Cannondale 6/13 Repairs by Freddy

The front Shimano Dura Ace (top of the line) deraileur was extremely corroded.  I asked Freddy (the best local one man bike shop ) to replace it with a new Shimano Ultegra (second to the top of the line) front deraileur that I had bought at the Whittier Bicycle Swap meet about a year ago.   It works great.  Now I can actually shift into the big front ring.

The gears are trying to shift by itself, ever since I replaced the worn chain.  I tried to adjust it by messing with the rear deraileur but I wasn't able to fix it.  I had Freddy rehang the rear deraileur and adjust it.  It still tries to shift by itself.  My best guess is that the chain is not the right one for a Shimano 10 speed setup.  I ordered a Shimano Ultegra 10 speed chain.  It should be here by the end of the week...

The rear brake was also not working.  The problem was somewhere between the RH side brake lever (for the rear brake) and the first cable housing fitting at the front of the bike (the one on the top tube with the gray brake cable housing going into it).  Freddy took it apart and found that the brake cable was coming apart inside the cable housing (could not see it).  He replaced the brake cable & now the rear brake works well.

Freddy trued the rear wheel (after I replaced the broken spoke).  I lent him both of the special spoke tools that I had bought (from Park Tools).  In the process, Freddy said he broke one of the spokes!  He had to drill out the broken part and he happened to have a used spoke that he had saved from a previous repair that fit.  In the process of adjusting the spokes to true the wheel, one of the other spokes' nipple broke (as in the picture above).  I'm not too surprised that it happened, since it happened to me when I tried to turn the nipple from the broken spoke that I replaced.  The spoke and nipple are made of an aluminum alloy which is light but the strength is not particularly high.  Since the threads that maintain the tension on the spoke is below the edge of the rim, even though the nipple is broken above the rim, the strength of the spoke and the tension is OK.  In the salty environment that I ride in by the beach, it's inevitable that all the metal/alloy bits on the bike will eventually rust.  It's just a matter of time...