Commuting - My bike tried to kill me this morning. RIP bike.

I was coming down a slight ( 3 to 4 % ) hill, pedaling to catch a light that was about to turn green up ahead, when my rear wheel locked up on me. If you've ever locked the rear brake before in a panic stop, you'll recognize when it happens; the back end of the bike moves sideways in an arc. It's very particular. Anyway, this happened out of the blue, coming down the hill at 23 mph.

At this point I was sure I was going to lose some teeth. No question. The only things going through my mind were "this is going to hurt" and "I wonder how it's about to happen?"

The bike started to gradually fall to the right. I leaned to the left, like I would in a sharp turn. It came back up, but then started to dump left, and I leaned right. Then I saw that I was heading for a curb, and a telephone pole behind it. This was my answer, to how it would go down. But I skidded to a stop just before I hit the curb. I don't know whether I used the front brake or not; I didn't try to steer, though, because I had no control over the bike.

I thought I was going down, and going to hit my head, or that the bike would stop before I did, and I'd fall "through" it, injuring a leg in the frame and bars. But I walked away without a scratch.

I had been cross-chaining, big to big, and the bike shifted itself to a gear I didn't have. The chain wrapped around the hub and caught itself in a spoke, locking the wheel up. I tried to pull it out, but not dice. I locked it to a sign post, took a taxi home and got my car, and drove in. I stopped and picked up my bike, which is on the roof in the parking lot downstairs.

I think I'm going to stop at LBS on the way home and see what they'll give me in trade-in value. I just replaced the whole drive train a couple weeks ago, in what could have been a bad wreck, and it feels like it's time to part ways with this bike. I don't want to stop commuting ... but I don't want to keep riding this one, either.

Sounds like a limit screw was a little off... rear wheel lock ups are not fun.

Had one a few weeks ago that was not chain related... the cone lock washer on my 3 speed sheared off on the non drive side and this frees up the bearing which then tightens itself and stopped the wheel. This happened at low speed and there was no lasting damage.

This was not anything I could fix on the road and had to walk a few miles back to the shop to install a new lock washer.

Glad you're ok man! I had some miracle like that a few weeks ago...I was riding on a gravel toe path and hit a steel something that I didn't see protruding out of the ground. It dented my rim and nearly had me over the bars. Somehow I caught the frame with my legs and the bike tracked straight. I managed to get back on and didn't go down. I was SURE it was going to hurt.

God looks out for children, drunks and fools.

and apparently me.

I had a similar big-big problem on one of my bikes this winter. I was going much slower and got away with the chain sawing off a spoke and cutting deeply into half the others, but I was able to ride it to work and back home like that. In my case, the problem was caused by the chain not being quite long enough for the big-big combination and it happened as soon as I shifted.

Glad to hear you survived. You could get away with a new chain and a wheel rebuild, but once a bike has turned against you it's hard to trust it again.

God looks out for children, drunks and fools.

so then, as a childish, drunken fool, i guess i'm sitting pretty; i'm shielded under the aegis of god's triple-point protection plan!

so i've got that going for me............ which is nice.



seriously though, i'm glad that the OP is a-ok. after having recently walked away from a collision with a bus, i can honestly say that any accident you walk away from is a good one. i've had my chain come off the big cog in back and lock up the rear wheel once before, but it was at the start of an incline and i was in the process of downshifting, so the bike just came to an immediate and abrupt stop while i wisely unlocked my foot from the pedal to set it upon the ground to stop from falling over with the bike. i imagine that's it's a far scarier experience on the downhill side at speed.

God looks out for children, drunks and fools.

I'm 33 years old, and I don't drink. :( :mad:

If I'd had time to think it through, I probably would have unclipped and tried to brace for the impact. But reflexes took over, and all I did was try to balance. Clipping out probably would have spelled disaster. I stay clipped in when I corner and when I track stand, so it was kind of like being on the bike as normal, only with no control over the thing.

I had a similar lock-up a few years back when a bungee on my rack gave out and the cording got tangled in my cassette. Downhill, 20-ish mph, and I managed to dig on my old BMX skills; went nads-to-stem and controlled the skid until I finally skidded to a stop, but yikes was it scary!
Glad you're OK.

Does this illustrate why we should never ever use the big-big combo? Coulda happened with small-big, too, I guess.
Glad the bike and OP stayed upright.:thumb:

Remember when we were kids on bikes with coaster brakes, and how much fun it was to go as fast as you could and then slam on the brakes and skid to a halt, leaving a wavy black tire mark on the pavement?

'Course, we weren't going 23 mph downhill in the middle of traffic at the time. Boy that would scare the hell out of me. Glad you walked away unscathed, SF.

Where's the dork disc advocacy group on this?

What would have been the icing on the cake is if you forgot to unclip when you finally stopped, and fell over anyway.

I'm 33 years old, and I don't drink. :( :mad:

If I'd had time to think it through, I probably would have unclipped and tried to brace for the impact. But reflexes took over, and all I did was try to balance. Clipping out probably would have spelled disaster. I stay clipped in when I corner and when I track stand, so it was kind of like being on the bike as normal, only with no control over the thing.

Heh...I meant the insult as being self directed, not you! I'm glad you;re ok.

Wow! Nice reflexes - I'm sure that if it were I in your place, all of the bad possibilities you cited would have occurred, and worse!

Where's the dork disc advocacy group on this?

I'm here. Love em.

How were you in the big-big combo and doing 23 mph? You must have been spinning about 200 rpm.

Sounds like a limit screw was a little off... rear wheel lock ups are not fun.

Had one a few weeks ago that was not chain related... the cone lock washer on my 3 speed sheared off on the non drive side and this frees up the bearing which then tightens itself and stopped the wheel. This happened at low speed and there was no lasting damage.

This was not anything I could fix on the road and had to walk a few miles back to the shop to install a new lock washer.

Yeah, sounds to me like that to. If the rear derailler is installed and adjusted properly it should be physically impossible to shift into a gear you don't have.

A friend of mine had the chain jump off on the rear on his new bike to, the shop didn't adjust it right.

lol, not to belittle a scary experience, but you should see what happens if your front wheel locks up. The story is "I don't know what happened, but suddenly my bike stopped and I went flying over the handlebars." :-( The front wheel is the scary wheel...

I just replaced the whole drive train a couple weeks ago...


Sounds like a limit screw was a little off...

Didja replace the cassette and/or rear derailleur? Didja set the low limit screw right when you did the work...?

The cassette was replaced, but the shop did it. You had warned me about how they fixed the front derailleur ( and thanks, by the way ). They adjusted the RD, too. I've always had trouble with it, and it's an old, nine-speed one. ( Shimano 105 ). My guess is that it's just dying. The people at the shop always do great work, as far as I can tell, and have a reputation for being great mechanics. Is it possible the RD came out of tune quickly? Or could I have bent the hanger and pushed it to the left?

Also, believe it or not, I have a dork disk on this bike. I would take and post a pic, but the camera is at home, and I want to do something about the bike before I get there. Last time, the chain came off and wrapped around the BB and pedal spindle, going down a hill at speed, and I didn't almost crash, but could have. The rear wheel gets a "death wobble" around 30 mph, which I've never been able to fix. I think I'll feel a lot more comfortable on a different bike, even if it isn't as good.

Yeah, you know, from that description if it was me I'd just buy a whole new bike to.

Must be the season for big-big failures. My drivetrain locked up on the way home 2 weeks ago. Downshifting into big-big approaching a stop light. Bang! Fortunately, little traffic, flat ground, already slowing, plenty of room to pull over. Dearailluer was hanging from the cable, hanger was cracked in two pieces, lower pulley and part of the cage was broken off and wedged in the rear spokes. 2 miles from home, had my cleat covers, so I walked. 20 minutes later, I was thinking I should have called my wife instead. Only 500 miles on the bike, too!

Replaced rear derailluer, derailluer hanger, had a shop replace the bents spoke and true wheel. I had noticed ghost shifting on the way home, and was going to check the indexing over the weekend. Don't know if the hanger was defective/failing, or if there was a problem with the derailluer. I saw the low limit screw was backed quite a ways out, don't recall if it was like that before, someone messed with it (but that should have affected my 1st shift into big-big, not 9-10 miles later), or it was working it's way out from vibration (has NEVER happened before in 7-8 years of commuting and riding). Chain was long enough to not lock up derailluer in big-big, too. Even with 2 more teeth on the big cog for the wheel I was using vs. the wheel the bike came with. Anyway, I'm trying to avoid big-big now.

I'm 33 years old, and I don't drink. :( :mad:

...

That only leaves one option :)

Seriously though, glad you're ok. I remember your recent post about your drive train replacement. Congrats on the new bike, whatever it may be!

The cassette was replaced, but the shop did it. You had warned me about how they fixed the front derailleur ( and thanks, by the way ). They adjusted the RD, too. I've always had trouble with it, and it's an old, nine-speed one. ( Shimano 105 ). My guess is that it's just dying. The people at the shop always do great work, as far as I can tell, and have a reputation for being great mechanics. Is it possible the RD came out of tune quickly? Or could I have bent the hanger and pushed it to the left?

Also, believe it or not, I have a dork disk on this bike. I would take and post a pic, but the camera is at home, and I want to do something about the bike before I get there. Last time, the chain came off and wrapped around the BB and pedal spindle, going down a hill at speed, and I didn't almost crash, but could have. The rear wheel gets a "death wobble" around 30 mph, which I've never been able to fix. I think I'll feel a lot more comfortable on a different bike, even if it isn't as good.

Ah. Bring it in where you got the work done, explain the situation, and let them know you're looking for a new bike. Don't even hint that you're blaming them for the situation, just explain like you did here--that you're just not going to have peace of mind on the bike. There's a chance they will fall all over themselves trying to make good by offering some kind of deal on a new bike...

Ah. Bring it in where you got the work done, explain the situation, and let them know you're looking for a new bike. Don't even hint that you're blaming them for the situation, just explain like you did here--that you're just not going to have peace of mind on the bike. There's a chance they will fall all over themselves trying to make good by offering some kind of deal on a new bike...

What? lol, are you kidding?

Unless it was the only bike shop in town, frankly, I would be highly tempted to ***** them out about it.

But no matter what, I would not go back to a bike shop who's work apparently nearly resulted in broken bones or death. There is no way I would be nice to them, or buy my new bike there.

I'm probably more likely to sell this one on Craigslist, and look for another used bike there. I think it's probably and old and somewhat beat up bike and not shoddy work that almost did me in, however. It worked beautifully when I left the shop with it. I went 30 miles on a pothole ridden mountain trail this weekend on it. Seems unlikely, but, like in post #20, I might have shook the screw loose, or bent the hanger, or something.

Had a similar weird rear wheel lock up when a lock nut came loose on one of the bearings in my rear wheel, the cone then turned on the axle until the bearing seized up tight and I went skating. Fortunately I wasn't going very fast so stayed upright. I don't normally carry cone wrenches with me while commuting, though, so loosened the rear wheel and walked the bike 3 miles home with the axle turning in the dropouts the whole way. The threads in the axle were toast.

Does this illustrate why we should never ever use the big-big combo?

I doubt that was the problem.


Sounds like a limit screw was a little off...

THAT was most likely the problem.


Where's the dork disc advocacy group on this?

What does this have to do with anything? Are you sure you've posted in the right thread? BTW, I happen to like disc brakes, but again: what does that have to do with anything in this thread? Sorry, my apologies, I misunderstood you, I completely forgot about those disks :o


I'm here. Love em.

Righ behind ya... Never mind, see above :o


How were you in the big-big combo and doing 23 mph? You must have been spinning about 200 rpm.

Hm... indeed... mystery!


The cassette was replaced, but the shop did it.

Stay. Away. From. Bike. Shops. They're sloppy. Do it yourself. Not rocket science. Well, some people do strap rockets to their rear racks, but that's besides the point. I'm so much happier and my bikes are so much happier now that I do all of it myself.

I'm glad you got out of this all right though.


Must be the season for big-big failures. My drivetrain locked up on the way home 2 weeks ago. Downshifting into big-big approaching a stop light. Bang! Fortunately, little traffic, flat ground, already slowing, plenty of room to pull over. Derailleur was hanging from the cable, hanger was cracked in two pieces, lower pulley and part of the cage was broken off and wedged in the rear spokes. 2 miles from home, had my cleat covers, so I walked.

Maybe the RD was too close to the cassette/large cog (B screw)? Or a RD pulley was worn/cracked/loose and the chain dropped off of a pulley and ripped the RD apart? I really doubt big-big combination itself would cause such a massive failure. The only problem with big-big is suboptimal chain line and chain/cog/ring wear. The RD should be able to handle the angle too.


I saw the low limit screw was backed quite a ways out, don't recall if it was like that before, someone messed with it (but that should have affected my 1st shift into big-big, not 9-10 miles later)

Not necessarily, it doesn't have to happen right the first time. It may happen many shifts later. It might have been just a little off and it needed a certain alignment of the chain, the ramps on the cog and slightly quicker shift than normally.

Make it dramatic at the LBS and they might give you a very good discount on a new bike.

Glad you were not hurt :)

Where's the dork disc advocacy group on this?

I have a bike that desperately needs a dork disk. For some reason the chain likes to ride up on the top derailleur pulley and then shifting into the spokes is a near certainty. I had a similar incident to the OP, but fortunately nobody was around and I rode it out.

Pretty much everyone who replied said they're glad I wasn't hurt. Thanks, folks! :hug: It was a very exciting morning. Scared the living **** out of me. :eek: More after I got to work, sat down, and had a moment to think about it. :twitchy: My heart is back to normal now :o, but I appreciate the concern. You folks rock!

Where's the dork disc advocacy group on this?


What does this have to do with anything? Are you sure you've posted in the right thread? BTW, I happen to like disc brakes, but again: what does that have to do with anything in this thread?

I don't think you understand what the term "dork disc" refers to.

Here's an explanation -
http://www.cyclelicio.us/2008/10/dork-disk.html

It has nothing to do with disc brakes, it's a part specifically designed (in theory, sounds like it didn't work for the OP) to keep the chain from jumping off the tallest rear ring into the spokes.

I think the original post was a bit tongue-in-cheek, a reference to how people complain they "look bad", "are dorky", "useless", etc etc but here one could have been really saved the day.

I don't think you understand what the term "dork disc" refers to.

OMG :eek: I completely forgot about those!! Sorry DGozinya, yeah I misunderstood your post. My apologies :o

How were you in the big-big combo and doing 23 mph? You must have been spinning about 200 rpm.

I guess one reason for not using big-big is that you can get going pretty fast in that vulnerable large cog. Shifting into the spokes is a lot less scary at the speeds that cog is more commonly used for.

Big-big is typically the lowest gear I ever use, unless I'm actually climbing a significant hill. Other than that, big-big is my lowest gear. Then again, I think I take this into account and (1) adjust my RD to preclude jumping off the big cog in back, and (2) when and if I do shift off the top, I react quickly enough to push it back into smaller cogs. I've never gotten the chain stuck in there while doing any kind of speed; I've always managed to shift back out before things go really, really bad.

Big-big is typically the lowest gear I ever use, unless I'm actually climbing a significant hill. Other than that, big-big is my lowest gear.

LOL Cat says - what?

What? lol, are you kidding?

Unless it was the only bike shop in town, frankly, I would be highly tempted to ***** them out about it.

But no matter what, I would not go back to a bike shop who's work apparently nearly resulted in broken bones or death. There is no way I would be nice to them, or buy my new bike there.

There's this thing called reading. You should try it some time.

OP says he trusts the shop's work and that it has a generally good reputation. A decent shop might very well do a loyal customer a favor in such a situation. Not so inclined to do any kind of favor to a customer coming in ranting, accusing the shop of nearly killing him...

LOL Cat says - what?

When riding around town, the lowest gear I use is the big cog in the back. I rarely shift out of the big chain ring in the front. Is that hard to grasp?

The shop broke the chain for me and took the wheel off. The freewheel is seized up. ( Could that have jarred the bike enough to drop the chain? ) They say I could theoretically replace just the freewheel, but it doesn't make sense to with the damage to the spokes.

They said if I wanted to keep the bike, they can give me a used but reliable wheel. It would fit the 700x28 I have on the dead wheel, but it's not meant for disc brakes. When I told them I wanted to sell and replace it, they said they'd ask around and see how cheaply they can find a disc wheel.

Question: Can the front wheel be trusted? I got the bike used, about two years ago, and it looked like it had been used a lot. I've put 4,200 miles on it since then. I've jumped curbs, gone down stairs, and had lots of fun on dirt trails. Probably the freewheel either got banged up, or dust inside, or something like that, and died. Is this about to happen to the front wheel? I can't really sell the bike as a death trap.

Remember when we were kids on bikes with coaster brakes, and how much fun it was to go as fast as you could and then slam on the brakes and skid to a halt, leaving a wavy black tire mark on the pavement?You mean what the brakeless fixie riders (the ones that can stop, anyways) do every time they stop?

The freewheel is seized??
If it seized first - you should have felt a momentary "fixed gear" feeling in your pedals before the chain suddenly was pitched off?

I'm guessing that if the chain pitched off first-maybe the freewheel could have been jammed by the force of the jammed chain pushing sideways on the freewheel.
I would bet the chain was throw first,and that jammed the freewheel.

Question: Can the front wheel be trusted? I got the bike used, about two years ago, and it looked like it had been used a lot. I've put 4,200 miles on it since then. I've jumped curbs, gone down stairs, and had lots of fun on dirt trails. Probably the freewheel either got banged up, or dust inside, or something like that, and died. Is this about to happen to the front wheel? I can't really sell the bike as a death trap.The front wheel doesn't have a freewheel -- there's not really anything that could possibly lock up.

It's certainly possible that the wheel could fail in some spectacular way, but there's really no way to guess merely based on it's age and how many miles are on it. The only way to tell would be to look at it. If you can't make this determination, the bike shop can.

Still, I wouldn't assume that since the back wheel failed, the front wheel will -- the odds are that your front wheel is fine, that at most it just needs the bearings repacked or at least more grease (not because of the near-death experience, just because they occasionally need more lube, and maybe you've never done that.) But even if you don't do this, all that will happen is that it won't roll as smoothly (though you're likely to not even notice) and will wear more heavily -- it's not dangerous, at least until the wear gets really bad (and you'll certainly notice that long before it's dangerous.)

I had a chain wraparound lockup going downhill at about 25mph. I managed to bring the skid to a controlled stop and had to carry the bike home. Mine was caused by a plastic SRAM derailleur cage cracking. It is one of the scarier types of failures to have, only exceeded by a snapped fork, handlebar, crank, or a front tyre blow-out. Consider the experience as a valuable lesson and you will be much better prepared for your next freak incident.

In my experience, this has NO impact on the front wheel which carried on working as normal for years.

How were you in the big-big combo and doing 23 mph? You must have been spinning about 200 rpm.

I'm not entirely sure. Things happened so quickly, that it over a few seconds after I began to realize what was going on. But, I had just crested a small but steep hill. I worked up some speed on the flat road before I took the hill, in big-to-something, and kept down-shifting with the right hand until I got to the top of the hill in big-to-big. Probably, I was pedaling at a more normal cadence, and only giving some power to the bike. I was also coming down the other side of the hill, and that's probably where most of my speed came from. My big-to-big combo on this bike is 50x28, which isn't that fast.

There's this thing called reading. You should try it some time.

OP says he trusts the shop's work and that it has a generally good reputation. A decent shop might very well do a loyal customer a favor in such a situation. Not so inclined to do any kind of favor to a customer coming in ranting, accusing the shop of nearly killing him...

You know, I think I did actually miss half a sentence in what you wrote. I thought you wrote to barely mention what happened and kiss their ass, but reading back through it I clearly missed the part where you said to explain what happened and say that you're not going to have peace of mind on the bike - which is totally different. I can only say, although your response is as snarky as mine, you're right here - I misread what you wrote.

Sounds like a limit screw was a little off

+1
Chances are that the fix will be pretty easy - remove the cassette, inspect for damage, replace any damaged spokes (possibly the chain), PROPERLY adjust the R-der limit screw, you're all set.

Could have just applied front brake and bring the bike to a quick stop. If this happens always steer toward the direction that the rear end is sliding this will bring the bike bike in line.

Remember when we were kids on bikes with coaster brakes, and how much fun it was to go as fast as you could and then slam on the brakes and skid to a halt, leaving a wavy black tire mark on the pavement?


When it would rain (and when I was a kid), we'd ride into my garage as fast as possible, lock up the brakes and slide sideways into the back wall with the object of hitting it hard enough to knock us back upright. Only was able to do it a couple times but in all the years since then, I've never once panicked in a skid.

I'm not entirely sure.

Not surprising... I suppose you were otherwise occupied at the time. Sounds like you exhibited some mad handling skilz.

I don't know whether I used the front brake or not; I didn't try to steer, though, because I had no control over the bike.
It's probably case per case but I'd say the safest bet would be avoiding the front brake. If you lock up the rear tire of the motorcycle you're supposed to keep it locked and ride it out to a stop. I believe the theory is that the back end is no longer aligned with the front tire, so the force can't transfer perfectly to the front. You risk the inertia of your rear end swinging forward and most likely highsiding or sliding out on you. Not sure if motorcycle and bicycle physics are close enough that this will apply, so take it for what it's worth.