Today less than a half mile from work as I was starting out at a green light, my beloved 1984 Centurion LeMans 12 fixed gear finished its last ever ride at 7504mi since its May 2005 conversion.

The seat tube to bottom bracket lug snapped in two. I felt it, a jolt in pedal pressure, pulled over and began inspection, it felt like the chain was skipping or the cog was slipping (neither of which I have ever experienced). It took a while as I first checked the cog, the chain, the chainring, even the pedals. Then I saw the crack, jagged in the middle and the full diameter of the lug. The metal was clean and grey, no rust, except for some dusting inside. I started walking the 9mi home, a bus passed, but it's bike rack was full. I call my wife to pick me up and kept walking another 3mi, somewhat in shock and wondering what future bike will come of this.

My dad bought this bike new. He barely rode it. I took it to college and put a few casual miles on it plus some training miles for the annual beer bike race. Mostly however it stayed in storage.

The commuting forum is where I post this as commuting is what brought me back to more cycling than I'd ever done before and because I converted this Centruion to satifiy my curiosity in fixed gear bikes and to use as a commuter, but I soon used it for most all other of my riding, from hill climb TTs to several centuries and just about every weekend club ride. I loved riding it and will miss it.

Al

For more money than it's worth, a frame builder can probably fix her up. But don't be sad. She died doing what she was built for. Now you can spec a brand new fixie and build her up nice and maybe you'll get another 23 years out of it.

I hail you, Centurion. (Will this be an open casket? Pictures?)



EDIT: Don't mean to come off as glib. It must be a drag, Noisebeam. Good thing you didn't go down with the ship.

I truly feel your pain. I snapped the seat stays on my beloved Raleigh SuperCourse on Sunday. It will get a place on honor on my wall. Hope you get a new one that gives you the satisfaction this one did.

I'm actually on the verge of getting misty reading your post Al.

RIP Centurion.

I also lost a commuter in exactly the same way - the lug at the bottom of the seat tube cracked. The bike had also belonged to my father, and was purchased in '84. Weird. It was a Fuji, though - if it had been a Centurion it would be almost *too* weird.

Except that my current commuter is an old Centurion LeMans RS - curiouser and curioser!

Sorry to hear it, Al Sounds like she was well-refurbished and well-loved though. It doesn't sound like the frame had more than maybe 10k total miles on it. Which is kind of surprisingly low for a good brand of 80s Japanese bike... they're pretty darn sturdy in my experience.

Good luck finding a replacement frame or bike. Hang this one on the wall for a good conversation piece!

Here's what's weird. MY singlespeed conversion, which is rapidly becoming the be-everything bike? A 1982 Fuji. Which was my father's. In the words of Richard Dreyfuss: This means something!

Thanks everyone!
The very first thoughts I had starting the walk home were both that it was sad, but also positive ones, first that it didn't happen during a scenario or in a way (say a fork) that could have caused a wreck and also that it will lead to another bike.
I can show some pics, but not until after the weekend.
Al

i feel your loss.

a funny thing happened when i totalled my paramount frame in a crash a couple years back... a few weeks later someone offered me the exact same frame (different color).

i hope something like this works out for you... you could always check ebay. the nice thing about getting the EXACT same frame is you know all your parts will fit

as someone else said it died serving it's prupose; no nobler death can be had for a bicycle...

Thats to bad, I love the Centurian, I bought a pristine circa 82 Dave Scott triathlon model off Ebay a couple years ago for my wife. I converted to more hybrid freindly with a Dove bar, longer stem, MTB brakes and thumb shifters. It's very lightweight and extremey reliable. I believe it was originally marketed as the 1st dedicated Triathalon bike. Maybe you can find another one.