The Rim Repair Saga
The Rim Repair SagaYes it is a Saga. About 4or 5 hours at a bike shop and I am unsure if things are actually better or maybe worse.
We set off to find a bike shop about 1pm and when we found one it was not open but we were told in sign language that the owner had gone to lunch. We returned a bit over an hour later and still they were not open but next to the bike shop was a small bike mechanic workshop with 3 people working there. The older "mechanic" rang the shop owner and eventually he turned up in a car. He found a new 20", 36 spoke rim and although it looked a little flimsy and was much wider (1.75") it would be better than what we had. After about half an hour a customer came along who spoke english and we checked they had tools to do the job, remove the brake drum and the cluster and replace the rim. We confirmed a price and a time frame. Yes, they know what they are doing it will be 1 hour and 100 dirham (about AU$11). Okay! They suggested we go for a coffee and come back but I was not leaving. Some time later they asked me which way the brake came off. This did not give me much confidence in their skill. Next the shop owner left in his car to get it done elsewhere. An hour had past by the time he returned and now the gear cluster had to come off. I noticed the "mechanic" start to pull the hub apart and explained that they needed a special cluster removal tool. He explained this to the shop owner. They didn't have the right tool! Finally they sent one of the young assistants off on a motorbike with instructions to remove the cluster. He was away the best part of an hour and when he returned the cluster was NOT removed. The mechanic spun the cluster and it seemed to be running much rougher. I decided I might as well pull the hub apart despite not wanting to do this. I insisted on doing this myself and as soon as I looked inside I noticed there were ball bearings missing from the race that I had spent an your or so fitting the morning before near Volubilis. There had been seven balls and now there were just three. I was extremely frustrated that my expensive hardened german balls would be replaced with cheap low quality ones. Also that they were denying having lost them. I wanted my balls and finally after we found another translator it became obvious that this was not going to happen. The older "mechanic" set to work swapping the rims over and he obviously knew what he was doing and trued the rim pretty well. Everything went back together and we rode off about 7pm after paying the 100 dirham and giving the "mechanic" a 50 dirham tip.
We had gone less than a kilometre and realised the bearing was too tight and the gear cluster would not run freely. I tossed up continuing and fixing it myself but decided to return to the mechanic. I showed him the problem and tried to explain it was only the bearing tightening nut that needed loosening. I was not successful and next thing I looked in the workshop he had the hub fully apart and was pondering how to reassemble it. I squatted down next to and noticed that the conical spring that came from the brake side of the hub was now on the gear side and not going to fit anywhere. I picked this out and held on to it not wanting to have the whole hub pulled apart again. The mechanic soon forgot about the problem of the conical spring fitting in as he went to fit a bearing race and could not find all the balls. After the earlier kerfuffle over the lost balls he was quite concerned. Also these were smaller balls than the previously lost ones and they didn't seem to have any replacements. Finally they found a replacement ball and again everything went back together and we rode away another hour later. I still had the conical spring to install later although I suspected with the gears not changing it was not essential.
The bike seemed to bump up and down and much later when I checked the wheel was nearly a centimetre out of round. On the wider rim the tyre which was only a 1.5" on a 1.75" rim had not seated evenly.
Although the hub still made a terrible squeaking noise it did make it on to Fez (60 km) the next day.
CLUSTER REMOVAL TOOL
One problem is they had no tool to remote the rear cluster. Here is the solution I must purchase for our next trip a NBT2 available from Holland here (click "hard to finds") for 22 euro. Also the TL137 for $14.95 looks a better option still here
We set off to find a bike shop about 1pm and when we found one it was not open but we were told in sign language that the owner had gone to lunch. We returned a bit over an hour later and still they were not open but next to the bike shop was a small bike mechanic workshop with 3 people working there. The older "mechanic" rang the shop owner and eventually he turned up in a car. He found a new 20", 36 spoke rim and although it looked a little flimsy and was much wider (1.75") it would be better than what we had. After about half an hour a customer came along who spoke english and we checked they had tools to do the job, remove the brake drum and the cluster and replace the rim. We confirmed a price and a time frame. Yes, they know what they are doing it will be 1 hour and 100 dirham (about AU$11). Okay! They suggested we go for a coffee and come back but I was not leaving. Some time later they asked me which way the brake came off. This did not give me much confidence in their skill. Next the shop owner left in his car to get it done elsewhere. An hour had past by the time he returned and now the gear cluster had to come off. I noticed the "mechanic" start to pull the hub apart and explained that they needed a special cluster removal tool. He explained this to the shop owner. They didn't have the right tool! Finally they sent one of the young assistants off on a motorbike with instructions to remove the cluster. He was away the best part of an hour and when he returned the cluster was NOT removed. The mechanic spun the cluster and it seemed to be running much rougher. I decided I might as well pull the hub apart despite not wanting to do this. I insisted on doing this myself and as soon as I looked inside I noticed there were ball bearings missing from the race that I had spent an your or so fitting the morning before near Volubilis. There had been seven balls and now there were just three. I was extremely frustrated that my expensive hardened german balls would be replaced with cheap low quality ones. Also that they were denying having lost them. I wanted my balls and finally after we found another translator it became obvious that this was not going to happen. The older "mechanic" set to work swapping the rims over and he obviously knew what he was doing and trued the rim pretty well. Everything went back together and we rode off about 7pm after paying the 100 dirham and giving the "mechanic" a 50 dirham tip.
We had gone less than a kilometre and realised the bearing was too tight and the gear cluster would not run freely. I tossed up continuing and fixing it myself but decided to return to the mechanic. I showed him the problem and tried to explain it was only the bearing tightening nut that needed loosening. I was not successful and next thing I looked in the workshop he had the hub fully apart and was pondering how to reassemble it. I squatted down next to and noticed that the conical spring that came from the brake side of the hub was now on the gear side and not going to fit anywhere. I picked this out and held on to it not wanting to have the whole hub pulled apart again. The mechanic soon forgot about the problem of the conical spring fitting in as he went to fit a bearing race and could not find all the balls. After the earlier kerfuffle over the lost balls he was quite concerned. Also these were smaller balls than the previously lost ones and they didn't seem to have any replacements. Finally they found a replacement ball and again everything went back together and we rode away another hour later. I still had the conical spring to install later although I suspected with the gears not changing it was not essential.
The bike seemed to bump up and down and much later when I checked the wheel was nearly a centimetre out of round. On the wider rim the tyre which was only a 1.5" on a 1.75" rim had not seated evenly.
Although the hub still made a terrible squeaking noise it did make it on to Fez (60 km) the next day.
CLUSTER REMOVAL TOOL
One problem is they had no tool to remote the rear cluster. Here is the solution I must purchase for our next trip a NBT2 available from Holland here (click "hard to finds") for 22 euro. Also the TL137 for $14.95 looks a better option still here