Originally Posted by
MinnMan
But, the chain tension was not quite right for any gear, so the chain kept skipping up gears as I was riding until it went taut, at which point pedalling was effectively impossible. This required stopping, removing the wheel from the dropouts, changing the gear to another cog, and then gingerly continuing on my way. Unfortunately, this happened about every half mile. By this time, the rest of the group was way ahead and I still had 30+ miles to go....so I backtracked to the nearest town, borrowed a yellow pages from a gas station, called a car service, and paid $40 for a ride back to my car. Kind of a disappointing end to what started as a great autumn day.
I think this is the way they used to change gears in the very early days
I was on a group ride last year where a rider in front of me had his rear derailleur blow up, scattering pieces of it across the road. Had to get him a lift back to the city, it was not fixable,