So I was riding home after work on my 1989 Benotto fixie, taking the long way, when the frame broke. I should have seen it coming; the carbon fork was shuddering like crazy under any kind of front braking for the past while, and I just thought it was the old Nisi Mixer rim with 28 spokes. It failed gracefully (I didn't crash, I just felt the front end get really loose). The frame broke at the top head lug where the top tube meets the head tube. Too much stress from all that front braking. I was able to ride it gently to the bus stop (the top tube is under compression when you sit on the bike as long as you're not braking) and put it on the front bike rack that all the buses around Vancouver are now equipped with and rode the bus home.

The Vancouver frame shop I normally use refused to touch it, so I sent an email and photos to the Rodriguez frame repair shop in Seattle. They said they could TIG-weld a new head tube (one that would take a 1 1/8" steerer tube so I'd have a wider range of all-carbon forks to choose from) for a very reasonable price. The guy I dealt with was very knowledgeable and very detailed. He said the lug broke because the top tube was not mitered where it met the head tube. Typical Mexican construction, I guess. I knew a lot of Benotto's of the time - especially team bikes issued to some of Mexico's top riders on the Benotto team - had been breaking consistently.

Well, as long as I've got the bike in the shop, why not have S&S couplers installed on it, as well as split rear brake cable stops underneath the top tube? This would allow me to fly the bike for free on any of my out-of-province trips at work, and then if the city I was in had a velodrome, I'd just have to pack a spare track bar/stem assembly and maybe track wheels, then just remove the brakes, squeeze the rear caliper and disengage the rear cable from the split stops, remove the stem (with bars and brakes attached), and install the track bars/stem, and I'm ready to ride the track.

Of course, the other option is to just buy a Rodriguez "Shiftless" (street fixie) frame for $795, tack on $700 for the S&S couplers installed, and another $150 or so for carbon forks and split cable stops, and I'd have a properly-built bike in True Temper tubing that would do the same thing, painted any color I wanted, for well under $2000. But the Benotto has great sentimental value, and the rebuild is cheaper. I used it in the early 90's to set most of my personal bests on the track, and I plan to ride it in the 2011 Paris-Brest-Paris (as a fixed gear), so it will be the bike on which I set personal bests from 200 meters to 1200 kilometers!

Luis