Well my fix didn't take!! The cassette gear tapping was really minimal and I'm real careful to try to not induce damage in my wrenching. The gear jumping chain came back halfway through our 11 mile ride this morning. Just not as bad (frequent) as before. So after work, off to the bike shop I went.

As I walked in, my guy who's helped me a couple times on an MTB cone nut problem, saw me and came over and grabbed the bike and put it on the rack. The problem showed up right away on the rack with only the 5th gear jumping again. We measured the chain and its not stretched. He says. "could be wear on that cassette gear, but let me try a few adjustments" and started working over the rear derailleur and adjusted the problem out of it in 3 minutes tops!! He's fast and good.

He took it for a ride and came back and said she seems good to go. I took it for a ride and couldn't induce the problem and the shifts now seem slightly more crisp now. I asked him what do you need and he says, "see you around, just come on back when you really need me."

So I brought it home and let my wife test it and she came back all smiles, says the shifting is sharp! So we'll see how it goes on the next ride. Still cant get over how smooth this bike rides for its age. Just thought Id follow up on this and we"ll see if the problem stays gone.