The day before my triathlon debut I was checking my bike and I discovered the rear axle broken. I took the wheel down to the bike shop and all they could do was sell me a solid axle replacement for $8. The old Peugeot measures 126mm between the rear dropouts and they haven't had quick release axles in stock for years.

By the time I made it home I thought I should check the old Diamond Back. I popped off the rear wheel (easy since I got rid of the chain when I was trying to get the cranks off) and measured 126mm! So I took the axle out of that wheel, cleaned off the rusty grease, and popped it into the Peugeot wheel. It was a little more complicated than that but by mid-afternoon it was done.

The new axle must have shifted the wheel a little. It looks pretty close to centered to me, so maybe it was off center before. But I had to adjust the limits on the derailleur and unfortunately I lost my lowest gear.

Hey - it just hit me. On my last ride, a day or two ago, I was having chain problems. The chain slipped off the big ring in the front and galled up the crank arm. Then it fell off the back and got stuck. It's never done that before so I should have known something was wrong, but I suppose it was the broken axle causing the wheel to bounce around enough to drop the chain.

I also had to adjust the rear brake to center it on the wheel, and I tweaked a couple of spokes to true the wheel. Now the bike is loaded in the truck and ready for the race.