The right tools for the right job

I cycle to work. I love doing it - I'm in so much of a better mood by the time I get there. I've got a winter and a summer bike as well which I got using my company's ride to work scheme. My summer bike has a problem though, in that I keep on breaking a spoke on the back wheel.

Now I it probably does a lot of work, it has my heavy weight on it (the cycling isn't making me loose weight - but at least its stopping me putting it on) and my panniers and all of the rubbish I take to work with me each day.

So each time I blow a spoke, it costs me £10.20 to get my bike shop to repair it. Changing a spoke cant be that hard - I've had a spoke spanner for the last 20 years - but I've never used it. But its the taking off of the cog thingy to remove and add a spoke that's the problem. Anyway today I did it. So I thought I would write about the experience. Youtube gave me the information that I needed - that there were two types of cog thingy, which I now know are called a freewheel, or a cassette. And you need a couple of special tools - which ebay provided for £16.

So removing the cassette was about the simplest thing I've done on my bike, once I had the tool, the whole thing took 15 mins. So no more Mr Bike Shop charges for that repair, as I have 35 more spare spokes on the donor wheel that I am using for spares. So, although I spent £16 to save £10, I should be quids in the next time a spoke breaks. But what's the betting that I now have no more spokes break ever...

Update 29th June 2009: Just fixed two broken spokes.

5-Jun-2009 Permanent Link