I'll have to take my bike home today, but I refuse to think of it as a "Ride of Shame." Shortly before I got to work, pedaling got a lot easier. Checked the gears, and my front derailer is sticking out at about 30 degrees from vertical, while the chain somehow got from the big ring to the middle ring. Looked further, and the derailer is rusted through and the pivot, and the spring is pulling it way inward.

I wore something out. (Again.) I think the ride home will be a Ride of Pride. I'm tougher than my bike!

Anybody else want to share a component failure story?

The component that fail most of the time on my bike is the rider

My commuter bike eats chainrings. I have a 9 speed so a single chainring up front and nine in the back. It means that the chain angle is moving dramatically. It's not because my commute is hilly- its not- but urban commuting in Boston/New York means frequent times when I slow to walking speed and drop into the lowest gears to do so. Takes me a little under a year to wear one down to tiny pointed teeth.

I've had a couple of the old steel 10 and 12 speeds that cracked the frame. Both did it gradually with plenty of warning. But given enough time and repetitive stress, anything will fail. I also had an aluminum handle bar break off suddenly, without warning.

I've been known to ride the wheels off my bikes... Here's the latest...





The Hub's a Shimano Deore XT 36 spoke, the dog's a Jack Russel (named Zoe).

My kinda dog!