tinkering

After the "eye ball" testing my chain line with TheMutt at the conclusion of our group ride last week I flipped the cog and adjust the EBB.  Chain tension was amazing, but I was feeling that the chain line was still a bit off - the teeth of the cog STILL seemed to be up against the edge of the chain.

I rode USNWC and the chain stayed in place, but now I'm hearing something.  At first it felt like a case of "am I hearing it because I've been messing with it and am super sensitive to it, but it's been happening all along" type of deals.  But I'm pretty damn sure the drivetrain was silent when pedaling...

So, I got to tinkering with the whole ordeal.  I WAS going to actually get the ruler out and measure the damn thing, but then I remembered a more "fun" way to do it (plus I didn't have a useful ruler in mm).

just hanging around

I remembered reading a blog a while back about using gravity to find the perfect chain line... so I went blog diving and found what I was looking for.  Yup, it was Doug who shared the technique back in April.  I'll admit, it is probably a bit more involved than just measuring, but it was probably more fun as well!  

What did I find??  I was off... by a smidge.  That should be an easy fix.

Nope.  No matter what I did I was always off... spacer issues.  When we built up the Glow Worm I didn't grab the remainder of my spacer kit... so all I have to work with are the spacers on my bike... and with those I'm just a hair off.  I'll have to acquire some more spacers so I can get this chain in line and hopefully get her running silently again.

But, I have to wonder if the chain line is the issue... tension has always been slack due to the EBB, and we now know that the chain line had been off... but there was no noise?  So I'm wondering if my chain is too tight.

Seriously.  I've been spending WAY more time fiddling with the Glow Worm than I ever did with the HiFi - who said this singlespeed stuff was easier?  Eh, I kinda enjoy it though.  With each wrenching adventure I learn a bit more (hopefully) which will make maintenance and enjoyment that much easier in the future.

I've got a package on the way - and we all know how much we enjoy receiving things in the mail (even if you've paid for them)!  So, when that gets here I'll talk about it.... or maybe I'll talk about it tomorrow since it's been, you know, raining again.