Should I take this as a sign to take some time off of the bike? In the last 3 weeks I have had to do roadside repairs or call for sag on 2 different ocasions and limp home on one ocassion.
The first time my right pedal somehow backed out and came out of the crank arm while I was riding. I almost went down but held it up. The outer threads got ripped out so it took forever to get the pedal back in (Thanks Mike for assistance on this particular mechanical).
Last weekend the freewheel prawl retainer spring broke and left me stranded on the side of the road until my wife could bring me a backup wheelset.
This morning while pedaling along in a straight line on a smooth road one of my front spokes just snapped in half. I was riding a high spoke count wheelset so I was able to ride it home. This spoke is a Sapim CX Ray spoke...a pretty expensive spoke.
I have ridden about 3000 miles so far this year and 6000 last year without anything even resembling a mechanical issue...not even a flat. Now that the weather is beautiful and I am trying to put in as many rides and get as many miles as possible I am plagued. Those of you who know me know that I don't have junk cycling equipment.
Does this sound like a situation where I should consider taking some time off? Should I start fresh with all new gear? Right now I'm just frustrated. I put on a different wheelset but I'm not even going to do any more riding. I'm going to cut the lawn...
tourist
05-20-07, 10:19 AM
With that kind of bad luck are you sure you want ot mess with power tools!?! :p
cuda2k
05-20-07, 10:34 AM
Sounds like the bike is begging for a complete tear down and rebuild all the way to the bearings.
*mutters something about wishing he had 1k miles let alone 3k*
kevinmcdade
05-20-07, 10:37 AM
With that kind of bad luck are you sure you want ot mess with power tools!?! :p
LOL!!! I thought the same thing which is why I am still sitting here watching TV:D
kevinmcdade
05-20-07, 10:50 AM
Sounds like the bike is begging for a complete tear down and rebuild all the way to the bearings.
*mutters something about wishing he had 1k miles let alone 3k*
I did that after the pedal ordeal. I spent an entire day and rebuilt the entire bike. I replaced things that just looked dirty. The bike itself is performing beautifully (shifting, braking, handling) but I am now plagued with these wheel issues. It's to a point now whenever someone yells "Mechanical" everyone looks for me. My Tarmac is only two months old so that won't be getting replaced. I will, however, be making some wheel decisions...SOON!!!
dl613
05-20-07, 12:30 PM
mechanicals suck but when you put enough time on the rig sometimes stuff happens. I know you have good equipment but I think you were lucky last year and making up for it now. As far as the wheels are concerned, I actually use heavy wheels to eliminate any spoke issues since the hoops are stronger but sometimes wheels need to be trued up because of spoke tension getting out of whack even if the wheel is fairly straight.
Good luck with the rest of your season.
DL.
kevinmcdade
05-20-07, 12:51 PM
I agree, DL!!! I think I was just extremely lucky last year. I also agree with you regarding the heavier wheels. I am going back to my DT Swiss RR 2.1 rims laced to White Industry H1 hubs with DT Champion spokes, 28F/32R. They are a little heavy but they are very stiff and strong. The wheelset that I broke the spoke on today was built to be light weight. I will be rebuilding it using a more robust spoke and probably a Deep V rim. My lightweight Zipp 303's gotta go too. They look and sound great but I no longer trust them under my 205 pound body hammering away on them. I'm looking to sell them or trade them for some Kysrium SL/Elite or Fulcrum Racing EVO 5. I haven't had any issue with them other than the retainer spring but I'm not going to chance it. I'm riding more and am stronger than I have ever been before.
Wish me luck while I work through this!!!
cuda2k
05-20-07, 04:08 PM
Kevin - I really like my Fulcrum 5 Evos. Tires a bit tight to put on, but that comes with the Campy territory. For a sub $300 wheel there isn't much better out there in my opinion.
Lecterman
05-20-07, 04:14 PM
Kevin,
I can recommend my current wheelset.
FSA RD-88s. I have put some pretty rough miles on them and they have never even gone out true. No spoke poppage or anything.
Plus their cheap.
jsharr
05-20-07, 04:22 PM
Kevin,
My Trek 1200 has never let me down. Maybe we should trade bikes.
Jeff
kevinmcdade
05-20-07, 04:24 PM
Thanks for the suggestions guys!!! I actually have the Fulcrum site up on another IE tab right now. I'm really digging their technology and specs. I'm looking at the Fulcrum Racing 1's. These come highly recommended by a few members on my team. The reviews say this is the wheel for me...super stiff, fairly light, and fast!!! I have a wheel fund set aside and was actually looking to get some Mavic Carbones but I am going to keep it as simple as possible pluse the R1's will save me some money. I'll see what FSA has also.
kevinmcdade
05-20-07, 04:29 PM
Kevin,
My Trek 1200 has never let me down. Maybe we should trade bikes.
Jeff
I may have to take you up on that if I keep having problems. If it's reliable, I'll ride the hell out of it:D
All1NTao
05-22-07, 12:03 PM
9000 miles is a lot of good luck, you are due my friend. The cassette retainer spring, that is rare. It may have gotten moved out of place when you removed the cassette during cleaning. If a wheel is going to break a spoke it normally occurs within the first 100 miles, or after a lot of abuse. If it happens in the first 100 miles it was because the wheel was not properly tensioned in the factory, no amount of spoke strength can overcome that. I love hand built wheels over factory wheels for that very reason and many others. Dave's Speed Dreams have a cult following on rodebikereview.com and for good reason, light responsive and bullet proof. You know I ride my stuff hard and these have never needed even a 1/4 turn of a single spoke:
http://speeddream.com/road.php
Try a pre-flight check the next couple of times you ride for added confidence and once a week there after:
1. Spin both wheels looking for true and brake rub
2. look at the cassette while turning pedals to make sure it is tracking straight and not wobbling
3. Squeese each pair of spokes looking for ones that are overly tight or loose
4. pinch pedal spindle and move back and forth looking for play
5. grab crank arm and wiggle back and forth (toward frame) looking for play
6. check for play in both hub axles, replace wheels with bike on ground to ensure proper seating, don't over tighten skewer
7. squeese front hand brake and rock bike back and forth to check headset tightness
8. rock seat back and forth, if it squeaks then don't tighten. Take it off and clean rails and seat post and reinstall.
Now you are ready to attack, attack, attack
kevinmcdade
05-22-07, 01:52 PM
Thanks for the pre-flight checklist, Mike! I will definitely perform each of those tasks before my next few rides. The wheels that I broke the spoke on were hand built by Troy Watson (Ligero Wheels). I rode that same wheelset pretty hard on Saturday with Nokki. They do have Sapim CXRay spokes tha I am contimplating switching out for a more robust spoke like the DT Swiss Revolution.
I can't even get mad about the retainer spring breaking. Those wheels gave me signs that something was wrong and I ignored it. It was no big deal to fix. It cost me a whopping $4 and 2 minutes of my time.
I guess you are right...I was way overdue for some mechanicals. Right now, I am spending some time off of the bike and doing some preventive maintenance on all of my bikes and wheels. I am also getting rid of any wheel that I own that I know I am too heavy to be riding.