General Cycling Discussion - A lucky break?

This was triggered by reading Chris L's Achy-breaky bike.

Do you have a story where you dodged the bullet? When your bike self-destructed at the best possible time rather than the worst? Did you make a sacrifice to the Cycling Gods afterwards?

For me this happened on the second day of this year's California AIDS Ride. Day Two is 104 miles with 3700 ft of climb (fairly flat). My wife Sam and I were plugging away on our tandem, dealing with the nasty crosswinds, coated with salt and dust. At mile 90 we turned onto Metz Rd and chugged up the last two grannie-worthy hills. Just as we finished the last hill of the day, with only seven miles to go, our rear deraileur cable snapped, leaving us as a three-speed bike. A quarter-mile sooner and we would have had to sag into camp. As it was, we coasted down the hill to the flats, and then in our middle ring pushed our way to the end.

Also. Some time before the AIDS Ride we had been on a club ride called "Seven Hills" where we got to push ourselves up a series of 8-10% grades in the area. Just after we had descended a 12% switchbacky one lane road and were on a flat spot before the next climb, a 12-inch section of our front rim blew out. That is to say, our heavy-duty 48-spoke wheel just gave up the ghost and split. The tire tore and the tube blew. We had a few frantic moments while I steered on grinding aluminum edges and braked with the rear brake. Whew! But if this had happened just a quarter mile earlier on the 12% downgrade who knows what would have happened? Square yards of road rash at the best, over the edge and injury at the worst. Timing is everything!

What about you? Have you dodged the bullet?

I've dodged it at least three times that come readily to mind: I've mentioned two of these before, but they keep replaying in my mind, so why not here?

1. It wasn't raining, but it had been, and the roadways were wet. I crossed my usual set of railroad tracks but not quite at a 90-degree angle, and found myself up in the air on my mountain bike--it felt like three feet, but was probably more like ten inches. Amazing how much can go through your mind in a split second! But miraculously (I don't think the word's too strong) I came down on both tires without so much as a skid, as though nothing had happened. If I'd crashed and broken something, it might have been a long wait for somebody to rescue me; deserted industrial area.

2. Riding along 1.5 feet from the curb, heavy traffic, when suddenly a car pulls out from my right, in front of me--and stops. Too close to brake--I somehow veer and ride through a less than two-foot gap between that car's rear bumper and the next car, that had to brake for the first. I'll never know how I did it.

3. I have the right-of-way and am merging into a left-turn lane when an indecisive driver turning left from the opposite direction decides to proceed right into my path. I miss her car by maybe a foot. Again, I'll never know how.

Not as scary as UncaStuart's experiences, but plenty scary for yours truly.

Mine was actually this morning when my chain broke (break, broke, like the pun :D ) it was less than 1km from home. I haven't bothered to carry a spare chain in the past, and I've done tours and stupidly long rides in the middle of nowhere. Imagine if it had gone 550 km from home and where I didn't even know where the nearest bike shop was? :eek:

Chris

Originally posted by Chris L
Imagine if it had gone 550 km from home and where I didn't even know where the nearest bike shop was? :eek:


You would then just have to craft a chain out of brushwood. That's what Tom Hanks would do! :D

Seriously, (:D:D:D), what if you were 550 km out and your frame broke? Who carries a spare frame?

Originally posted by Chris L
I haven't bothered to carry a spare chain in the past, and I've done tours and stupidly long rides in the middle of nowhere.
Don't bother carrying an extra chain, just carry a chain tool. You can fix your chain in 2 minutes and it weighs a lot less.

In the days before I was fortunate enough to posess a road bike, I went on longish road rides on my Fisher. I had just done a 40 mile loop around downtown, and was waiting to cross the street, half a block form home. As I pushed across the street and sat down again, my seat post snapped! Thankfully there were no cars coming, because I hit the pavement, more than a little dazed and confused. I survived teh incident without permenant brusies (except to my pride), but not before pondering what I would have done had this happened when I was on the other side of the city. Yikes!

Originally posted by riderx

Don't bother carrying an extra chain, just carry a chain tool. You can fix your chain in 2 minutes and it weighs a lot less.

Normally it would, but a chain tool would not have fixed this one. I didn't break any of the links, I actually snapped the metal between the links! The guy at my LBS said he'd never seen anyone do that before. I'm just worried about going to work or getting to a university exam, even though it's pretty unlikely to happen again.

Chris

Originally posted by Chris L


Normally it would, but a chain tool would not have fixed this one. I didn't break any of the links, I actually snapped the metal between the links! The guy at my LBS said he'd never seen anyone do that before. I'm just worried about going to work or getting to a university exam, even though it's pretty unlikely to happen again.

Chris

Actually, you can take a couple of links out of your chain and still ride fine - at least to get you home. Your derailure will festoon out some chain and make biking possible.

IF you ever do this, you should avoid using the combination of the largest front sprocket with the largest rear sprocket. This combination uses the most chain and would put excessive stress on the drive trane if you were missing some chain links. In fact, it is best to avoid this unnecessary combination even under good conditions.

Originally posted by mike

In fact, it is best to avoid this unnecessary combination even under good conditions.
You can say that again. I shifted into that combination by accident one day and broke a hub. (In case that looks like a mistake, let me repeat: broke a hub. It just sheared right in two.)

Granted, I had too short a chain, but ever since then I am extra careful to avoid the big-big combination.

Originally posted by JonR

You can say that again. I shifted into that combination by accident one day and broke a hub. (In case that looks like a mistake, let me repeat: broke a hub. It just sheared right in two.)


Holy maroly, Jon. How did you do that? I would think you would trash your derailure first. You must have legs like a horse.

Originally posted by mike
IF you ever do this, you should avoid using the combination of the largest front sprocket with the largest rear sprocket. This combination uses the most chain and would put excessive stress on the drive trane if you were missing some chain links. In fact, it is best to avoid this unnecessary combination even under good conditions.

Yeah, I never use that gear combination anyway. I think it's stupid, and there's better alternatives. When I'm riding hills that necessitate shifting that many gears, I shift at the front first.

Chris

Originally posted by mike


Holy maroly, Jon. How did you do that? I would think you would trash your derailure first. You must have legs like a horse.
Clarification is in order! Being a total pack-rat, I still have the wheel in question in a closet (unusually tidy of me), and so I pulled it out to see the actual damage.

The hub BODY as such didn't break. It's where the freewheel attaches that sheared off. Here it is:

http://pages.prodigy.net/jonrutherford/ruined.jpg

Yup. That can happen. You must put a lot of miles on your bike(s).

Originally posted by mike
Yup. That can happen. You must put a lot of miles on your bike(s).
Miles like that one are expensive! :cry: