loose chain guard with defect plastic bar to hold it

The other day there was a bike with a loose
chain guard. The chain guard is plastic but to
my surprise there weren't nuts and bolts but
instead two slots thru the plastic, each
~1.3 cm long and 0.5 cm wide.

What attached into them slots was a plastic bar
with a hook at each end, with the plastic bar
between the rim and the chain guard, attached
to the midpoint, integrated (?) with the
crank somehow.

What had happened is, one of them hooks had
been broken by the bar and was gone. So with
the tension gone from below the upper hook also
lost its grip even tho it is still there, and
the bar had rotated a couple of cm out
of position.

With a rubber hammer, I hit the bar into
position. Then I drilled two holes, one at each
end. Into that hole and the slots I inserted
cable ties to seal it at both endpoints.

I don't know if it is a good idea, but it seemed
to work for the moment at least.

Do you recognize this situation and as I'm sure
you do, what is the correct way to deal
with it?

--
underground experts united .... http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
Emacs Gnus Blogomatic ......... http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/blogomatic
- so far: 34 Blogomatic articles -

On Thu, 19 May 2016 12:42:24 +0200, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

The other day there was a bike with a loose
chain guard. The chain guard is plastic but to
my surprise there weren't nuts and bolts but
instead two slots thru the plastic, each
~1.3 cm long and 0.5 cm wide.

What attached into them slots was a plastic bar
with a hook at each end, with the plastic bar
between the rim and the chain guard, attached
to the midpoint, integrated (?) with the
crank somehow.

What had happened is, one of them hooks had
been broken by the bar and was gone. So with
the tension gone from below the upper hook also
lost its grip even tho it is still there, and
the bar had rotated a couple of cm out
of position.

With a rubber hammer, I hit the bar into
position. Then I drilled two holes, one at each
end. Into that hole and the slots I inserted
cable ties to seal it at both endpoints.

I don't know if it is a good idea, but it seemed
to work for the moment at least.

Do you recognize this situation and as I'm sure
you do, what is the correct way to deal
with it?

From your description it sounds as though you replaced a "plastic bar"
with some "plastic cable ties". Pretty much returning things to their
original condition.
--
cheers,

John B.

John B. writes:

From your description it sounds as though you
replaced a "plastic bar" with some "plastic
cable ties". Pretty much returning things to
their original condition.

To some extent - the plastic cable ties are
thinner but perhaps better suited to "roll with
the punches"...

But let's say I restored it - is that good or
bad, given that it failed?

--
underground experts united .... http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
Emacs Gnus Blogomatic ......... http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/blogomatic
- so far: 34 Blogomatic articles -

On Thu, 19 May 2016 14:27:34 +0200, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

John B. writes:

From your description it sounds as though you
replaced a "plastic bar" with some "plastic
cable ties". Pretty much returning things to
their original condition.

To some extent - the plastic cable ties are
thinner but perhaps better suited to "roll with
the punches"...

But let's say I restored it - is that good or
bad, given that it failed?

I would say that was pretty much up to you to decide.

I would comment that not all bicycles are equipped with chain guards
and people seem ride bicycles either with or without chain guards. I
never, for example, heard anyone say "Oh! I can't ride that bike. Why
it doesn't have a chain guard."
--
cheers,

John B.

John B. writes:

I would comment that not all bicycles are
equipped with chain guards and people seem
ride bicycles either with or without chain
guards. I never, for example, heard anyone
say "Oh! I can't ride that bike. Why it
doesn't have a chain guard."

Maybe there is another bike culture in your
country (?) perhaps because of different
weather, here, with snow, and water that turns
into ice, virtually all bikes have chain guards
and if a bike doesn't come with one this would
be associated with sport, some dude trying to
cut a couple of hundred grams or whatever is
the weight of a chain guard.

Also the typical person doesn't wear wellies
and doesn't want to be bothered putting the
sock in and out each time.

I also suppose the chain lube disappears more
quickly without it, especially if rain, tho
I don't think this is anything the typical
person considers...

--
underground experts united .... http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
Emacs Gnus Blogomatic ......... http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/blogomatic
- so far: 34 Blogomatic articles -

On 5/19/2016 10:28 PM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
John B. writes:

I would comment that not all bicycles are
equipped with chain guards and people seem
ride bicycles either with or without chain
guards. I never, for example, heard anyone
say "Oh! I can't ride that bike. Why it
doesn't have a chain guard."

Maybe there is another bike culture in your
country (?) perhaps because of different
weather, here, with snow, and water that turns
into ice, virtually all bikes have chain guards
and if a bike doesn't come with one this would
be associated with sport, some dude trying to
cut a couple of hundred grams or whatever is
the weight of a chain guard.

In the U.S., an astonishing percentage of bicycles would be considered
by Europeans to be more suitable for "sport" than anything else. And
indeed, very little bike use here is for anything else.

Even many (or most?) of the small percentage of Americans who use bikes
for utility seem to pick something that looks like a "sport" machine.
That's just the way it is here.

I'd bet fewer than 1% of adult American bikes have chain guards. None
of mine do.


--
- Frank Krygowski

On Fri, 20 May 2016 04:28:05 +0200, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

John B. writes:

I would comment that not all bicycles are
equipped with chain guards and people seem
ride bicycles either with or without chain
guards. I never, for example, heard anyone
say "Oh! I can't ride that bike. Why it
doesn't have a chain guard."

Maybe there is another bike culture in your
country (?) perhaps because of different
weather, here, with snow, and water that turns
into ice, virtually all bikes have chain guards
and if a bike doesn't come with one this would
be associated with sport, some dude trying to
cut a couple of hundred grams or whatever is
the weight of a chain guard.

Also the typical person doesn't wear wellies
and doesn't want to be bothered putting the
sock in and out each time.


No one uses a "bicycle Clip" :-)

I also suppose the chain lube disappears more
quickly without it, especially if rain, tho
I don't think this is anything the typical
person considers...

I'm not sure what sort of chain guard you are talking about but the
ones I am envisioning are a sort of inverted "L" with the short arm
sticking down in the front and these aren't going to give much, if
any, protection to the chain to keep it from getting dirty.
--
cheers,

John B.