Yes, I'm going to cut the axles with a cut-off wheel. Unfortunately my grinder is 150 miles away but I'll pick it up next weekend and make the change.

I'm really enjoying the bike alot. I've put about 60 miles on it this week. But I've run into a pretty major snag. I live in the Shenandoah Valley near Harrisonburg and we've got hills. Throw in the occasional serious headwind and I need to gear down a bit.

So I ordered a 18t rear cog and went to change it tonight. I knew I was in trouble when I finally got the lock ring off after a bit of a struggle and saw all the red loctite that was used. Then I went to try and get the cog off. No go. I destroyed my chain whip and then tried to do the vice trick and it would not budge. After a closer inspection I can see the ring of red loctite where the cog meets the hub body. There's even a dried pool of it there in one spot. I'm pretty sure that I'll destroy the wheel if I get serious about trying to get it off.

So I've emailed the folks I bought the bike from (sportymamabikes.com) to see if they are willing to send me a replacement wheel (without the cog installed) under warranty. If not I'll be seriously pissed. I guess I could replace the chainring to get to the gearing I want but as soon as I break a spoke on the cog side of the rear wheel I'd be SOL.

Roland