Mighty Life

Life at Mighty Mobile continues apace. The snow I've been skiing the past week has once again made the doors to my service van inaccessible requiring me to do some shoveling. Never know when I'll need parts.

Also got a good head start on my taxes. Blah. This is always a time of love/hate. Mostly hate. In one way it's neat to see what I've done with my money throughout the summer. And in another way, it's scary to see what I've done with my money throughout the summer.

Also dedicated today to check in a couple of orders that arrived last week. All the parts for a Blur LTC build and some misc Campy parts from Sinclair to finally get that lever rebuilt.

Made a few calls and rolled right into the Campy lever rebuild. Got somewhat concerned when I realized that this diagram.....

.... looked nothing like the internals on this lever.... apart... on my bench.

I put the diagram to better uses (a coaster for my coffee cup) and carefully disassembled the shifter cleaning and inspecting all the amazement that is Campy. Seriously. This stuff's cool. A company that continues to actually makes parts serviceable even in today's "planed obsolescence" business mindset. It's amazing to see EXACTLY what happens inside a shift lever. While you're "sprinting for that county sign", there are these....
..... these two little springs.

These two little springs keep a ratchet wheel from turning backward as a result of tension from the shifter cable. The ratchet wheel dictates the tension of the derailleur cable thusly keeping the derailleur aligned perfectly with the cogs. After a bajillion or so shifts with the lever, the springs will eventually break (like the one above) because of being bent a bajillion or so times. One spring does a marginal job keeping the derailleur aligned but can allow the ratchet wheel to slip backward allowing the chain to drop down a cog. This can really suck when your counting on things staying together while doing the aforementioned activities on your bike.

Wow. Quite the outline.

Tune in next time for pfun with pfones... the real life story of the Motorola I80s and Y I h8 txtng.