@kimura54321
Okay, finally got it this evening. The delivery was a tad delayed likely because, I guess, they were drawing straws at the depot who had to delivery right next to covid ground central (we have a few cases in the next block unfortunately)
Read the instructions and watched a Parktools video whilst doing it.
My thoughts:
1) Tyre and tube off, preferably chain if you can to avoid any stress on the mech hangar threads when you take things off and on.
2) True your rim before you start.
3) Be very careful threading the tool into the mech hangar threads. I had three attempts. The first two started to produce shiny thread peeling off. But then the rear mech itself was a bit “stuck”.
4) Your rear mech may be damaged. Bear this in mind, and take into account later. I think this bike’s rear mech is a bit floppy, and I did give the lower cage a twist because, in the end, it wasn’t shifting to the last three gears properly (10speed Sensah RX rear mech)
5) The tool has some play. It’s not the end of the world. The play feels is at the end where it goes into the mech hangar,
In practise:
1) Thread on, rotate bar to point to front of bike, tighten grub screw so it holds but doesnt restrict movement.
2) adjust bar so it is just outside the rim, just far enough in that it reaches where the rim would be.
3) Swing the tool around 90 and 180degs, understanding the bit to gauge the rim is loose. It’s a two handed job. Let it slide loose because you have to slide it out, then slide it back down to the right diameter from axle to rim.
4) Swing it round a few times, mind blown, wondering why it’s in front of the rim at one place, and behind the rim at another (that may be anecdotal!)
5) At the point it’s far out, grab the tool near the hangar with one hand, and your other hand is the leverage.
6) Bend gently, a bit at a time, checking the distance each time. Bend at different points around the circle, one at a time, if you want (if you’re panicking wondering how you are going to make a difference of 23mm when the Parktools video playing in the background is saying “you want less than 3mm”!!!)
7) Eventually, if your mech hangar hasn’t snapped, and the threads haven’t blown out, the tool measuring bar is now roughly the same distance at the three points you’ve been acting on. Waheey!
8) Carefully remove tool, and replace rear mech (and chain, tyre and tube if you’ve removed them.)
9) Stick bike on stand and setup the gearing. (Maybe, like me, you’d tweaked the mech after the bike was crashed, just to get home, so things are a bit squiffy, and you can examine the rear mech for any crash damage now – I had to bend the lower cage by hand using mark 1 eyeball hoping not to bend the mech hangar and have to start all over again.)
Anyhow, wonderful experience. Would recommend it again. We might ride tomorrow before it gets too hot (likely realfeel of 41c at the highest and some sort of government weather warning about high ozone levels??) and after we squeeze through all the temporary fencing to stream visitors through the security gate and make sure no one from the next block gets in and turns us into zombies.
Value? It’s not about money. It’s about good shifting. We all crash bikes. We’ve all had bikes that we can’t seem to setup the gears even with fresh cables and shifters. Bent mech hangars were possibly the cause. This tool can help you test, bend back, and get your shifting good again. I might buy a bendy truing stand next after faffing with post-it notes and sat awkwardly over an upside down bike truing this wheel up before using the mech alignment tool. They’re only £14.30 after all.
