Do I get an award?

[Avg_Joe]

...for being a complete idiot?

I am proudly a very average Joe and thought I had middling intelligence. Not the brightest bulb / sharpest tool / smartest person, yet I seem destined to continually remind myself of this.

I was cleaning up my Rad Rover this weekend - cleaned the chain well & oiled it as I had gotten into some mud. Took it around my cul-de-sac to make sure everything was ok when done. I had shifted throughout the 7 gears, left it in 1 as I stopped. I looked at the chain etc and something seemed off - the chain was on 2nd. Thought to myself, that's kind of odd. So I rode around again and shifted gears up and down, left it in 1. Chain was still on 2.

I put the chain on the 1st gear, lifted the rear end, turned the pedals, and it immediately went back to 2. Hrm. Rode around the cul-de-sac again, shifting gears, watching the chain. Same.

Then the epiphany came along: adjust the derailleur! WHOA! After dialing it in, I found that when I shifted to 1, the chain actually moved to that gear!

Big deal? I have ~400 miles on this bike and never realized I was never in 1st gear, only ever used 2-7. It's like a whole new bike to me now!

 

[Catalyzt]

Sure, we can put you up for This Month's Complete Idiot Award. Great idea for a monthly featured thread here. I love that.

I think I would have won an award like that last April. For a while, my chain kept dropping. Couldn't figure out what was wrong. Kept posting here, getting different opinions, suspecting all kinds of dire problems with the bike-- maybe I'd bent the derailleur hangar, I dropped the bike once, but I thought it was on the other side, etc. etc.-- and considered doing what you did-- adjusting the derailleur.

I kept trying to analyze the sequence of events that occurred in the half second before the chain popped off, but never could remember that brief interval of time.

Eventually, I realized there was a slight pressure on my right pants leg-- and that the issue only occurred when I was wearing jeans that had a looser fit. I was just catching my pants cuffs in the chain, there was nothing wrong with the bike. When I wore different jeans, or wore a strap to secure the loose ones at the ankle, the problem was solved.

It was just different from my other bikes, which trap my pants between the chain and the sprocket. The Moto doesn't do that-- it just throws the chain instantly.

Duh!

 

[fooferdoggie]

as long as it does not cost money its not so bad. I had changed the bar on our tandem and I did not know the shifter had accidentally been shifted to the smallest cog but the chain was on the 3rd cog. well backing it up caused some noise but I had ot help my wife and forgot to check we hopped on the bike got 3 pedal strokes and it jammed up. bent the hell out of the derailer. well 102.00 fr a new one plus a new cable and not sure will we pick up the bike from the shop maybe a new chain and whatever it cost to change it out.

 

[AHicks]

It's mistakes like that, lessons learned the hard way (and clearly some are pretty silly), that are not easily forgotten. I know that, because I've been learning stuff the hard way since I was a kid! In fact, I'm STILL learning stuff the hard way!

When you've been doing that long enough, they call that experience. I think it safe to say none of us started out with "experience"....

 

[dodgeman]

On the stupid scale that’s way down the list. I’m sure I’ve done much dumber things, some of which took money to fix.

 

[Solarcabin]

Gears?

We don' need no stinkin' gears!

 

[fooferdoggie]

here is the result of my screwup. it cost 102 for the new one a new chain 32.00 just put a new one on 20 miles ago a shifter cable and 60 labor.

 

[NovaDave]

Man, that's far from stupid. You noticed an issue and figured out what was wrong and fixed it. That's called learning my friend.