M
Michele Woods
Guest
This is my first post and it is rather nerve racking!. I'm a novelist
commuter of 9 months. I ride a department store bought box-MTB (I am a
student and this was bought for me as a teenager) tweaked for the occasion.
The bike is an 18 speed (shimano) MTB, and is about 10 years old but was
hardly ridden before this year (it had probably done less than 20miles).
I have two problems. Firstly, I have just discovered it is illegal to ride
without a bell fitted to your bike in my state (and it was driving me nuts
not having one anyway). Unfortunately, the way my bike was designed, there
is literally no where I can put a standard bike-bell (yet it came with a
bell in the box, go figure).
Between the grips, brakes, shifters and the centre part of the bar where it
gets thicker toward the center (standard bell doesn't fit around it) there
just isn't anywhere to put it. The front brake cable (they are centre pull
brakes) runs down through the centre of the horizontal part of the stem so
mounting it on the stem itself interferes with the brake cable and clips the
top bar of the frame when cornering. Additionally, this is where the switch
is for my lights (these are on a T shaped plate fixed to the bolt of the
handlebar so they are not taking up any space on the bar itself - they
wouldn't fit).
Is there another way of fixing a bell to the bike without the (useless)
standard bell U-bits (Now I'm getting all technical) to overcome this
problem? I would prefer it to be practical as I believe in common sense
cycling. The handlebars are already quite wide (~23 inches)
The second problem and probably more serious is a chain issue. The chain
does two things. Firstly, sometimes on the forward pedal the chain becomes
jammed on the chainring requiring a little back pedalling and gently coming
forward again. It happens when not changing gears and regardless of how much
load is on it.
The other chain problem is sometimes when pedalling (whether under load or
not) the chain slips off the teeth of the front sprockets. On the forward
pedal the crankshaft and chainring just spins around for a couple of laps
before the chain re-engages with the teeth of the sprockets. I suspect the
two problems are related.
I haven't made any changes to the bike that resulted in the chain issue. It
just happened out of the blue one day.
If you need any other specifications (or clarification of my poor
description and terminology), let me know.
Thanks in advance
Michelle
commuter of 9 months. I ride a department store bought box-MTB (I am a
student and this was bought for me as a teenager) tweaked for the occasion.
The bike is an 18 speed (shimano) MTB, and is about 10 years old but was
hardly ridden before this year (it had probably done less than 20miles).
I have two problems. Firstly, I have just discovered it is illegal to ride
without a bell fitted to your bike in my state (and it was driving me nuts
not having one anyway). Unfortunately, the way my bike was designed, there
is literally no where I can put a standard bike-bell (yet it came with a
bell in the box, go figure).
Between the grips, brakes, shifters and the centre part of the bar where it
gets thicker toward the center (standard bell doesn't fit around it) there
just isn't anywhere to put it. The front brake cable (they are centre pull
brakes) runs down through the centre of the horizontal part of the stem so
mounting it on the stem itself interferes with the brake cable and clips the
top bar of the frame when cornering. Additionally, this is where the switch
is for my lights (these are on a T shaped plate fixed to the bolt of the
handlebar so they are not taking up any space on the bar itself - they
wouldn't fit).
Is there another way of fixing a bell to the bike without the (useless)
standard bell U-bits (Now I'm getting all technical) to overcome this
problem? I would prefer it to be practical as I believe in common sense
cycling. The handlebars are already quite wide (~23 inches)
The second problem and probably more serious is a chain issue. The chain
does two things. Firstly, sometimes on the forward pedal the chain becomes
jammed on the chainring requiring a little back pedalling and gently coming
forward again. It happens when not changing gears and regardless of how much
load is on it.
The other chain problem is sometimes when pedalling (whether under load or
not) the chain slips off the teeth of the front sprockets. On the forward
pedal the crankshaft and chainring just spins around for a couple of laps
before the chain re-engages with the teeth of the sprockets. I suspect the
two problems are related.
I haven't made any changes to the bike that resulted in the chain issue. It
just happened out of the blue one day.
If you need any other specifications (or clarification of my poor
description and terminology), let me know.
Thanks in advance
Michelle