Scary Moments With a Bike

In order to check out my potential problem I employed what felt like an old trick from the misty and sepia days of cycling when penny farthing riders would check the alignment of their frames, probably whilst wearing deerstalker caps and smoking pipes.. Fuelled with knowledge from Sheldon Brown’s website, I proceeded to tie string around the offending bike.

So far, so not too scary.

With string in place I grabbed a tape measure and took the required readings. This needed double checking and so I also employed a qualified helper. Whether or not she is qualified in frame building I’m not sure but she was more than adequately able to tell me that the measurement on one side was indeed different form the one on the other.

After debating the impact of a couple of millimetres I decided to take action, and what followed was possibly the scariest bit of bike-fixing I have ever tried.

With an old hockey stick (essential for any bike tool-box) in place I began to apply pressure I the required areas, with much rechecking of websites and a basic ignoring of the rising fear of what might go wrong.

Having successfully overcome these obstacles I was pleased to find that not only did the bike not break, but also I was able to slowly correct some of the discrepancy. To add to the fun when I refitted the rear wheel it actually fitted back into the frame and did appears, so far, to also run straight.

All in all this is not something I would even pretend to offer to do to anyone else’s bike, but initial reports seem to suggest it’s gone surprisingly well, with the only damage being to my life expectancy, due to my raised stress levels.

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