Well, since my bike is temporarily OOS, my fiancé's bro offered to lend me his. It's a Trek 4500,
stock, ridden about twice in since new, and stored in a factory unit.
Got a hold of it last night, un-stuck the stuck cables, adjusted the gears and brakes, raised seat
etc. and it seemed good to go - nice and light compared to the 36 lb beast, so I figured perfect for
the up and down hill commute.
Set off this morning, and it seemed to fly, no worries! 5 minutes into the ride though,and the l/h
pedal started to come loose. Seems he'd managed to strip the crank/pedal threads at some point and
done a repair. Couldn't tell what at first, so just used a piece of a zip tie to 'jam' it in place,
and kept on. Crank arms were loose too, esp. the l/h. No worries I thought, after mine coming loose
recently, I'd got my big hex wrench in my tool pack! Nope - these are normal external hex-head
bolts. Bummer - just have to take it easy.
Got to work only a little late.
Had at it this lunch - tightened up the crank bolts (no worries there), and took a look at the
pedal. Seems he'd drilled and tapped the centre of the pedal shaft, made a taper holed washer, and
fitted a countersunk hex bolt from the back of the crank, through the washer into the pedal shaft,
and locktited the whole lot before tightening.
Thing is, he hadn't banked on the forces being applied when someone is stomping up a steep hill when
tightening it, so it all came loose one the locktite had broken it's seal.
I stripped, cleaned, re-locktited and re-assembled the parts, and, using a long arm allen key/hex
wrench, cranked up the torque on the bolt. All seems solid now.
I must say though, if it weren't for the fact this bike is so light (comparatively), I woulda been
way late for work - I thoroughly enjoyed riding it on road - still rather have the BASE for the
rough stuff though!
Anyhow, props to Simon for the loaner!
Shaun aRe - gonna have to get me a skinny MTB for my commuting methinks ',;~}