Tuesday 5 September 2017

Jockey Wheels, who knew!


I've changed numerous cassettes, numerous chains, one or two chain rings.....

Now I've had a few bikes in my time, MTB and Road, done some serious miles on some, not so much on others. Ok so i've done a fair bit of mileage on Single Speeds, which in this case doesn't really help. (This isn't all my bikes, just those post 2012 when I found Strava, I'm very indecisive, nothing hangs about too long)


I have never, ever changed a set of jockey wheels. Not sure why. Never quite sure I've known the worth of it.

I recently had a chain/cassette swapped out by my LBS. The bike was in there for something else, which ironically couldn't be done, so I thought they might as well do the chain/cassette while the bike was there otherwise it would have been a pointless journey. I got the bike back and the shifting was slick as expected, sadly this was only in the outer chainring, in the granny ring, it was a different story altogether.

I couldn't get the bike to stay in gear. Now I had two issues with this, one, the bike shop hadn't told me to expect this, which is crap and two, I clearly couldn't ride with a bike like this. I felt quite let down that my bike had been given back to me in this state. I mean, it wasn't even mentioned. The bike was fine when I dropped it off.

So I called the LBS and arranged to take it back. They apologised, which is fine, that's all I needed. They set to work on seeing what the issue was. The initial 'has this bike been in an accident' threw me a touch, it hadn't, and clearly not since they last saw it.

Anyway, after a bit of 'this mech might be bent' we decided that swapping out the jockey wheels was the best option. They had none at the shop, bit odd, simplest of jobs, I'd have thought that would be a stock must. I had some mind, at home, obvs.

They made my bike rideable until I was in a position to swap out the jockey wheels, so then we set about talking through the new range of Whyte MTB's, which are incredible. Missing the point slightly though. I do love a bike shop full of new bikes, its a thing of beauty. Sadly I don't have £3500 for a new bike.

Swapped out the jockey wheels with a bud at work today, it was very simple, literally removed the rear wheel. Held the mech and replaced both wheels, without even taking the chain off.

WHAT a difference. Honestly. From a jumping, jiggering rear mech, to a crisp, smooth shift (after a bit of mech altering). The pair of Shimano 105 OE jockey wheels £6.50 from Merlin cycles what a bargain. I don't know why I've never done this. I've literally not even thought of it as a fix. I've even had a rear mech replaced previously. Fool!

Apparently, the rear mech should last the duration of the bikes life. Minus any accident. It's really opened my eyes to the function of these two small wheels. I mean, they are subject to the same wear the chain/cassette go through, so why I've never changed them is beyond me.

It's made me think about spending money on them the next time I need to replace them, so to this Ceramic Speed..... If you're going to upgrade, then do it properly.



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