Well I hope so.
So today I have all the parts that I need to reassemble the bike, the new derailleur is installed along with the new UDH, I have the chain magically made longer again and ready to install once the chainring is installed. I have that two sets of chainring bolts, one is slightly gummed up from the Loctite and the other is brand new but silver (steel not Argent). And I’m waiting on a heat gun to heat treat the lock ring as I have read that it will make the Loctite that is holding the stuck lock ring tight more malleable and hopefully allow it to move. And I have all the tools I should need plus some fluids to help me remove various sticky substances including the Loctite.
After trying for several hours (it seemed) working in the barn where it is incredibly warm so I was swimming in sweat – hell for a while I was working in just my shorts, while I don’t typically ever take off my shirt – as I have body image issues – it was just so warm that I stripped for a while (no, no nudes). I tried everything to get that lock ring off, the heat gun didn’t work (it did just not in the way I expected), that ring was on tighter than a really tight thing. I couldn’t get any decent leverage on it as the shape of the bike and the tools I have just don’t work well together. The lock ring tool I have is used with a 32mm wrench/spanner which I don’t have so I was using a adjustable wrench and later on a stilson plumbing wrench (Monkey Wrench), as the largest spanner I could put my hands on was only 30mm.
After trying everything I could think of I went to the internet to ask Reddit if r/bikewrench had any ideas (I never seem to get useful replies, but it was worth a shot), I don’t know when I realised that I was trying to turn the lock ring in the wrong direction, unlike a normal bolt that undoes anticlockwise (righty tighty, lefty loosy), it is reversed. So I had spent hours tightening the lock ring not loosening it. So I spent a bit longer trying the undo it before I gave up.
So the bike will go back to Tredz, hopefully they can… wait, that’s not a good ending, lets try it another way.
So I managed to take the whole motor including the chainring and lock ring out of the bike, took me a search online to find out how to disconnect the wires, but eventually I had the motor and offending parts in my hot and very sweaty hands. Took it down to my dad’s workshop and gripped the chainring in the vice (he has a big metal working one), and then using a Stilson, adjustable spanner, a hammer and a couple of bits of wood managed to get the lock ring off. Then I had to chisel through the melted and resolidified Loctite that now held the chainring in place.
Getting everything back together took a little while and I had to resort to wearing my headlight as the lighting in the barn is shit, still I was out of the heavy rain showers. I started working on my final attempt (I was honesty thinking about taking everything to Mapdec in Kendal, I was pretty much done with the whole save money and fix stuff myself) about 4pm and finished around half nine, so the whole process took around 5 hours (I did have get cool breaks). Took a short ride down to the village and back via Wood Lane (around 5-6km) to drop off the chainring bolt tool I’d borrowed from Dr Velo (I now have my own, for a Park Tool surprisingly cheap). Got everything tidied away and the bits and bobs I’d borrowed from my father back where they belonged. Had my tea at about 11pm, and was in bed by 3am (cannot sleep when hungry or too soon after eating).
All in all the actual experience has taught me to check my assumptions a little, I broke my crank by not checking to make sure a washer wasn’t still in the socket, and I spent two fruitless days trying to remove a stuck lock ring because I was turning it the wrong way. Both things could have been fixed by paying more attention to detail, or getting the work done by a professional, but I’d still have had to buy the parts I did in the end buy and the work itself would have cost quite a bit. So I’m not sure that was a failure so much as a choice that I would make in the future, learning something new is better for me even at the expense of breaking stuff – probably a better learning experience than if everything had gone perfectly.
Hopefully today I can finally get into Settle for my haircut (been waiting a week for that), and submit the invoices for the chainring and spider to get most of the money back for them from Tredz (they have already agreed to pay for them) so I will have some of the spent money come back to me. Next month I will try and replace the cranks, and the following month plan on switching to tubeless – though that project will depend a little on getting hold of the stuff especially puncture repair equipment cheaply, so isn’t quite so dependent on money. Cranks will be ~£40+ — that is the ones Haibike recommend as a replacement for my existing cranks, are £40, but if I can afford better I will, as better generally equals lighter which should impact battery range.
I’m still semi-hoping that I can afford to go (with the bike) to see my sister in October, my nephews get two weeks over what would be England’s October half term holiday (they start back in August so get a change in semester in October), and get some cycling up in Scotland, it’s difficult to plan as I need to book my bike in on the train which not all of the advance ticket providers have an option for, and I’ll be travelling with at least three services (depending on route). I also need 30+ miles of range to get me from Aberdeen to my sister’s house so I can’t – for instance travel to Oxenholme at Kendal and get the fast train from there easily. But getting the slow Settle to Carlisle might mean I cannot get my bike on a specific train, thus missing connections onwards from Carlisle. :/
Really need to learn to drive (and yet still don’t want to). Some form of camper van is looking more and more likely in my future.