Tonight I took it upon myself to head out to the garage and swap out one of the cranks. I will spare you the details, but it took far longer than it needed to due to the fact that I continually fail to fully assess a situation before diving in. This resulted in me essentially removing a lot of unnecessary hardware on the chain case. The bike didn’t really provide any challenges, it was really the mechanic’s lack of patience that made this swap more work than it needed to be.

After hoisting Goliath up on the stand (yes, a regular 3-point bicycle work stand works just fine) all you really need to do is:

1) Loosen the hub brake’s torque arm from the chainstay then loosen the rear axle and push the wheel forward a bit
2) Remove the crank-side pedal
3) Remove the chain case crank cover disc
4) Find the masterlink in the chain and use it to ‘break’ the chain (which is pretty solid and yet easy to disengage)
5) Using a chain breaker tool, remove two links
6) Remove the crank arm bolt cover, then unscrew the crank bolt
7) Using a crank remover tool, remove the crank arm (if you need help, reference park tools’ guide)
8) Place the new crank on the bottom bracket spindle (square type –very standard)
9) Replace the newly-shortened chain on the crank and reattach the masterlink
10) Move the wheel back into position, align and tighten; then tighten up the brake torque arm on the chainstay
11) Replace the chain case crank cover disc, the pedal and the crank arm bolt cover

Now, this swap is pretty straightforward but does require the right tools (which I have but many may not). Make sure you’ve got all the right tools and understand what needs to be done before you start unscrewing everything (um, like me). Or simply take it to a bike shop and let the pros have at it.

The swap being accomplished, I was not satisfied by the results as there is little to no tolerance in the chain case. Tightening up the chain for a smaller crank leaves even less tolerance and it was extremely challenging to remove any instance of rub on the case. I was able to get it pretty smooth, but it was not terribly tolerant to the occasional smack on the case.

What’s more, the chain case, though well designed and very lightweight, did not feature any drain holes, yet was indeed holding water when I opened it. It’s not designed to be an oil bath –Sunbeam was the last bike manufacturer I know of to actually offer a fully enclosed oil-bath chain case. The Pigeon chain case is stamped steel and will rust quite quickly, so I find it to be a nice idea but also an unnecessary maintenance issue.

Chain cases are a fantastic idea as they keep the chain relatively free of road grease and grime and keep your clothing free of said grime as well. Unfortunately, the tolerances are just so low that there’s simply no room for error. Changing out the chainring simply exacerbated the issue.

Off to bed. I’ll probably just get rid of the case tomorrow and try it out commando (so-to-speak)!