cranky update

Since I started working on bikes as a teenager, I've had to deal with cottered cranks. I've worked on many bikes and pieces of exercise equipment that had them (including Air-Dynes), and have only had two I had to really beat to death to remove. As I mentioned, one of these was on my own bike, my Raleigh.

I installed new pins the other night, when I overhauled the bottom bracket on that bike. I rode the bike beyond a mere test-ride for the first time last night, and noticed pretty quickly that at least one of my crank cotter pins was not holding well.

I got home from the short errand, set up my brace, drove the pin home again, tightened the retaining nut, and tried a test-ride. It failed again. I got Jenn to help hold the bike still while I drove both pins in again, only to find that one of them had become mis-shapened and was in need of replacement. The pins we have for Jenn's Peugeot are not large enough in diameter, and won't do the job.

I found another batch of pins at Bicycle Couriers' Bike Shop on Frankfort Avenue, and will install them shortly. In the mean time, though, I've been irratible about my bike not working--cranky, you might say.