First attempt at mechanics, went pretty badly...

So, I finally decided to learn about fixing problems on my bike myself, rather than wasting money at shops. It didn't go so well...

First the back story:

I bought my bike a year ago at cycle surgery.

After a couple of months I noticed some play on the sprocket/lockring, if I accelerated hard or skidded hard, it would jump back and forth.

It got worse and worse, until I took it back to the shop.

They said "don't worry your thread is fine, you are just to strong (polite way of saying heavy) for it" and tightened it as much as it should go.

That was fine for a while, and then it started to happen again, but whenever it did I just did the old standing on the pedals trick to tighten it and it was fine again for a few weeks.

I've kept doing that for a year. Bad idea I know...

Recently I noticed a rattling noise from my rear wheel (thanks to sumo for bringing it to my attention, I had just ignored it). It got worse and worse, and with help from reeen we worked out it was the bearings, as the wheel had some play on it, from side to side.

So yesterday I went out and bought a lockring tool/chainwhip, some cone spanners and grease.

Today I took off the sprocket and lockring, and took a look at the bearings. I re-greased the bearings, and tightened it up. That was fine.

The problems came with the sprocket and lockring. I could see that the thread on the hub under the sprocket was as good as gone, and the lockring had been so loose I could almost take it off without the tool, and there had been no grease on it at all.

I wanted to put them back on, just so that it would work until I could check if there was a fixed thread under the freewheel on my flip-flop hub, and if not, get a new wheel built (I've been thinking about that anyway).

I got the sprocket on, though without much of a thread it was quite hard to get tight, but I did it. I then got the lockring on, and it was pretty damn tight, but I could still get it slightly tighter. I was putting so much force on it, that it finally slipped, and fucked that thread too. Now my fixed is entirely fucked...

So cycle surgery are cunts, I'm an idiot for ignoring it, and now I have to ride SS front brake only, which makes me hate myself on so many levels, at least until I can get a new wheel, or get to a bike shop for them to take the freewheel off and check what thread is underneath it.

At least the noise and play on the bearings has gone, so that's one success.

I'm still glad I did it, I've now got the tools, and I've learnt what to do, but it's annoying, especially with the marathon ride tomorrow.

One question though, I didn't think it was possible to overtighten a lockring, I thought the point is for it to be as tight as possible (at least from the threads I read here). If so then clearly it was a bit fucked too, I just took it over the edge.