Okay, so I was raised on make do & mend and waste not want not and you can't have jelly unless you finish your greens. Later I learned if it ain't broke don't fix it. So, I didn't, for seven years after quite a lot of people round here thought I should.
It was simple curiosity as much as anything. How far could I push it? As long as there's enough tooth left to engage with a chain kept taut even as it wears, what can go wrong?
Well, seven years on, I think I've finally got to an answer. Nothing much. But you do eventually reach a point where it starts grumbling, gnarling. Nothing terminal-feeling, nothing that feels like it's significantly compromising safety, but definitely sub-optimal.
Bike not a happy bunny.
So, out with the chain, past the 12" mark by, what, 3/8"?
Out with the crankset - even if some teeth are still viable, if a tad spikey...
...others barely qualify as 'teeth'
And out with the sprocket. Plenty of life left in it, but what the hell, in for a penny...
Ta-da!
(Old & new...)
&
So now I know! And so do you. You're welcome.
Rides lovely. One bonus: the sprocket's one I've had hanging around in the shed for a decade+, and it turns out it's a 19t, as against the old one, which was 18. You wouldn't think it would make much difference. But you'd be wrong! It's lovely! I live surrounded by hills, and at 64 was beginning to find things occasionally a bit challenging. This 19t (+48 at the front end) has given me a new lease of life. I can't go quite as fast of course, but I haven't done my commute rat-run for years, so who cares. Plenty fast enough. And it's that bit more responsive at the slow end. It feels just right, and as the first gear change since I built the bike, it clearly makes sense. I am, let's face it, a good bit older than I was.
So, job done. Set up for a decade, hopefully. Better late than never, eh?😀
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