Frustration

What is left of my rear hub:


Parts. Hopefully I can remember what goes where:


I've been having some trouble with my drivetrain for a while now and I decided last week that I would fix it myself. I described the symptoms to Matt and Andrew and we all figured the cassette needed to be replaced. So that meant buying a new chain as well since it is wise to replace both at the same time.

Not a big deal. I went out and bought a new cassette and chain and planned to do all the work myself over the weekend. I also had to buy a few tools like a chain whip, a lock ring tool and a huge wrench. The wrench is like something from the game Clue. It's huge and heavy and could easily take someone out. Anyways ...

I have to confess that I might have caused the problem myself. Before I bought the wrench I was trying to get the lock ring tool to turn so I could get the cassette off and it wasn't working. I needed something to turn the lock ring while I held the chain whip. I couldn't find anything large enough to fit the lock ring.

So I looked at my chain whip and realized the end of it fitted the lock ring perfectly. I thought that maybe I could just torque the heck out of it and get the cassette off that way. So I put everything I had into pushing the lock ring the WRONG WAY to get the cassette off. I heard a few pops but thought that it might be the cassette coming off. Wrong.

I eventually got the cassette off and found the external housing for my rear hub. I touched it and it fell apart. It was all cracked and a ton of ball bearings fell out all over the floor. A complete mess.

I'm not sure if it was already damaged and destroyed before I torqued the cassette the wrong way or not. The bike was behaving very strangely on San Juan on Saturday and so my hope is that it was already destroyed. I don't want to think that I made the situation that much worse.

I took the wheel into the shop and they suggested buying a new rear hub and just replacing the guts of the old one with the guts from the new one. I took the new hub home and attempted to do it on my own, but no luck. I don't think my existing hub can come apart the way the new one can. The big problem I'm having is that the one end is just destroyed and I have nothing to lock on to with my wrench. I put everything I had into trying to unscrew the hub on the cassette side, but couldn't get it.

At this point I'm just over it. My plan is to take the new hub back to the shop and have them re-lace the wheel around the new hub. I just want a wheel with a working rear hub.

After that I'll take the wheel home and put back on the rotor and the new cassette. At least I can do that on my own.

In addition I'm planning on replacing my rear derailleur and the housing and cables for it. Ugh. What a weekend.

Hoping that maybe while I'm at work Amy might fix the bike for me:


Tools and parts: