Roadie Terminology. He said he'd adjusted something and greased something. Because it was a cell connection, and because I wanted to make sure they'd actually done something before I went down there, I asked "so what did you change?" he willfully failed to comprehend my question. "changed? i didn't change anything, I adjusted it!" "okay," i said, "adjusted. that's kind of a change. does it still clunk when shifting?" he assured me it did not.

so while i was out and about doing far too many errands for my current state, i swung by the bike shop to verify it was fixed. i met the surly mechanic who had talked to me on the phone. i took it out for a ride.

it still clunked when i shifted, only now it clunked during a different shifting sequence.

so i came back and tried to describe the problem. the mechanic became more and more upset and told me he's adjusted dozens of these bikes and he rode it himself and it didn't make any clunking and it was perfectly adjusted and there's nothing more he can do for me.

somehow i convinced him to ride it and see. he came back after a test ride and said there were no problems.

at this point i figured we had some kind of miscommunication, or, because of my newbishness, i had unrealistic expectations. i tried to explain that i was new at this and maybe the clunk i experience is normal and i misremembered it not doing that before.

he said there was nothing more i could do and put on his "you're insulting my work" face.

it was at this point that the cool employee stepped in. the mechanic handed me off to him. he put me on the trainer and i rode it a little. it did not clunk. i explained that it didn't clunk on the trainer unless you load the wheel as if it were me and my fat arse on the bike on the road. he tightened it up and still no clunk really. i asked cool guy to try it.

cool guy believed in me, when nobody else would. it was a hollywood moment. i could see him riding up and down the street in hte back of the shop, desperately trying to witness what i was talking about.

finally, an LED flashed over his head (i wish i knew how) and he came back. he told me he'd figured it out: it was the chain rubbing on the derailler, because i was not doing the half-click on the front shifter when i was in the highest rear gear.

he went into a lengthy explanation of some chain mechanics, which was great. finally he told me to try riding it with the half-shift engaged. i actually knew about the half-click very well and use it all the time, but did i mention: fever? 100.8? nearly no food all day long?

so i go out and ride the bike. to my disappointment, it still clunked. i didn't want to tell this to cool guy because he so earnestly had thought he'd solved it, and i was ready to admit defeat and just go home and pass out (after ice cream, which at this point i'd decided i needed. did i mention it's upward of 87F out here today? yes, that's not much, but remember: fever. no food. cycling.)

he asked to take it out one more time. again and again he passed the parking lot, trying hard to figure out what the heck i was talking about. another LED flashed over his head and he came back.

he told me he'd figured it out: i was putting too much tension on the chain as i shifted and that's causing it not to catch at teh right time. he went into a lengthy dissertation about how to shift on a mountain bike (?) and how that differs from a road bike. he pointed out how the chain tension goes up when the bike is loaded (i pointed out that i loaded it a heck of a lot more than he did). he said that he had had to learn to relax a little bit before shifting and was positive that this was my problem.

this made sense: this, i figured, was a biking skill that had become second nature for the mechanic and he had not considered (as cool guy had) that i was a newbie and maybe didn't know i was supposed to do that. i got on the bike and it only took 1 lap to realize that the problem was my riding style. not that there was no problem to begin with -- that was real -- but the bike actually was fixed and the clunk went away completely if i relaxed right before shifting.

i thanked the guy a lot and we talked even more. we went inside and i decided i wanted to thank the mechanic for his prompt fixing of my bike. sure, he was a total arse to me, but he did fix my bike in only a couple of hours, and whether it's a good personality trait or not, i am used to technical-minded folks getting upset when you insult their work. but he was busy with another customer and i didn't dare to interject.

so the cool guy and i spoke about some maintenance things, and where i was from, and the weather, and stuff. it's all a dehydrated haze.

finally i got to tell the mechanic that i appreciated his quick fix, and that the bike was fine, i just was shifting wrong. he opened up and smiled a bit and told me some of the same tension stuff i had already just heard, but with less detail and enthusiasm.

finally, we parted on good terms, him giving me a "ride on" or something like that.

i figure it's good to be on good terms with my mechanic even if he's an arse.