To remove a Shimano Hyperglide cassette™, you need a special tool, such as the Parktool Cassette Lockring Remover FR-5™. This fact may not matter much to you, but it mattered a lot to me. And though they didn’t know it, it mattered to the three mechanics squatting around my bicycle.
They were motorcycle mechanics, not bicycle mechanics. But bikes in Vietnam have no gears, and my problem had a lot to do with gears, so I decided to try my luck with scooter repairmen.
One of them whacked at my rear cogs with a hammer and chisel. I winced, but I didn’t object. If he couldn’t get the damned lockring off one way or another, my trip was going to end with a broken spoke.
Having no luck with the chisel, another repairmen grabbed my wheel and one of my spare spokes, said he’d be back in an hour, and raced off on his motorcycle.
I wandered to the market to buy lunch: two pork fat sandwiches and a pound of longans. Longans look like lychees and taste like honeydew melons. Along with pork fat sandwiches, they are one of my new addictions.
After lunch, no sign of my wheel. I wandered off to get a haircut. The barber pointed to a photo of pouty Asian model sporting what would presumably be my new coiff. I was indifferent. I had no say in the matter and didn’t feel the need to pretend otherwise. The barber gave me a buzz cut.
Still no wheel. The mechanics continued tinkering with the spilled guts of various derelict Hondas. I wandered off to check my email.
When I returned, my wheel was lying there, spoke restored, gears intact. I laughed, pumped the mechanic’s hand and threw an extra quarter on top of his dollar fee.
I spent the next few hours in the repair shop, making use of the tool sets, rags, and tubs of grease to clean out and rebuild the hub that I had butchered the day before. Really, though, I was just enjoying playing at mechanic. I extracted each of the 18 ball bearings, polished them like pearls, packed them in grease, and screwed the axle back in place.
Triumphantly I pedaled to market to buy another pound of longans.
