A lucky break
07-20-11, 07:27 AM
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A lucky break
Something broke - that's not particularly lucky - but it broke in my house rather than out on the road. That is lucky.
I present a Deda Zero 100 stem...
About 4-5 weeks ago I hit a big chunk of loose paving on a road here (large feature tile covering a drainage ditch). Didn't see it at all. Had to turn back to investigate.
When I hit hard the handlebars tilted down a bit. Checked wheel - fine. Borrowed a mini-tool from another rider to loosen stem front plate, then adjusted bars back up and off I rode. Bike seemed fine.
Yesterday I noticed that the bars had moved forward a little. I'd been getting numb hands at times, so I suspect it has been moving for a while.
So I decide to take it off the front plate, clean everything, and reassemble using my torque wrench. I figured I hadn't tightened it up enough with the mini-tool (I was being careful not to over do it).
When cleaning I noticed small cracks on both sides of the top bolts. These had been hidden in the usual build up of sweat and gunk. I guessed I was going to need a new stem, but there looks to be plenty of material there and it's 7.30pm and I want to ride tomorrow.
Clean everything up and decided to reassemble anyway. Set torque wrench, spin in the bolts, tighten slowly in a pattern - PING!!!!
Bike shop shuts at 8pm. Fast cab ride, a new Deda stem (wrong size), swap over the face plate - ready to ride. Guy in shop wanted to keep the broken parts to show his friend the Deda distributor - "I will ask him why he wants to kill my friends".
I shudder to think what would have happened if the PING! was coming down a descent tomorrow morning!
I present a Deda Zero 100 stem...
About 4-5 weeks ago I hit a big chunk of loose paving on a road here (large feature tile covering a drainage ditch). Didn't see it at all. Had to turn back to investigate.
When I hit hard the handlebars tilted down a bit. Checked wheel - fine. Borrowed a mini-tool from another rider to loosen stem front plate, then adjusted bars back up and off I rode. Bike seemed fine.
Yesterday I noticed that the bars had moved forward a little. I'd been getting numb hands at times, so I suspect it has been moving for a while.
So I decide to take it off the front plate, clean everything, and reassemble using my torque wrench. I figured I hadn't tightened it up enough with the mini-tool (I was being careful not to over do it).
When cleaning I noticed small cracks on both sides of the top bolts. These had been hidden in the usual build up of sweat and gunk. I guessed I was going to need a new stem, but there looks to be plenty of material there and it's 7.30pm and I want to ride tomorrow.
Clean everything up and decided to reassemble anyway. Set torque wrench, spin in the bolts, tighten slowly in a pattern - PING!!!!
Bike shop shuts at 8pm. Fast cab ride, a new Deda stem (wrong size), swap over the face plate - ready to ride. Guy in shop wanted to keep the broken parts to show his friend the Deda distributor - "I will ask him why he wants to kill my friends".
I shudder to think what would have happened if the PING! was coming down a descent tomorrow morning!
07-20-11, 07:50 AM
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Originally Posted by RTDub
wshwew. Good catch.
07-20-11, 08:41 AM
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Lucky indeed.
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Originally Posted by patentcad
If this thread doesn't go 10 pages I'm quitting BF.
07-20-11, 09:01 AM
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and to think wheels would take more damage than the stem. Thank goodness you spotted it before your next ride.
07-20-11, 06:27 PM
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Originally Posted by FactVord
and to think wheels would take more damage than the stem. Thank goodness you spotted it before your next ride.
No trouble on the ride this morning. Only issue is that the face plate is black and not the gunmetal colour of the stem. I'll probably get over it.
