TimJ
09-30-07, 11:15 PM
Was a disaster!
Yesterday I took a cx clinic and learned a lot of things, most importantly I can't get away with clips and straps on a grass course, but also I needed to adjust my bars.
I go home and unwrap the bars and loosen the brake levers, and something happens to the levers so that I can't loosen or tighten them. Turns out the nut inside the band dealy was spinning around, some wicked combination of a stripped bolt and an unseated nut (those tektro brake levers that can creek also sells- I'll never use them again without getting a better band to use with them) even though there's no way I could have ever cross-theaded them. Anyway, I has to cut my bar in two just to see what had happened.
Now I've got a vintage cx bike and for some reason the handlebars were 25.4 diameter so of course was the stem. So there's no way I'd be able to find a new pair of drops in that diameter here in town... if the shops weren't already closed anyway, making any "throw money at it" solution untenable. So I write the promoters and ask if I can get a refund, cuz I pre-registered, and a guy answered the email saying I could ride a new tricross expert demo if I wanted.
Cool! So I go there and go for a test ride and even though I wasn't going fast, wasn't even trying to turn yet, and thought I was barely tapping the rear brakes, my rear wheel just disappears from underneath me on an off-cambered section of dewy wet grass and I come down hard on my head and shoulder- harder than I've ever gone down before- I cracked my helmet and I think seriously injured my shoulder- that hard. I can't raise my left arm at all.
So in short I don't have a bike, can't ride a bike, and spent $35 for the pleasure of injuring myself badly without even getting to race.
Yay! First race!
Yesterday I took a cx clinic and learned a lot of things, most importantly I can't get away with clips and straps on a grass course, but also I needed to adjust my bars.
I go home and unwrap the bars and loosen the brake levers, and something happens to the levers so that I can't loosen or tighten them. Turns out the nut inside the band dealy was spinning around, some wicked combination of a stripped bolt and an unseated nut (those tektro brake levers that can creek also sells- I'll never use them again without getting a better band to use with them) even though there's no way I could have ever cross-theaded them. Anyway, I has to cut my bar in two just to see what had happened.
Now I've got a vintage cx bike and for some reason the handlebars were 25.4 diameter so of course was the stem. So there's no way I'd be able to find a new pair of drops in that diameter here in town... if the shops weren't already closed anyway, making any "throw money at it" solution untenable. So I write the promoters and ask if I can get a refund, cuz I pre-registered, and a guy answered the email saying I could ride a new tricross expert demo if I wanted.
Cool! So I go there and go for a test ride and even though I wasn't going fast, wasn't even trying to turn yet, and thought I was barely tapping the rear brakes, my rear wheel just disappears from underneath me on an off-cambered section of dewy wet grass and I come down hard on my head and shoulder- harder than I've ever gone down before- I cracked my helmet and I think seriously injured my shoulder- that hard. I can't raise my left arm at all.
So in short I don't have a bike, can't ride a bike, and spent $35 for the pleasure of injuring myself badly without even getting to race.
Yay! First race!
Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.