Guinessisgoodforyou
rBotM Winner
Christ! Are you ok? Bad news about the frame.
Today's Ride
- Thread starter FairfaxPat
- Start date
Frankenorange
Orange 🍊 Fan
Bummer about the frame. Hope you are ok .
moonlite
Kona Fan
Had an equipment fail to moan about on today's ride, but @wynne's accident has given me a bit of perspective. No injuries to me whatsoever, so just annoyance-level breakage to report.
I finally got this Cinder Cone into rideable shape. Getting the XT V-brakes set up was more fiddly than I'd thought, and the cable housing at the rear derailleur (well, only derailleur) is a little short, causing a kink which makes gear changes a bit slow and sticky.
That said, it was a nice afternoon, warm but windy, so I took off to test the bike. First impressions were excellent -- it felt responsive and planted, mainly due to the rigid front end, I think.
I was in two minds as to whether to push on but based on the principle that once out, I should maximise the opportunity, I took off down the other side of the hill. This is where having a rigid fork is a little less of an advantage: on the dry, slippy gravel the front end felt a bit sketchy, so where normally you might hit 45km/h, I wasn't comfortable above 38 or so. And at speed something in front started making a bit of a noise -- I thought it was the brake shoes but couldn't see any contact with the rim.
Anyway, once that rush was over, I pushed on to where the road is washed out from recent rain, very stony and rutted. And there I heard a ping and a crack and the saddle fell out from under me! It took a bit of a gentle, controlled stop to ensure there would be no falling off, and then my shorts got stuck on the exposed top of the seatpost -- it had broken, leaving my Flite some way back up the road!
Having managed to dismount without a self-inflicted vasectomy, I collected all the bits and bobs scattered over the gravel -- it was clear that the threaded cross-insert for one of the bolts had fractured; presumably the second bolt, which goes through that black plastic adjusting wheel, is now somewhere down in the BB shell.
So with the Flite stuck nose-down in my back jersey pocket and the bolts and stuff safely stowed, it was a case of lowering the seatpost as far as it would go into the frame and standing up all the way home. As I much prefer to be seated and spin hard up hills etc, this proved quite a challenge and my quads were crying by the time we reached the front gate.
Now to try to find the bits to fix that post -- I have an Easton EA50 in 27.0 but it's black. Oh, and the funny noise coming from the front wheel seems to be down to a tiny bit of play in the bearings which I hadn't noticed when putting everything together indoors. Will have to see if that too can be remedied at home.
Even so, no serious damage to me or the bike, so all good.
I finally got this Cinder Cone into rideable shape. Getting the XT V-brakes set up was more fiddly than I'd thought, and the cable housing at the rear derailleur (well, only derailleur) is a little short, causing a kink which makes gear changes a bit slow and sticky.
That said, it was a nice afternoon, warm but windy, so I took off to test the bike. First impressions were excellent -- it felt responsive and planted, mainly due to the rigid front end, I think.
I was in two minds as to whether to push on but based on the principle that once out, I should maximise the opportunity, I took off down the other side of the hill. This is where having a rigid fork is a little less of an advantage: on the dry, slippy gravel the front end felt a bit sketchy, so where normally you might hit 45km/h, I wasn't comfortable above 38 or so. And at speed something in front started making a bit of a noise -- I thought it was the brake shoes but couldn't see any contact with the rim.
Anyway, once that rush was over, I pushed on to where the road is washed out from recent rain, very stony and rutted. And there I heard a ping and a crack and the saddle fell out from under me! It took a bit of a gentle, controlled stop to ensure there would be no falling off, and then my shorts got stuck on the exposed top of the seatpost -- it had broken, leaving my Flite some way back up the road!
Having managed to dismount without a self-inflicted vasectomy, I collected all the bits and bobs scattered over the gravel -- it was clear that the threaded cross-insert for one of the bolts had fractured; presumably the second bolt, which goes through that black plastic adjusting wheel, is now somewhere down in the BB shell.
So with the Flite stuck nose-down in my back jersey pocket and the bolts and stuff safely stowed, it was a case of lowering the seatpost as far as it would go into the frame and standing up all the way home. As I much prefer to be seated and spin hard up hills etc, this proved quite a challenge and my quads were crying by the time we reached the front gate.
Now to try to find the bits to fix that post -- I have an Easton EA50 in 27.0 but it's black. Oh, and the funny noise coming from the front wheel seems to be down to a tiny bit of play in the bearings which I hadn't noticed when putting everything together indoors. Will have to see if that too can be remedied at home.
Even so, no serious damage to me or the bike, so all good.
GLB
Dirt Disciple
I grew up in South Norwood SE London, through the fifties. Autumn was conker season. We all knew where the few conker trees were in Ashburton Park but us little'uns were always beaten to them by the big boys throwing sticks up to knock them down. As a result of this childhood trauma I still find it hard not to pick up a conker when I see one, though living in a more rural location now I see them thick on the ground, unwanted. I've got my condition under control now to the point where I just pick up the first one I see each year. Here's this year's, picked up in St Margaret's churchyard Darenth on today's ride, posing just visibly on the handlebar.
