Dingle fail

My Gravel Roadster has two singlespeed gears – two rings and two cogs. The outer, road gear works fine, the inner Baker Creek Road gear skips. Yesterday I re-measured my chainlines, and moved both cogs outboard 4mm. The real difference was 3.5mm, but I only have 2mm spacers.

I don’t think that was the real problem, since the big gear works fine, even under fairly extreme load. Only fairly extreme, since I don’t actually get up over the stem with my 240 lbs on a drivetrain I think might skip…

So… I also changed cogs, moving to a larger cog to take up more singleator slack, and also to be different. The previous cog was a cheap stamped chrome single-specific cog with deep valleys. The new one is pulled from a cassette – ramped, profiled and worn. I filed off the little tab so I could mount it backwards (and use the unworn tooth faces, a la Sheldon Brown), and I would have demonstrated that here, but… it didn’t work. Second assault on the Baker Creek ascent ended the same as the first – riding the hard gear, and pushing the steep pitches.

I pretty much decided I was going to make it a geared bike, but I think I’ll try the low gear in the outer position as the ONLY gear first. That and get fenders for the monster Big Apples, since it’s going to be raining for the next 8 months.

So here are some pictures of the road and the dog. Still a nice time out, but a frustrating tinkering fail.

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philip

UI/UX Designer, bike nerd, artist.

2 thoughts on “Dingle fail”

  1. What does a dyslexic agnostic with insomnia do?Lays awake and wonders if there is a dog. Solution , go for a bike ride; take a canine companion.Nice blog ,nice dog.

    1. Thanks! I stopped taking my camera out with the dog for a while, because all my rides were on the same trails with the same dog and one of two bikes. Now I kind of like that aspect.

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