[efx]

I hear you...thanks for the info. I'm way out of shape to ride with anyone. I can barely make it around a few long blocks, but I didn't know about the wheelmen. Sounds like fun.I finally figured out how my derailer works. I took off the rear wheel to clean everything, but the cable housing was gone so I had to get something back on there. Everyone told me that if I opened the cassette it would be useless after that since all the bearings would fall out. I took them all out carefully and cleaned and oiled the whole thing back up, works fine. The more they told me it couldn't be done, the more curious I got, so bought the tool to take it off. The guys at one store tried to help me take it off, but they were not able to, finally figured it out and it was the easiest thing ever.

Someone gave me a piece of brake housing which I know is different (5mm for brakes and 4mm for derailer for those who don't know), but I also got the metal caps there now which I like better and so I had to figure out how to adjust that thing. People told me it wouldn't shift right, and on and on, but it works great now. Took me forever, but got it shifting on all gears now so that was brutal learning it, but it's easy once you figure it out. I just sat there for over an hour or two and played with each screw to see what it did. Unfortunately I think the axle may be a little bent on the wheel, you can see the thing wobble a bit once it's on the bike. Rides fine, but I don't like that. Since I'm on a budget I'll leave it like that for now and change it later since I'm not riding that much anyway. Not sure how easy it is to change that since I didn't take that out. Then again it's just that and then the hub holding everything so I don't think it's much more after taking out the cassette.