15 years ago today... July 13, 2010. A warm sunny day in the South Dakota Badlands.
We were on our way back to Arizona from Chicago, taking the scenic route. On the back of my full size long bed pickup truck was a 2-place rack my friend and I had built in the early 1990s, which had seen many trips and miles with faithful service. Hanging on that rack was my Ross Mt. Cruiser, which I'd bought 15 years earlier as part of a his n' hers set with my girlfriend (later wife). The Ross had over 13,000 miles on it and was my primary bike up until the spring of 2010, when I built up one of my aluminum Nashbar cruisers. Also on the rack was my 5-year-old son's trailercycle, both locked securely to the rack with a heavy chain.
As we were leaving the Badlands and heading into Wall, we couldn't believe how rude South Dakota drivers were. They were honking at us, yelling at us, and flashing their lights, even though we were driving 65 mph. Finally, one of them pulled alongside us and yelled "YOUR BIKES! YOUR BIKES!!!"
Uh oh.
It turned out one of the arms had fatigued and snapped off, tumbling the bikes onto the asphalt at 65 mph, dragged merrily along by the stout chain. For more than 5 miles. And due to the shell & mirrors, our view of the rack was nonexistent while driving.
We pulled over and took stock of the metallic carnage. The trailercycle had fortunately surfed on top of the cruiser and suffered minimal damage. But the Ross had taken a beating.
Sad dragged cruiser
We tossed the entire mess on top of the shell, bungeed it down, and drove back to AZ, still having a good road trip but saddened by the fate of our 2-wheel friend.
After we got home, I took stock of the destruction:
Rather forked up
Ablated derailleur
A real basket case
These used to be identical.
Tacos, anyone?
I dismantled the bike and put the frame in the corner, thinking its days were done.
But a few weeks later, I thought: "Maybe we can rebuild it. We have the technology. We can make it better, stronger... but no, not faster. I have other bikes for that.
So I put the frame on the stand, got out the 2x4, straightened it as best I could, ordered a new fork, laced up a new pair of wheels, covered the destroyed paint with many rolls of 3M electrical tape, installed some used painted-up racks and another fabric basket... and it was reborn.
Since then, I've put more than 8,000 additional miles on the bike. It's not my fastest bike, or the most capable, or the most efficient, but it's the bike that just fits me like a well-worn pair of very comfortable shoes, but in bike form. The wheels ended up on another bike, I've swapped out some components, but it's still rolling, and here's its current configuration:
Looking forward to many miles to come. And I use much stouter racks on our vehicles that get inspected on a regular basis. Just to be sure.