Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - New Bike Dead

Hello. Fractal here. I'm new here, this is my first post.

After not riding since I had a single speed Huffy dirt bike as a kid, I decided to get a bicycle that I was told would hold up to my weight; a Research Dynamics model Coyote 3 mountain bike. It has double walled alloy rims, which I am told is good.

I'm a uber-clydesquirrel now, about 310 pounds. Decided to ride more for fun then anything else. There are some nice trails in the woods around here.

I took it out on a gentle ride of about ten blocks, then yesterday I took it for my second ride. I went down a hill at about traffic speed, trying to go downhill as fast as I could to make life easier by building momentum for going back uphill. When I started to climb, downshifted from high gear big crank wheel to high gear, middle crankwheel then THWACK, chain broke, bent the large chainwheel. Luckily it didn't jam up the rotation of the wheels or I would have been in some serious trouble.

Bicycle shop said that it had the wrong cassette installed. It will be at least a week for them to get parts in to fix it. I'm hoping that I won't keep having drivetrain issues. Or any others for that matter.

Anyway, it was fun while it lasted.

-Fractal

You're very lucky it didn't lock on you! Don't let one bad experience stop you from enjoying your bike.

Fractal,


You weren't hurt
Your Bike Shop is making good
Your steed is only sick, not dead



All in all, I think you're going to come out of this smelling like a rose!

Yeah - that story for some people usually goes like, "when I woke up in the hospital..."

Another week and you'll be up and riding. Welcome!

All in all, I think you're going to come out of this smelling like a rose!
Yeah, but had that back wheel locked up and he started skidding down the street, things downwind would not have been smelling too rosy!:eek:

Mark

Having the wrong cassette installed would have nothing to do with a chain breaking while downshifting on the front rings while on the smallest cog in the rear. It is more likely that the chain fell between the chainrings, having the wrong chain (ie: a 9 speed chain on an 8 speed drive train) could contribute to this but not the cassette.

I hope the shop is making good for free and not trying to make you pay for new cassette or anything.

Oh yeah....and welcome to the forum. :)

Having the wrong cassette installed would have nothing to do with a chain breaking while downshifting on the front rings while on the smallest cog in the rear. It is more likely that the chain fell between the chainrings, having the wrong chain (ie: a 9 speed chain on an 8 speed drive train) could contribute to this but not the cassette.
Chainring spacing is chainring spacing. 9 speed chain works just peachy on an 8 speed set-up, but it won't work the other way. 8 speed chain won't work on a 9 speed rig because the spacing of the cogs is different. I would suspect the problem was sh!tmano chain. I've seen it happen on brand new bikes. Put a good SRAM chain on there and you're good to go.

Mark

Thanks for the advice, I've got an sram chain on order now, should be in in a week.

Thanks for all the welcomes and encouragement. Rode a friends fixed gear a little today, that was a weird experience. It had a brooks saddle, very comfortable, I'll have to get one someday.