auchencrow

Today, I decided to upgrade my venerable Peugeot UE8, and replace the clunky 27" steel wheels with some nice Mavic Mod E 27 x 1-1/4"" wheels that I found hanging in my garage.







I know what some of you are thinking. "Lucky guy, to find those hanging in his garage."

Well then, lemme tell you something: If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all!

It turns out, the stock Weinmann 610 rear caliper was too short to reach the rim on my lovely 27" Mavic wheel. But what the hey? Rather than contemplate these great mysteries of life, I decided I could postpone the purchase of a long-reach caliper, and forgo the nicety of a rear brake to take it out for a test ride.



Around the corner from where I live there is a hill. It is lightly traveled so usually it is the first place I test out my bikes. The only problem is that the hill slopes down - way down, and I'm going a really good clip by the time I get to the bottom of it. Today was no different, except for one thing: A ground hog decided to appear out from under the guard rail, stopping directly in front of me, just as I sped toward the bottom - well in excess of 40MPH!

"Get the #** out of my way!" I shouted to the ground hog - but he was not at all impressed by my erudition. Rather, he stood tall, up on his hind legs, nose in the air, sniffing our mutual and impending doom with relish, apparently bent on some suicidal mission to wreak ground-hog vengeance on this little bit of humanity.

I squeezed my only hand-brake hard, and the rear of the bike raised up as my front tire went skittering down the pavement. My rear wheel started bouncing so violently that my saddle felt like a jackhammer on my nether parts, slapping back down against the pavement, only to repeat the cycle with even greater violence.

Looking ahead, I saw two those determined beady brown eyes, now bifurcated by my skittering, smoking front tire. Then, just a split second before impact, that furry little varmint nonchalantly stepped aside.

I blew by him, with not an inch to spare.

"Missed him!"

I released my death grip on the front brake lever, coasting half-way up the next hill. I stopped, exhaled, and looked back: There he was. Mr. Ground Hog, placidly munching away on the greener grass on the other side of the street. For a moment, I was certain that he held up his middle claw to me, but it was at some great distance and I know my aging eyes can sometimes play tricks. Anyway, I snapped his pic with my crappy camera phone for evidence.



Needless to say, I will not ride this bike again until it has a proper and fully functional rear brake - because if it wasn't for bad luck...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Hlf...eature=related

due ruote 

Great story, and nice video clip. Oh - and nice wheelset.

dsprehe89

How is this bad luck? With my luck I would have either hit him or completely flipped the bike. You missed him and didn't wreck, that is lucky if you ask me.

MetinUz

I am not sure I understand. I have ridden double centuries without once using my rear brake. One can stop just as fast using front brakes as front and rear combined. So, I view the rear brake as a failsafe in case the front brake cable breaks.

rat fink

As a Booker T. Jones fan, I had to click on this thread. Funny story.

ColonelJLloyd 

GD whistle pigs! Love your writing, buddy.

Here's another one for you, Auchen.

And a joke:

Q: How many guitar players does it take to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughn?
A: All of them, apparently.

dsprehe89

I think the issue was that he had to make a sudden stop with only the front brake. My SS/FG has only a front brake on it in general and is easy to stop in regular circumstances. However, at 40+mph only having a front brake to use and trying to avoid an impact would be extremely scary.

rhm

How did the brake fit one 27" wheel, and not another one? Are you sure that thang isn't a 700c?

Put out an APB on a Weinmann 750 brake. Someone has one. It might be me. You never know. I never know.

Ground hogs are pretty funny looking.

Mike Mills

nm

ColonelJLloyd 

Do you have a sense of humor, Mr. Mills?

auchencrow

Thank you due route.
The Mavic Mod E's are indeed especially nice rims - I have them on a few of my bikes, and they make quite a lot of difference. (Especially as replacements for cast iron rims, as was the case here).

auchencrow

I swapped out a 27" wheel for another 27" wheel and had to spend money on another caliper, then a ground hog almost killed me and gives me the finger - claw.
That's bad luck - but I'll concede that you may have even worse luck -- but good luck finding a song lyric that includes "even worse luck" in the refrain!

dsprehe89

While you weren't lucky, I wouldn't call you unlucky. I feel everyone has their good seasons and their bad ones. Heres how my luck has been this past summer, I put a completely new drivetrain on my MTB last winter, then on the first ride a stick jumped up and pushed the rear derailleur into my rear wheel completely destroying the derailleur and bending spokes on my new wheel. Then I get my derailleur replaced and on my second ride (last week) the same thing happens, luckily for me I slammed on the rear brakes before anything broke, all I had to do was bend the derailleur hanger back into place a little. I also bought my first ever road bike (a 80's Raleigh) off CL and within the first week of riding it I bent the crank chainrings and caused the chain to jump off and me to flip over the bars (I was in the middle of taking off from a stop and obviously putting much more force into it than it could handle) and the rear derailleur on it got damaged some how in the wreck (I think it struck the ground and got bent). I sure hope next year is better .

However, That really doesn't make sense that your calipers fit older steel 27" wheels, but not your newer 27" wheels. I am in the middle of converting the previous Raleigh that I talked about above to SS/FG and I put 700c wheels on it and it had 27" originally and it worked fine. I guess your newer rear wheel has a slightly larger diameter?

auchencrow

lol

And thanks for the link Colonel -I enjoyed it and I love P-90 LP's as well!

auchencrow

Hi RHM -
Yes, it was positively a 27 incher. Most guys only run into trouble when they swap for 700's, (and even then some get away with it).

Thanks for the thought on the Weinmann 750, but I already snagged one on eBay, buy it now. I knew I was paying too much, but I thought I'd better grab it now- (It was a black label 750 that will match the front.)

auchencrow

Wow dsprehe89 - You really had some crappy luck this past summer! -Maybe I should take out a life insurance policy on you? (JK)

I have a suspicion (or superstition) that by sharing your bad luck tale here, you will ward it off -( or at least dilute it by spreading it around to all your fellow C&V'ers! )

Regarding swapping 27" wheels -there are a few reasons why you can have a problem: (1) The rim section on a mod E is narrower than a Chromalux (2) there is manufacturing variance from one bike frame to the next (esp with old Raleighs) and (3) Weinmann 610s were marginal to begin with.

dsprehe89

For now on every time something bad happens, the first thing I'm gonna do is post it on here. Even if that means pulling out my phone and posting it right there while I'm on the trail . Maybe doing so will make my trip back to the car safe .

non-fixie 

Looks like a sensible decision to me.

KonAaron Snake 

The way you told that story was so...dramatic and well paced. Brilliant narrative. I can see the upcoming feature film now:

In a world where ground hogs run wild...ONE MAN will say NOT ON MY WATCH!

auchencrow

Thanks RF - and we might mention William Bell who co-authored the tune with Booker T.

I think these guys deserve some credit too.

auchencrow

It could become a well-worn thread.

auchencrow

I want part of the rights!

himespau 

Hey at least you didn't hit it and wreck your new (to the bike anyway) rims.

rat fink

Indeed. I mostly associate the song with Booker T since I am also an organ player and he is one of my influences. I like the Cream version of the song as well.


If you haven't had enough of the song, here something you might appreciate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh9KDzNkpSI

gridplan

I don't know if you've ever hit one of these, but trust me, you don't want to. I hit one 6 weeks ago at half the speed you were going and still don't have the okay from my doctor to resume riding. It was the first one I'd encountered. They are surprisingly large.