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Hot take: I had my bike chain too tight for like 6 months
So I ride an old Schwinn hybrid around Austin for commuting and I kept hearing this weird clicking sound when I pedaled hard. I thought the derailleur was messed up or something, spent like $30 on new cables and lube trying to fix it. Then I was at a bike co-op last Saturday getting a flat patched and the guy there just casually squeezed my chain and goes 'dude this is way too tight.' He showed me the right amount of slack which is only like half an inch of play and it instantly fixed the noise. I felt so dumb because I had been overthinking it for months and throwing money at the wrong thing. Has anyone else had a basic adjustment that solved a problem they were convinced was complicated?
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ivan_murphy802mo ago
That clicking sound thing happens all the time. The simplest fix is usually the right one, but our brains always want to jump straight to the expensive complicated answer first.
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michael_green442mo ago
That clicking sound would have driven me nuts. @ivan_murphy80 is totally right though, our brains always want to jump to the expensive complicated answer first. I did something similar with my car last year, heard a rattling noise and bought a whole new exhaust system before realizing it was just a loose heat shield. The worst part is how dumb you feel after, like you wasted all that time and money when the answer was literally right there. But hey, at least you figured it out eventually, and now you'll never forget to check chain tension again. That bike co-op guy saved you so much future headache.
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