([censored]! Report.)
Well, that's the idea, isn't it, for them to be virtually trouble free?
Left work at 5 yesterday, dark, cold, and windy. Got 20 metres down the road and realised I had a
flat rear (....).
Moved along further down the road, and stopped outside of a shop for the light to fix it by. I got
it done, but it seemed to take ages and I was frozen.
Got home, took the wheel right off (through axle) to replace the tube - I wanted a solid repair.
Sorted, put it all back together - no probs.
Got ready to leave for work this morning, and the front was flat - [censored]! Upended the bike, took
the wheel off, removed the tube, replaced it, struggled to get the stiff tyre back on, went to pump
it up.....nothing! In my hurry and struggle, I'd pinched the [censored] tube. Feck. Pulled it back out,
made a patch out of old tube (ran out, and couldn't find my 'spare extra emergency stash', having
recently moved and still in chaos) didn't I. Patched up, tyre on, inflated - no probs.
Out the door, pedalled twice, chain comes off - won't stay on. Feck again. Seems the rear axle isn't
quite straight, and the old mech I am using as a tensioner needed tweaking. Did that with some
struggle, as it was nearly at the limits of it's adjustment. Anyhow, I managed, and made it 2/3 of
the way to work without incident.
(Next prob no related directly to the bike).
I stopped at the ATM, got some cash, picked up a few things from the shop, and was about to get back
on the bike, when I smelt the smoke of melting plastic.....?.....[censored]! Off comes the back pack,
thrown onto the deck, ripped out the melting wiring coming out of it, ripped out the 12 volt 6.6 Ah
lead acid pack, removed the rest of the molten blobs of wiring, swore like a foul mouth [censored], and
sighed <cough!>.
The wiring from batts to lamp had shorted, right up near the lamp end, and somehow, the overload
protection hadn't worked. Good job I smelt it - a few minutes and it would have turned _nasty_.
So, pretty uneventful all round - only 3 punctures, a mechanical, and an electrical fire to report.
(Thank [censored] I got this [censored] outa the way before tomorrow (13'th)).
I put longer limit screws in the mech now, so it's fully and more easily adjustable. Managed to
rebuild the batt pack and wiring, this time there is a lot more protection - each of the 2 batteries
has a 3 amp constant 5 amp 'blow' automatically resetting special current breaker directly attached
to the positive terminal, then the main lead from there has a 10 amp in-line standard automotive
blade fuse, and the wiring/connectors are tougher.
I will get new tubes and more patches at the w/e.
Just thought I'd try to brighten all your days up with my minor misfortunes ',;~}
Shaun aRe - HTH.