pumpkinstrokemarrow

Many birds about yesterday morning. Including, for once in a while, a large thrush sitting on top of a small fir tree. Magpies very busy, sounded as if they were squabbling about something, but maybe they were just being jolly after their own fashion. Franklin broke into a lazy canter to chase one across the lawn but the magpie concerned achieved take-off in the nick of time. You forget how much of a run they need to take off until you see a cat on their tail. Does the stress give the magpies heart attacks? Franklin's last attempt at hunting wasn't too hot either. He had become fascinated by a large beetle buzzing about about 6 feet up, maybe three centimetres long, maybe a stag beetle. And every now and again he would make a jump for it, not getting anywhere near. Not clear whether the beetle knew what was going on, but as far as we are aware, it survived.

The day before that was the day of the bicycle chain. Decided that a year was probably about enough and the bicycle shop man said that although it had worn, the thing had not worn enough to damage the crank or the block, so for once I had timed the change about right. The bad news was that he was busy, so rather than wait a week, I thought I would fit the thing myself. Done it often enough in the past, although not for a few years.

So, back to base. Get narrow guage Shimano chain (narrow guage because I was obliged to have a 9 gear block) out of bag. It has both instructions and two special rivets. Instructions in several dozen languages and several mentions of danger of death if you got it wrong. Don't recall getting either instructions or rivets before.

First instruction not to bad, nothing more complicated than saying which way round the chain should be on the crank and block. That is to say, if the join lies between and below the crank and the block and the crank is to the right of the block, do you want the loose male end facing left or right? After a bit of pondering I worked out what this was all about.

Second instruction much worse. It appeared to be claiming that there were three sorts of rivet and that I must no account attempt to break the chain - should I need to shorten it - at two of them. So I peer at the chain. With the exception of the rivet at the link that came broken, all the rivets looked the same. But there did seem to be three sorts of little plates holding the links together. That is to say, the little plates, maybe a centimetre long and a third of a centimetre wide, lying in pairs in the plane of the chain and which hold the male and female ends of a link together. At least there were three different inscriptions on the little plates. But the links themselves all looked exactly the same. Very puzzling.

Putting that puzzle aside, I thought I better try and break the old chain. The breaker I used to use had lost its prong. The other two breakers seemed to have rather fat prongs, too fat for the rivet I was trying to push out of its hole. Give it a go anyway. Don't make any progress. Back down to the cycle shop, tail between legs, to buy a new breaker. Where it turns out that there was nothing wrong with the breaker that I had, I just had to try a bit harder. Back home again and try a bit harder. Eventually the rivet pops out. And as the cycle shop man had pointed out, once the rivet has popped all the way out, quite a business to get it back in again. At which point I realise what the point of the two special rivets supplied with the chain was. They had special lead in bits which you broke off after insertion.

But then we get to the good bit. I hold the new and the old chain together and find that they are exactly the same length. Appear to be exactly the same model. So all I have to do is push the broken link on the new chain back together again. No need to break the new chain, to use the special rivets supplied or anything else remotely tricky.

Thread chain onto crank and block. Using the breaker in reverse as it were, push rivet of the male end of the broken link back into the female end. The rejoined link is not stiff. I don't have to push the rivet back the other way half a turn, something I remember from the past. And so far the thing seems to work; not flown apart on either of the two hauls up Howell Hill.

The only catch was that my hands were covered with thick black oil from the old chain, the block and the crank. Quite a bit on shirt and trousers. Still got some lodged under the fingernails a couple of days later, despite vigorous application of Swarfega. Shirt promoted gardening shirt on the spot, a designation which reduces the grade of laundering applied.

Next stop to get to work on the irritating clicks from the transmission. Some sort of minor adjustment needed. Maybe that can be next week's project.