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10-03-07, 01:33 AM
I didn't post about this earlier, but a few weeks ago I was going too fast and hit a tree.
I landed in bushes unharmed, but my bicycle didn't do as well.
The front suspension forks sheared off and the headset fell out. I carried the bike back in parts to a bus-stop and rode the bus home.
I was thinking that I'd need a new stem-riser, headset, and forks. Bummer. Then it got worse. A friend of mine noticed that the bottom of the head tube was bent out from the impact. I took it into a shop and they said after looking at it, it would never hold a headset without wobbling, no matter the pounding back into shape, so it wasn't worth trying to get them to fix it. The frame was basically toast.
Even though my Research Dynamics Coyote was an old 1 inch headset mountain bike, I really loved it, and will miss it. I was effectively off the road due to not being able to afford another bike.
A friend of mine found out and offered to loan me a spare one, but it was a really beat up Huffy mountain bike with a spring front suspension and didn't shift, it slipped badly when you tried to pedal. Then I noticed that one side of the axle was bolted to the edge of the dropout, the other normal. It turns out, it was done that way to compensate for the frame being severely bent to the right! I decided to decline the loan as I didn't want to die.
When another friend of mine who is very into cycling found out, he told me to get the bike to him NOW. I did, and he found an old spare Kona frame and fork that he was willing to give me, and swap the parts out on.
It took him a while as the quick swap of parts ran into problems, like the brakes and brake routing being different. We decided to keep the crankset on the Kona despite mine being a beautiful and nearly new Sugino because the Kona had a smaller inner crank. (The lower low gear is nice)
He also swapped out the fork because the one on there was a 'piece of history' and he didn't want me breaking it.
I got the bike back today and rode it. It was great, slightly lighter I think, no suspension fork, but it didn't feel harsh at all. I'm happy to be riding again.
As to the friend, I couldn't get him to accept cash, but he did take a case of beer.
That's a good friend!
I'll post before-and-after pics if anyone is interested in seeing.
I landed in bushes unharmed, but my bicycle didn't do as well.
The front suspension forks sheared off and the headset fell out. I carried the bike back in parts to a bus-stop and rode the bus home.
I was thinking that I'd need a new stem-riser, headset, and forks. Bummer. Then it got worse. A friend of mine noticed that the bottom of the head tube was bent out from the impact. I took it into a shop and they said after looking at it, it would never hold a headset without wobbling, no matter the pounding back into shape, so it wasn't worth trying to get them to fix it. The frame was basically toast.
Even though my Research Dynamics Coyote was an old 1 inch headset mountain bike, I really loved it, and will miss it. I was effectively off the road due to not being able to afford another bike.
A friend of mine found out and offered to loan me a spare one, but it was a really beat up Huffy mountain bike with a spring front suspension and didn't shift, it slipped badly when you tried to pedal. Then I noticed that one side of the axle was bolted to the edge of the dropout, the other normal. It turns out, it was done that way to compensate for the frame being severely bent to the right! I decided to decline the loan as I didn't want to die.
When another friend of mine who is very into cycling found out, he told me to get the bike to him NOW. I did, and he found an old spare Kona frame and fork that he was willing to give me, and swap the parts out on.
It took him a while as the quick swap of parts ran into problems, like the brakes and brake routing being different. We decided to keep the crankset on the Kona despite mine being a beautiful and nearly new Sugino because the Kona had a smaller inner crank. (The lower low gear is nice)
He also swapped out the fork because the one on there was a 'piece of history' and he didn't want me breaking it.
I got the bike back today and rode it. It was great, slightly lighter I think, no suspension fork, but it didn't feel harsh at all. I'm happy to be riding again.
As to the friend, I couldn't get him to accept cash, but he did take a case of beer.
That's a good friend!
I'll post before-and-after pics if anyone is interested in seeing.