Well, I'm glad to get this formality out of the way.
 

Hi All, I'm speaking of the mandatory bike flop following a build. :(

I went to explore a nature trail that my grand daughter could enjoy from a bike seat and took the touring bike for a final fitment ride, it's now perfect. A gust of wind in the opposite direction from what had been blowing blew the bike over onto the drive side. It sounded nice and solid when it fell over, nothing knocked loose or out of adjustment with the only damage a scratched rack and a brake lever with more scratches.

As for the nature trail... it's been neglected and pretty much a mountain bike path now. The T bike did well over everything including some large tree roots and was only handful on a very steep decent where I couldn't get as far as I would've liked behind my saddle. It'll be fine for my grand daughter.

Brad

Happens to the best of us. Keep on riding!

Yea, I was thinking how awesome it was that my shiny green bike had gone a whole year without a scratch, then on my first tour of the year, I, for some reason, thought it would be a good idea to lean it against a bolder with weight on it.. it slipped and I got a nice white "boulder kiss" on my chainstay.

Just think of it as a badge of honour! Now every time you see that scratch you can think of your inaugural ride! :)

the other week I was sawing off the ends of some new riser bars I put on my mtn/commuter bike, it fell over against junk in the garage and put a boo-boo on my year old Brooks saddle. Over the years the ones that bug me were when other people would move my bike and put it against a pole or straight edge of something, wheels move and scratch down toptube....grrrrr.

formality, good way of putting it.

I repainted my fixie frame prior to PBP2007 in what was rushed job -- I had broken the right rear dropout on my touring bike meant for the event, and a replacement was called for.

When we got to the campsite at St Quentin, I leaned it against a steel picket. Sure enough, the paint was still soft enough to ensure a foot-long gouging scratch along the toptube.

I covered it up with green and yellow insulation tape (Australian sporting colours). It's still there today, but will be removed, along with the rest of the paint, for a new makeover in coming weeks.

It's not really yours until your scratch it !

Marc

Marc, I figure it's not mine until it draws blood! :)

Brad

Dude! Hardcore!

Marc

Does it have to be my blood?