Recumbent - Rans Rocket Forward Idler

Hi all. I went on my first "long" bike trip today with the new Rocket (about 20 miles). I noticed something that I had not noticed before. The rear idler was spinning freely, while the front idler was quite a different story. It only would spin on occasion and also I realized that quite a bit of the general "noise" was coming from the chain passing over the front idler. The trip was a success (did not kill myself). When I returned I put the bike up a my repair stand and studied the front idler. It was not at all a freespinning thing. It was not binding or anything, but did not just spin around like the rear one. It turns, but with a bit of resistance. I took it off and added a bit of oil, but still it was not at all the freespining idler of rear. Is this the way it is designed, or am I missing something? Thanks, Rich

Besides some people's advice of changing out the bearings completely, you might want to check to see if the front idler is in line with the rear idler.

On one of my last rides, I noticed that the chain was making excessive noise by rubbing on the front idler's chain keeper. When I went home, I took a look straight down the front of the bike and noticed that the front idler seemed bent upwards at an angle, meaning that, I'm assuming it should have been 90 degrees parallel to the ground, but in my case looked to be about 120 degrees. I don't know if this was original to RANS designs or not, but I disassembled the idler, and physically bent the front idler bracket so that it was closer to 90 degrees. Even since then I've not had that chain rubbing noise, and the front idler has been moving fine (like you, it doesn't roll very fluidly, but it rolls).

The funny thing is that the chain rub did not happen when I first had the bike, but seemed to have developed over a period of months, about the 1000 mile marker for me. I don't know if I somehow torqued the front idler while pedaling, or if my son knocked the bike over while I wasn't watching and he never told me. Anyway, happy hunting.

Hi, you should take your idler wheel off and see if the bearings are pressed in all the way, use a socket that fits to the outside race and push on it. If the bearings are not seated properly they might bind up. if that doesn't work, pop them out and see if they roll by themselfs and replace as needed.

Tim