After getting the new chainrings (swapping from 30-42-52 to 24-39-52), I went on a short ride on Sunday. I definitely noticed the difference in the middle chainring. It felt great. So good, in fact, that I never left the middle chainring.

Monday I went on another ride, and this time I actually used the small 24-tooth chainring. Oops, there’s something we missed – the chain’s rubbing against the bottom of the front derailleur. It works, but the noise is distracting at least, and may eventually wear through the metal, at worst.

Hmm, not good.

I tried fixing it myself, by moving the derailleur down a smidge, but I couldn’t fix it. I did some researching on the web, and came up with a few folk who had the same problem. Some of them had gone so far as to cut away the bottom of the derailleur and weld in an extension. Well, that’d certainly solve the problem, but It seemed rather drastic, and I didn’t have to tools for such an operation.

Called the shop and they didn’t really have any suggestions I could try. I told them I’d bring it by Saturday morning to see what they could do for me.

I’m a little peeved. They should have caught this problem when they installed the chainring. On the other hand, I should have tested it before leaving the store. We both share some responsibility, I suppose.