New Chain and Spindle

I took a little unplanned break from bike riding last week. I went out for one of my usual rides earlier in the week and yep, my bike broke. I went to shift gears and snap! the rear shifter cable broke.

So I brought it into my Local Bike Shop (LBS) and they talked me into doing both shifter cables, the chain and the spindle (the thing with all the gears by the back wheel). I thought that my chain was in bad shape due to all the miles that I’ve put on and I know that that messes upthe gears too so that’s why I went for it.

Anyway, they said it would take 5 to 7 days. In peak riding season! Oh no! But then it ended up only taking 2 days. So now I am back in the saddle again with new shifter cables, a new chain and new back gears and only a few forced no riding days.

My chain in the photo will never look that clean and new again. How exciting, right?!? With the new chain and spindle the gears shift WAY better than they did before and that is very noticable so at least it was better than just getting it back working again like before.