Misty Morning

Very unusual weather for Perth.  Jan said it reminded her of our time on the cut. 

I made a 20km trip to Fremantle where I collected the new rear wheel for the ebike from Melody Wheels.  Adrian had fitted the Shimano Alfine 11 speed internal hub to a new rim which I’m using to replace the existing wheel and 8 speed derailleur.

Back home I started on the installation.  Obviously I’m getting old as I find myself reading the instruction and taking my time.  Actually the hub didn’t come with instructions.  I couldn’t buy the hub in Perth, eventually finding a seller at the right price in Germany.  However they wouldn’t ship to Australia so I had the hub sent to our son in the UK who forwarded it on to Perth.

Then the brake rotor was fitted

“Houston we have a problem!”

There was a gap between the \face of the rotor and the locking ring.  I looked online and found a diagram which showed a spacer that I didn’t have.

The local bike shop phoned Shimano Australia who advised there wasn’t a spacer in Australia.  The shop then phoned the UK (bike mechanic was from Devon).  None in the UK, but they though they might get some in late November.

It’s circumstances like this that require “Kiwi Ingenuity”.  When you live in the bottom right corner of the world thousands of miles from anywhere you develop a culture of being able to fix anything with hay baling twine and a piece of No8 fencing wire.

I went to the local hardware looking for something that could be used to make a spacer.  A brass plumbing fitting

The interior diameter was slightly too small but the exterior dimension was just right.  The end was roughly cut off the fitting and then compressed onto the end of the wooden handle on the garden shovel.  This provided sufficient stability to place the roughly cut face against the sander and smooth it off.  Finally the threads inside were filed off.

 

My $6 spacer

And then the locking ring was fitted

Once the chain was fitted I adjusted the gear shifter cable and went for a ride.

The hub worked but now there was no assistance from the motor.  Very puzzling as I hadn’t done anything to the electric system.  After fruitlessly going down numerous online rabbit holes I decided to disconnect all the ebike electric control cables then restore them individually testing each in turn.  The left brake lever sensor was faulty and requires replacing.  That’s a puzzle as it wasn’t touched during the hub modification.

I’ve now turned my attention as to how I can avoid spending a small fortune on the propriety oil Shimano sells in very small bottles.  I refuse to believe Shimano makes their own specialist oil for these hubs.