I am wondering if the damage reported by some folks with derailleurs like Duopar might be from a bad habit that I just recently forced myself to kick. I often kick the bike down to a very low gear when about to dismount and park the bike or put it in the car or storage. The purpose, of course is to have the bike in an appropriate gear to set out with when getting back on the bike. In my case I usually neglected to change the front chainwheel before doing so and up with a severe cross chaining situation. Often the bike was balky when pushing it backward even with more modern derailleurs. Now I try and make an effort to get onto a smaller chainring before downshifting in the above situation and the bike never seems balky and I am still in a good gear to just hop on the bike and take off again. Not easy for me to do, as I am a slave to habit and once I get a bad habit, it often brings me a bit of grief.
Was I mistaken when I read Matteo telling the buyer of an apparently creased
decal or sticker that he was refunding the purchase money? What the heck is
the beef here? Matteo has always been great in all my dealings with
him...it is not difficult to find fault in a deal if one is determined to do
so from the start. A chip on one's shoulder makes for difficult riding
through this world, I find.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi USA