Doug' may have said:Anyway - the problem I'm having with the freewheel is that the ring that holds the whole thing
together keeps coming loose. In the past, I've been able to catch it before it comes all the way
off. I'd simply pull over and tighten it up. Today, it beat me! I lost half of the bearings. To
make matters worse, I was on my way to work when it happened. Made for a long walk back. My
question is - what causes this to happen, and how can I stop it? I've never seen this before, and
I'm not too sure how to correct it. For what its worth, the bike is a 2003 Diamondback Outlook.
I believe that a 2003 Diamondback is going to have a cassette, not a freewheel, but I could be
wrong. I haven't had the pleasure of dealing with a cassette yet; all my hardware predates the
trickling of that tech down to the cheap-bike level.
Since your bike is still presumed to be under warranty, before taking steps to remedy the problem
yourself, I'd recommend trying to find a different Diamondback dealer (the Diamondback website has a
dealer locator on it) and asking if they'll do the warranty repair. Explain the situation, let them
know where you bought it, and that the other store's service has been substandard in your opinion
since the problem is recurrent. The chances are good that they'll say "yeah, sure, bring it in." If
my guess is right, you're in the Buffalo, NY, area, and have a couple of options available for
places to try. I will note that Diamondback's warranty statement in their docs states that you can
take the bike to *any* Raleigh/Diamondback dealer, not just the one you bought the bike from. The
bike must be "fully assembled" when you take it in, according to their warrany statement.
If, however, as may be the case, you discover that there's really only one Diamondback dealer in
your area, and particularly if that's where the bike came from, then I'd say that it's time for a
trip to the place where it was purchased; give them the description of the problem *in writing*
(keeping a copy of the description for yourself) and see what they do. If they fix it right this
time, smile. If they order a new freewheel assembly to replace the one that's been coming apart
(which, if they're at all clueful in any way, is what I suspect they will do, given the level of
expertise you describe them as having otherwise) then you've got a better than even chance of
having the problem solved without further effort on your part. If they take it apart and tighten
the ring to where it doesn't come out by itself anymore, you're probably at least no worse off than
if you'd done the job yourself, and you're less greasy. If, on the other hand, they botch the whole
mess and leave you with the problem unsolved (and yes, I'd give the bike a good hard ride before
trusting it for the run to work again) then write to the store's owner, including documentation of
the problem and a copy of your repair orders, with the whole thing copied to Diamondback,
requesting that the store either authorize you to get it repaired at their expense elsewhere or
that they replace the bike.
Yes, it's possible that ten minutes of work by you might solve the problem, but if there's a bigger
fault that is present which you haven't caught (such as a cracked or mismachined housing that's
keeping the retainer from being able to stay tight) then staying within the warranty process
structure will keep you from biting the big one later when that's discovered. If you just tear into
it and fix it without certainty that the only problem was that the retainer was just loose to begin
with, you may lose that warranty's protection, for whatever it may be worth.
--
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