Warning: I spent all last Tuesday trying to fix a persistent squeak in my old Raleigh's bottom bracket, only to discover the noise was coming from a dry chain link I'd oiled just the day before.

After three hours of disassembly and cleaning, my neighbor pointed out the single stiff link, which I fixed in two minutes with a chain tool and some Tri-Flow, making me feel pretty silly but also teaching me to always check the simple stuff first, right?

2 comments

2 Comments

aaron_gonzalez9h ago

Man, that exact thing has happened to me more times than I want to admit. You get so focused on the big, complicated fix that you miss the obvious problem right in front of you. It's like your brain just refuses to see the simple solution. Now I try to force myself to run through the easy checks first, even if I'm sure it's something worse. Saves so much time and frustration.

hannah3859h ago

Why do we always make it so hard on ourselves?