There was a problem where my chain would fall off the chainring, but it didn’t seem to happen that often. Maybe a stretched chain? Maybe I wasn’t shifting correctly, but that never seemed to be an issue before with this bike. Then one evening, I had a fall and then the chain really wouldn’t stay on. After turning the bike upside down and checking to see what was happening, I saw that it was getting pushed off the front derailleur. That’s when I finally decided to go to get it looked at. I practiced a whole story about what happened and what I thought was the issue. Road bike jargon wasn’t something I employed a lot before in French or in English so this was good practice. I ended up making a whole chart detailing parts of a road bike in English and French.

First, I went to a Decathlon since that’s where I usually go. Unfortunately they couldn’t help me so they recommended going to En Selle Marcel, who suggested Lepape, who then pointed me to Kilomètre 0. It was more French practice than I was expecting on the topic of bikes and by the end, I felt pretty comfortable even through the mistakes.  I was able to make an appointment to have it serviced after the bike was inspected and the employee agreed that it was most likely the front derailleur that needed adjusting. He also found a few other problems which would get a closer look at during the appointment.

After having it serviced, my bike was back to normal and the chain is so much cleaner. I took pictures of my drivetrain and Russ’ for comparison. The next thing that needs to happen is to get Russ’ bike serviced so that everything will last longer.