Broken Bikes

Second Mavic Rim Destroyed

I dont know about other cyclists out there but I must be pretty unlucky. About 3 years ago I had an accident and wrote off the back wheel on my road bike. I had a new one built by Dave Baters in Bristol. About a year letter one of spokes ripped right through the rim, writing the wheel off again. It took some convincing for the shop to realise that this isn't actually normal. Mavic confirmed that the rim was faulty yet Dave Bs still charged me £10 to build a new one. Anyway, thats a different story. A week ago I was cycling back from work along the ringroad cycle path and I heard a spoke let go. I stopped to check and it was a spoke sure enough but yet another spoke ripping its way through the rim. Not again! The wheel this time was 2 years old.

Now I dont believe that Mavic produce that many substandard rims so I can only imagine that its incompetent wheelbuilding from Dave Bs. I wont be buying any more wheels from there (or anything else for that matter). Anyway I scored a lovely pair of Campagnolo Scirocco Wheels from Parker International for about £170.


Arn't they pretty!

Stem Lets Go

Its as sure as Death, Taxes and Nurses (a Royal Marine I knew used to add the Nurses bit..not sure why) that if you own a few bikes, one or all of them will always need money spent on it for one reason or another. I was recently cycling through kingswood in Bristol when the handlebar clamp went all loose. It turned out that one of the bolts had threaded itsself. Myself and Jim bodged a repair by drilling out the hole and cutting a new thread with a larger bolt.

You can see the bigger whole in the photo. Anyway they say that lightning doesn't strike twice but about a week later I was cycling through exactly the same bit of Kingswood when the whole handlebar twisted sideways. I thought the same thing had happened again but it turned out the stem had catastrophically failed and almost torn right off. There was just enough hanging on for me to grab the brakes and stop safely. Check out the photos. It could hav been so much worse had a been nailing down the other side of Kingswood at the usual 30mph.

Simon's Fooked Fox Forks! Simon's Fox Floats felt a bit funny after riding the Clic 24 hour event in the rain and mud in the Mendip hills. He stripped them down and found to his dismay that the water and mud had got in and had slowly been grinding away at the bushings and stanchions. Result? Severley scratched stanchions and worn bushings leaving him with functional but slightly noisy forks.

Bikefest 2007, Doesn't go according to Plan

The Biking Gods were against me this (9 June 2007) weekend. By Thursday my teammates had pulled out of the MOD MTB champs but Michael said he still fancied going along (he was full of the cold) and would drive us. Thursday night he phones and says his power steering pump is leaking but we'll go anyway. Friday morning and the drive pulley on the pump ain't looking healthy. Three miles down the road and it lets go. Game over. We were going nowhere. Thanks for trying Mike.

Saturday at the Bikefest started a bit better. John Puddy got us off to a good start and Colin, Myself and Simon follwed up with some pretty quick laps. Disaster struck on Colin's second lap, he was flying in the last part of the lap and his front wheel just snagged a small tree stump, which at that speed flipped the bike. He clouted his knee cap. Game over. We were down to three men. We managed another quick lap each and then I had my own problems. I punctured just into m third lap. I was gambling and wasnt carrying a spare. Luckily I blagged one off a couple of spectators and I was on my way. Simon finished his third lap but was not a happy bunny. He was still getting over a chest infection and his lungs were in bits. Game over. Down to two men for another 6 hours? F&$k that! we called it quits and went and got beers and burgers. Photos here.