'One of those rides', and restored faith in humanity!!!!
Discussion
'One of those rides'........
Having dedicated my Saturday to cleaning cars, cutting grass and doing stuff that generally gets in the way of riding, I had a 65 miler planned for Sunday, ending with dinner at mum's with my wife and kids. All was going reasonably well until 20 miles from home my rear mech introduced itself (twice), to my rear wheel resulting in the following;
I need a new hanger, new rear mech, new wheel, new cable - what is REALLY annoying is that I spent a couple of hours yesterday cleaning and re-greasing the bike! After an initial few minutes scratching my head, followed by quite a lot of swearing, followed by the realisation that I was miles from anywhere and wearing speed play cleats with no cleat covers, I put in an SOS call to my missus - quite difficult explaining to someone who has never driven on the A4130 out of Henley to Nettlebed exactly where you are!
Restoration of faith in humanity........
Distress flare deployed I started the long and miserable freewheel 3 or 4 miles into Henley when the first minor miracle happened, a few hundred yards South of Nettlebed (on a dicey bit of road) and 4x4 Volvo pulled over 100 yds in front of me and the driver offered me a lift into Henley! He explained that he had a bike rack in the rear of the car and it would only take 5 mins to fit and he could give me a lift. Very kind but I didn't want to put him through the hassle of having to rig the carrier up, so I thanked him and declined.
Another mile down the road in Bix and a chap in a Golf pulled up 150 yds in front of me and insisted he give me a lift into Henley as I was taking my life in my hands freewheeling along the road, he already had the back seats down as he had just been to the dump. I took the kind gent up on his offer and was dropped right in the middle of Henley about 5 mins before a very grateful wife turned up.
Having been knocked off my bike 3 times in the past month I had begun to feel like a hate target for other road users, but after today my faith has been somewhat restored. Like anything, I guess we only ever notice the a@@holes we meet in life, but there are good people out there - they may not be 'in your face', but they are out there!!!
A final twist;
In a final twist to my somewhat boring story I dropped the bike directly to my LBS and have 3 options; 1 - like for like replacement of wheel etc = expensive, option 2, use the 'episode' as an excuse to upgrade the wheels = very expensive, option 3 = use the excuse to upgrade to a full carbon bike = outrageously expensive (by comparison).
Talking the options over with my wife (and expecting a roasting), she said 'I was thinking of buying you a carbon bike for your 40th this year'
Now I have a real dilemma on my hands, we are 'comfortable', but by no means well off, and the money spent on a full carbon could be usefully deployed elsewhere in our lives to the benefit of more than just me - but this is probably the only chance I will get of justifying upgrading my 2010 Felt F75 to a 2012 Felt F4.............I now have to loose a few nights sleep and decide if I should be a selfish arse and graciously accept a new bike as an early birthday present, or be a slightly less selfish arse and go for the wheel upgrade. Given how things panned out today I am tempted to leave it in the lap of the gods and see what happens!
Having dedicated my Saturday to cleaning cars, cutting grass and doing stuff that generally gets in the way of riding, I had a 65 miler planned for Sunday, ending with dinner at mum's with my wife and kids. All was going reasonably well until 20 miles from home my rear mech introduced itself (twice), to my rear wheel resulting in the following;
I need a new hanger, new rear mech, new wheel, new cable - what is REALLY annoying is that I spent a couple of hours yesterday cleaning and re-greasing the bike! After an initial few minutes scratching my head, followed by quite a lot of swearing, followed by the realisation that I was miles from anywhere and wearing speed play cleats with no cleat covers, I put in an SOS call to my missus - quite difficult explaining to someone who has never driven on the A4130 out of Henley to Nettlebed exactly where you are!
Restoration of faith in humanity........
Distress flare deployed I started the long and miserable freewheel 3 or 4 miles into Henley when the first minor miracle happened, a few hundred yards South of Nettlebed (on a dicey bit of road) and 4x4 Volvo pulled over 100 yds in front of me and the driver offered me a lift into Henley! He explained that he had a bike rack in the rear of the car and it would only take 5 mins to fit and he could give me a lift. Very kind but I didn't want to put him through the hassle of having to rig the carrier up, so I thanked him and declined.
Another mile down the road in Bix and a chap in a Golf pulled up 150 yds in front of me and insisted he give me a lift into Henley as I was taking my life in my hands freewheeling along the road, he already had the back seats down as he had just been to the dump. I took the kind gent up on his offer and was dropped right in the middle of Henley about 5 mins before a very grateful wife turned up.
Having been knocked off my bike 3 times in the past month I had begun to feel like a hate target for other road users, but after today my faith has been somewhat restored. Like anything, I guess we only ever notice the a@@holes we meet in life, but there are good people out there - they may not be 'in your face', but they are out there!!!
A final twist;
In a final twist to my somewhat boring story I dropped the bike directly to my LBS and have 3 options; 1 - like for like replacement of wheel etc = expensive, option 2, use the 'episode' as an excuse to upgrade the wheels = very expensive, option 3 = use the excuse to upgrade to a full carbon bike = outrageously expensive (by comparison).
Talking the options over with my wife (and expecting a roasting), she said 'I was thinking of buying you a carbon bike for your 40th this year'
Now I have a real dilemma on my hands, we are 'comfortable', but by no means well off, and the money spent on a full carbon could be usefully deployed elsewhere in our lives to the benefit of more than just me - but this is probably the only chance I will get of justifying upgrading my 2010 Felt F75 to a 2012 Felt F4.............I now have to loose a few nights sleep and decide if I should be a selfish arse and graciously accept a new bike as an early birthday present, or be a slightly less selfish arse and go for the wheel upgrade. Given how things panned out today I am tempted to leave it in the lap of the gods and see what happens!swerni said:
SystemParanoia said:
just needs a hanger and the wheel re-spoking
Jesus, I'm on the wrong forum hereThe Man's wife wants him to have a new bike and you're saying oooo get a new hanger and re spoke the wheel
FFS, listen to yourself
If there really is significant damage, then of course the OP should buy a new bike. And a spare. And hire a driver to follow him around with the spare on the roof.
Looking at it, surely the mech is damaged too? The chain is intact and the mech no longer has the chain running through it.
The cable I guess is a service part, so will be replaced as a precaution.
But, if the OP has been knocked off three times, and that resulted in the failure, is there any further damage to the bike that should be checked over?
Another bike could be a good idea, but as said, I would consider whether an insurance claim is in order.
The cable I guess is a service part, so will be replaced as a precaution.
But, if the OP has been knocked off three times, and that resulted in the failure, is there any further damage to the bike that should be checked over?
Another bike could be a good idea, but as said, I would consider whether an insurance claim is in order.
GBDG said:
If you got knocked off 3 times, is it not likely that one of those impacts caused the problems that led to the bike failure?
If so, shouldn't you be speaking to the insurance company of the motorist who hit you?
If it was the same motorist all three times, then an insurance claim would be the least of my worries!If so, shouldn't you be speaking to the insurance company of the motorist who hit you?
So, an update to my (boring) story; My wife nipped down to my LBS today to have a chat with the owner about my (her) options. She seems dead set on buying me a ‘nice bike’ for my 40th rather than a watch or something more ‘traditional’ that I would get little use out of. I received a text asking if I liked the Titanium one in the window......! I am still fighting my conscience about spending a lot of money on a bike when we have a kitchen and bathrooms that need re-fitting, but as I said originally I probably won’t get another chance until my 50th! We’re going to have a chat about it tonight, but in my head I am struggling to justify the gains I will get from a full carbon over my alu-carbon.....
The rear wheel was totally destroyed as was the rear mech, one of the spokes actually cut clean through one side of the cage on the mech, when the mech body went through the spokes the wheel jammed solid and I hit the kerb which put a huge dent in the non-drive side. Shop has confirmed I need a new hanger, mech, wheel, cable, I was quite lucky that when the mech hit the carbon seat stay it didn’t crack it.
I can only speculate to the cause of the failure but would assume it was to do with cable stretch or possibly a bit of play in the hangar retaining screw, it did such a good job of destroying itself I don’t think I will ever know.
The recent accidents were all unrelated and all resulted in drive-offs, one was in Cookham high street when a lady in a Range Rover abandoned a parked car overtake at the last minute, and forced me into a parked car which resulted in an OTB moment onto the boot. I had the bike checked out afterwards as I was worried about the forks but it was fine, second was someone overtaking me and then turning left as soon as they passed me resulting in me hitting them side on, and the third was a bloody moped pulling into a cycle lane to overtake queuing traffic up to a set of lights just as I passed. I put them all down to bad luck and stats, I have 3,500 miles under my belt this year so I guess the odds are beginning to stack up against me!
The rear wheel was totally destroyed as was the rear mech, one of the spokes actually cut clean through one side of the cage on the mech, when the mech body went through the spokes the wheel jammed solid and I hit the kerb which put a huge dent in the non-drive side. Shop has confirmed I need a new hanger, mech, wheel, cable, I was quite lucky that when the mech hit the carbon seat stay it didn’t crack it.
I can only speculate to the cause of the failure but would assume it was to do with cable stretch or possibly a bit of play in the hangar retaining screw, it did such a good job of destroying itself I don’t think I will ever know.
The recent accidents were all unrelated and all resulted in drive-offs, one was in Cookham high street when a lady in a Range Rover abandoned a parked car overtake at the last minute, and forced me into a parked car which resulted in an OTB moment onto the boot. I had the bike checked out afterwards as I was worried about the forks but it was fine, second was someone overtaking me and then turning left as soon as they passed me resulting in me hitting them side on, and the third was a bloody moped pulling into a cycle lane to overtake queuing traffic up to a set of lights just as I passed. I put them all down to bad luck and stats, I have 3,500 miles under my belt this year so I guess the odds are beginning to stack up against me!
Just a tip from my mountain biking days, I found it really handy to have a chain tool with me (i've got one attached to a handy fold up alan key tool that pops in a pocket. Then if you have a snapped chain or gear failure like yours, you can undo and shorten the chain onto a hill friendly front/rear combo in order to get yourself home.
prand said:
Just a tip from my mountain biking days, I found it really handy to have a chain tool with me (i've got one attached to a handy fold up alan key tool that pops in a pocket. Then if you have a snapped chain or gear failure like yours, you can undo and shorten the chain onto a hill friendly front/rear combo in order to get yourself home.
But with the damage to the wheel, would that have been possible?prand said:
Just a tip from my mountain biking days, I found it really handy to have a chain tool with me (i've got one attached to a handy fold up alan key tool that pops in a pocket. Then if you have a snapped chain or gear failure like yours, you can undo and shorten the chain onto a hill friendly front/rear combo in order to get yourself home.
Good shout that one. Also always carry a spare wippermann link.swerni said:
SystemParanoia said:
just needs a hanger and the wheel re-spoking
Jesus, I'm on the wrong forum hereThe Man's wife wants him to have a new bike and you're saying oooo get a new hanger and re spoke the wheel
FFS, listen to yourself
That and sling a spare link and chain splitter into your kit, oh yteah and possibly a mobile phone.
Kermit power said:
GBDG said:
If you got knocked off 3 times, is it not likely that one of those impacts caused the problems that led to the bike failure?
If so, shouldn't you be speaking to the insurance company of the motorist who hit you?
If it was the same motorist all three times, then an insurance claim would be the least of my worries!If so, shouldn't you be speaking to the insurance company of the motorist who hit you?
In all seriousness, you'll need to get your current bike fixed in order to stand any chance of selling it - few new spokes and a new hangar/mech (depending on damage) shouldn't be too expensive.
Then sell it and get the carbon bike
Thanks for the tips, I always carry a mobile, driving license, debit card, spare tube, multi-tool with a splitter and a missing link. In retrospect I could have removed the broken mech, shortened the chain and limped into Henley, but knowing the other half was on the way to collect me I was just making a half hearted attempt to shorten her trip.
She had a chat with the lbs today and they are pricing up a Ti Dedacciai K-19 with a 105 group set, a nice idea, a bike for life, but frighteningly expensive (for me), and probably beyond my capabilities (anyone who knows me on Strava would probably agree!).
The alternative I was looking at was a Felt F4, a lot of bike for the money with an Ultegra group set and FSA SL-K crank, wheels are crap but I could upgrade them in time. The other reason this would be a good option would be because my current bike is a 2010 Felt F75, which has exactly the same geometry, so I know I would get on with the bike.
I have another set of wheels that came with the current bike that I could stick back on it, my missus actually suggested that rather than sell it I use it as my turbo trainer bike and for rainy days!
I am still struggling with the element of being selfish and spending such a lot of money on my hobby, but HWMBO keeps telling me she had been planning on buyig a 'nice bike' for my 40th, I guess at least this way I get to choose. Watch this space, I am going for a chat at the lbs with my o/h later this week so will let you know what we decide!
She had a chat with the lbs today and they are pricing up a Ti Dedacciai K-19 with a 105 group set, a nice idea, a bike for life, but frighteningly expensive (for me), and probably beyond my capabilities (anyone who knows me on Strava would probably agree!).
The alternative I was looking at was a Felt F4, a lot of bike for the money with an Ultegra group set and FSA SL-K crank, wheels are crap but I could upgrade them in time. The other reason this would be a good option would be because my current bike is a 2010 Felt F75, which has exactly the same geometry, so I know I would get on with the bike.
I have another set of wheels that came with the current bike that I could stick back on it, my missus actually suggested that rather than sell it I use it as my turbo trainer bike and for rainy days!
I am still struggling with the element of being selfish and spending such a lot of money on my hobby, but HWMBO keeps telling me she had been planning on buyig a 'nice bike' for my 40th, I guess at least this way I get to choose. Watch this space, I am going for a chat at the lbs with my o/h later this week so will let you know what we decide!
prand said:
Just a tip from my mountain biking days, I found it really handy to have a chain tool with me (i've got one attached to a handy fold up alan key tool that pops in a pocket. Then if you have a snapped chain or gear failure like yours, you can undo and shorten the chain onto a hill friendly front/rear combo in order to get yourself home.
Learnt this from my first moped braking its chain, pushing a Yamaha FSIE from Waltham Cross to Ware 10.5 miles aint fun. OP, when your wife gets bored with you, please send her my way, what I got for my 40th makes me feel Im married to the wrong woman.
Hard to see in the photo but you'd be doing well to break your rear mech putting it into the spokes without it throwing you off the bike. IN any case I would think you'd get change out of a hundred quid to get that back on the road.
Onto more important matters. A titanium bike and your existing Felt would make the beginnings of a nice stable. Just don't bother looking here.
Onto more important matters. A titanium bike and your existing Felt would make the beginnings of a nice stable. Just don't bother looking here.
Rocksteadyeddie said:
In any case I would think you'd get change out of a hundred quid to get that back on the road.
Much as I was one of the first to launch in with the "LBS are ripping you off" the OP has explained how bad the damage was; including a dented beyond repair rim.So perhaps he could get "back on the road" for £100 but if he wants like-for-like components it is going to be WAY over that.
Those rims alone look like a couple of hundred quid.
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