what have I broken/what haven't I broken?

I'm excluding consumables (tires, bar tape etc)...

What haven't I broken on a bike?

fork
stem
handlebars
seatpost clamp

What have I broken?

Aluminum Frame (cross frame, yesterday, sad trombone)
Carbon Frame
Speedplay Pedals
ISIS-Splined Bottom Bracket
ISIS-Splined Cranks
Front Cyclocross Chainring
Garmin Mount
Shimano R550 Wheels
Mavic Open Pro Rim (don't buy wheels at Performance!!)
Spokes (numerous)
SRAM 9-Speed Chain (2)
Shimano 9-speed 105 Chain
Shimano 9-speed DA Chain
KMC 1/8" Track Chain
105 Front Derailleur
Ultegra Rear Derailleur (2)
Shimano Ultegra Shifters
Carbon Seatpost
Saddle (Rails)


I really don't want to move anything else from the top list to the bottom. Breaking any of those items while riding would be quite... unpleasant.

Rear Derailleur Carnage

Fitting that this bit of horrific news comes right around Halloween. After successfully completing the St Charles 4b's race today, I was riding back over to the area where most of the other xXx'ers were... when I hear a pop, feel the tension on the cranks drop away, and my rear wheel jams. I look down.. to see this.

I think to myself, shit! Another drivetrain failure at this race! Last year, I tore the bead on a tire and had to run half a lap, then finally popped a chain for a DNF. I initially thought that one of the pulleys in the derailleur had failed, bending the derailleur hangar and destroying the chain and derailleur... but upon further inspection:

waaait a minute. the hangar still looks straight?

yeah, that's right. the derailleur itself broke. hell if I know how that happened.

Apparently Shimano has a 2 year warranty on all components (aside from Dura-Ace, 3 years). Here's hoping their warranty process isn't overly cumbersome and/or time consuming.

I'm not the only one!

D'oh!!

garmin

Sunday's weather was typical April Chicago weather. Total shit.

48F and raining, I need two hours' endurance... I look at the track bike sitting on the trainer in the corner of my living room, then I look at my winter northwaves in the middle of the bedroom floor... sorry, trainer. you lose.

15 minutes into the ride, I notice there's water under the screen of my Garmin Forerunner - this has happened before, so I don't worry about it.

At 45 minutes, water is visible covering most of the screen... it's never moved that fast before.

1:30 into the ride, the display is completely full of water starts changing contrast on it's own - bad sign. I take the unit off the handlebars and as I do, it shuts off. I stick it in my pocket and finish the ride.

Once I got home, I tried using a hair dryer, a ziploc bag with silica gel, anything - no luck.

Garmin's tech support has once again been unbelievable. I've had products of theirs meet untimely ends in the past and they've always stood behind the products, this time included. I'm shipping it off to Kansas today and will hopefully have a refurbished Forerunner in a week or so.

this hasn't been my week

this hasn't been my week, for serious.

I hope bad things do come in threes, because yesterday rounded out #3.

It all started when I walked out to my car to head to work last Monday... I notice that the Gas Door is open - Strange. I look in the window, the contents of my glovebox are strewn about the front seat/floor and the center console's contents are in the driver's seat. Fantastic.

I unlock(at least they didn't want anyone else getting in!) the car and cram everything back into it's spot, trying to figure out what was missing... hmm. Electric Razor, Maui Jim Sunglasses, Thule Rack Key (you think you're clever!), Watch, $20 emergency gas cash, two umbrellas (it was sleeting that night), and a bike multitool.

Nice little haul amounting to $750 or so.

I replaced the Thule locks that night so I wouldn't come out to find the rack missing the next day.

The rest of the week wasn't too bad - managed to ride almost 265 miles with little problem, until mile 264.7, three blocks from home. I'm just south of Belmont on Sheffield and reaching for a water bottle when the perfect storm of who-knows-what broadsides me with some serious instability. Feeling the pending loss of control, I put my left hand onto the bars as quickly as possible - right on top of my powertap computer. Anyone who's ever used a powertap has probably wondered how durable that bracket is. Notsomuch.

Powertap bracket snaps, sending my hand over the bars and my right hand forward, shoving the front wheel to the left and my shoulder into the pavement. Two wheels untrued, derailleur hangar bent. I drag myself up out of the street, snap my Garmin back onto my handlebars (it popped out of the bracket also), and find my powertap computer in the other lane, smashed. Fantastic.

After I'm home and cleaned up, time to get the bike back in action. The trusty cross bike helps me get the Stallion Hed Ardennes into Roscoe Village Bikes (fantastic shop, btw) to be trued up (same-day, RAWK!) then head out in search of a derailleur hangar. After hitting 3 or 4 shops, it's apparent I need to order one. The crazy italian guy over at Pet Ego who's responsible for our team's fantastic relationship with Hed and Max Lelli says he's got some on the way from Italy, it'll just be a few days.

Easter Sunday, I head out on the Cafe Deluca ride on my 'B' bike, the orange Cannondale. No incidents.

Tuesday, I head to xXx Sprint Practice down at Northerly Island, where Coach Randy takes us through various sprint drills. On the 6th sprint of 7, I was to be trackstanding at the line when another rider passed me, then I had to accelerate and catch his wheel. Since I was on my 'B' bike with my always-before-stable Mavic Open Pro/Ultegra Hub wheels, I gave no thought whatsoever to putting every ounce of effort into catching The Car Whisperer as he blasted past me at the start line. About ten kicks into the acceleration, I hear a bunch of sad bike noises and a loud crack as I am hurled over my handlebars, my face and helmet smashing into the ground. Ow. Face + Asphalt at 26mph.

Instincts kick in immediately and I get up and drag myself out of the "street" (we were on a closed course) to go sit on the curb. As I'm walking over I hear someone say "oh man, he's bleeding!" and notice a drop of blood fall from above my left eye. I sit down, take off my helmet, and people converge around me. I never lost lucidity, nor passed out, but I was definitely shaken up. After about 15 minutes, Matt gives me a ride home and Tracy and I head to the ER at Illinois Masonic where the great staff hooked me up with seven stitches for my lightning-bolt shaped scar.

this is the prettiest it's been.

Job well done, Rudy Actyum.

My Rudy Project Actyum helmet did its job and cracked at the point of impact. I'm sad that I've lost the nicest helmet that I've ever owned, but I'm glad the helmet cracked instead of my skull. The cut on my face was most definitely caused by the jagged, sharp frame from my glasses... I suppose the lenses have to be shatterproof, but the frame doesn't?

I'm quite glad that Tuesday's wheel incident didn't happen on the Sunday DeLuca ride where we were double paceline all the way out on Ogden. Eight spokes were left de-tensioned in that wheel, and I just can't figure out how the hell that happened.

I told the tale of the Saturday crash to the great folks at Saris and they informed me that they'd warranty replace my powertap computer and mount, then provided me with an RMA # and address to send it to. This is what customer service used to be and should still be. Saris, you've most definitely turned me into a customer advocate for your products.

Smith Optics has been similarly cool about the whole situation. I called and they informed me that they don't make the white V-Ti's any more, but the guy I spoke with said he'd seen a few in the warehouse and that they'd sell me the frame only for $50 even though they don't normally sell to consumers, nor do they even sell anything other than full kits. Thanks, Smith Optics.

The shop where I purchased the wheels was pretty suspiscious that I was lying about not running that front wheel into some kind of an object, but I stuck to my story and mentioned that fifteen people saw the wheel buckle underneath me which pretty much struck the tale into stone for them. I'll update once I've heard from Mavic and the shop - I'm hoping that they'll help me out with a new helmet and glasses since both were destroyed as a result of the wheel failure. Hopefully this shop will provide a high level of customer service and I'll keep shopping there, but

I really doubt that I'll ever purchase wheels from them again - too important a piece of equipment to trust "just anyone" to. I'll stick to handbuilt wheels either from Hed or known local reliable wheelbuilders such as Alex or Marcus.

Speaking of Hed's wheels, my good Italian friend and cheese-pusher relayed this story to the folks over at Hed, and they're interested in coming up with a set of wheels for me that will not only be strong as hell, will look smooth and be fast. I'll update with more information on that front later.

Compton Destructocross

This week's ChiCrossCup race was in St. Charles and the course was set up wonderfully - kudos to the organizers! I made the pilgrimage out to Kane county with two teammates for the 4b's race - we didn't have a chance to pre-ride the course due to lack of time, but I figured that my lack of fitness would outweigh any advantage that the pre-ride might afford me.

I'd been to Randy's to get this bike fitted to me, and we changed the whole cockpit around, so I was really looking forward to how I'd feel on the bike for this race. That said, I had my first DNF ever... and it certainly wasn't for lack of spirit or trying. The bike fit felt pretty good though.

I was in a good spot at the start - managed to stay top 20 for the first half of lap 1 when... BANG. Front tire blowout. I didn't know it at the time, but it seems that the bead on my front tire decided to give up the ghost. Whee.

can you even GET wire-bead cross tires?

Right after finishing at Carpentersville, I had noticed that my front tire was behaving strangely - the bead was atop the rim rather than hooked inside it. I quickly deflated the tire and popped it back onto the rim... I suppose I should have been more diligent and checked the condition of the bead.

The bang was loud enough that several teammates ran over and asked me if I had wheels in the pit... I responded that I didn't, and they yelled back that they'd meet me in the pit with a wheel - since this course's pit was right at the start/finish and was single sided, that meant I got to run the second half of the course rolling my bike aside me. As I passed the officials, I commented "it's a lot more fun when you can ride the bike" to which Dave Fowkes replied "i'm with ya on that one".

I grabbed the new wheel and set off again - the majority of the field had passed me just after I flatted so I knew that I had pretty much no chance of catching on - this had become a workout. When I came back through the chicane where most of the spectators were, my hero Mike Seguin was there with the beer handup. SWEET. I certainly wasn't expecting it, so I was moving too fast and crushed the cup, sending most of the beer into my glove, but I did get a good bit of it in my mouth. With a delicious right hand, I powered through the remainder of the lap - this was my only full lap of the course.

I was passed by the race leader after the first barricade - this served as a motivator. I cleared the sand pit and went into the backside's off-camber chicane when I was passed by #2. Atop the hill, I could see that most of the riders were opposite my position on the course, so I stood a decent chance of catching one or two of them if I'd just get my ass into gear. I powered through the spectator area and was approaching the last barricade when the chain gods saw fit to punish me... POP. Since i'm now a chain-breaking veteran I managed to keep the bike upright, thought I'm pretty sure that my knee hit my bars, it's pretty pissed off at me right now.

Since I had a SRAM chain on this bike, I figured I'd see if the break was close to the powerlink and I might be able to piece things together... no luck - the pin that snapped did so leaving only the outer plates so I knew my race was over. I then walked back to the officials area and let them know that I was DNF for a mechanical, then went back to the spectator area for some brats and a beer while watching the end of the race.

the day's casaulties.

I suppose I'm now in the market for another chain, does anyone have any suggestions? I've popped three PC-971's in 2008... there's gotta be a better solution for a clydesdale drivetrain. I snapped a KMC 1/8" track chain earlier this year - that's how I found out about the heavy duty Izumi chains. Is there a road equivalent?

Although I only rode one full lap at Compton, I am quite proud that my lap included a successful beer handup. When you've got race priorities like these, cyclocross is WAY more fun.

Fun with the Cross Bike

Today was quite the day. Since Gustav's remnants are dumping copious amounts of water all over the midwest you'd think it wasn't a good saturday to ride... au contraire. The original plan was to meet at the Lincoln/Damen Starbucks at 6:30 and ride from there. Since my contact about the *$ meet was Jeff and I had gotten a bail-text from him around 6:05 I had my reservations about leaving the house at all. I got in touch with Boggs who was still waiting at *$ and decided to kit up and get moving. It was completely worth it. I met the others and we rode up Lincoln a ways until I asked what route we were taking that involved so much of Lincoln... nobody had an answer so I took the lead and steered us westbound onto Lawrence en route to Devon/Milwaukee. When we got there, we noticed that the field below the toboggan slides was covered in water - some small patches of grass still visible though.

I've never been disappointed by Randy's clinics and this was no exception to that rule - we covered dismounting, mounting, dismount-barrier-mount, as well as group starts. I'd hoped for better results in the group starts but couldn't seem to get my damned shoes to clip in - I'm spoiled by SPD-SL and it's easy cleat-pedal interface. A normal portion of this clinic involves hill run-ups, but the growing lake in the field below us didn't allow for it. Too bad, shouldering the bike for no apparent reason just isn't quite the same.

At the end of the clinic, this is what we saw at the entrance to the N Branch Trail.

When we arrived, the picnic tables in the pavilion were visible, though water was covering the concrete pad below them - the dumpster serving the pavilion had some water around the base of it... when we left, water had all but topped the dumpster, and the tops of the picnic tables were covered. The North Branch Trail had at least 4' of water over it. An intrepid group of us tried to go north via Milwaukee>Harts Road but found Harts to be covered with rapidly flowing water... not sure exactly how deep it was, but you could definitely feel it pushing on your wheels upon riding through it. Since it would prove difficult to find decent non-flooded trails, we opted to grab a coffee to warm up for the ride home. Along the way we saw several railroad underpasses where cars were being towed out of the water - we also discovered that potholes lie under standing water several times, but luckily none of us flatted.

After I got home, I lounged around a bit and dried out since I had been wet for ~5 hours straight. Around 4 I set out to run some errands and took the cross bike back out. Nothing's quite as fun as putting sopping wet shoes onto dry socks, let me tell you.

As I was heading north along the deserted LFP around Belmont I figured I'd take advantage of the space and continue to practice dismounting/mounting the bike. After several successful rounds, one round that failed miserably (messr bag caught on saddle, oops), and another attempt that led to me face down in a puddle, I figured I'd get moving and finish playing in the mud. As I shifted, I heard some sad noises from my rear derailleur and felt my chain tension against something - not good. I looked back to find this gift from the cycling Gods:

Yeah, that's my rear derailleur. Fuct. Hardcore. Hangar bent 90 degrees all to hell, upside down like it's a trapeze artist or some shit. Sweet.

At this point, it really starts to rain. Thanks.

I snap a few pictures (naturally), whip out the multitool and get to work - hangar needs to come off, cabling removed from shifter & de-routed from lugs, you name it. I stuff everything into my bag while looking for my chain tool... which isn't there. Rock. On. So much for a cassette singlespeed solution to get home. I try to tension the chain across the 53x26 but that's just not happening - every time I put pressure on the cranks, the chain jumps around on the cassette all crazy-like. Chain's gotta come off. The rain lets up a bit.

Solution? Put this morning's skills clinic to the test. I tried running and mounting, but that's all kinds of hard to do when the crank is spinning freely - pedal smashing into my opposite shin, which is pretty cool. Next option, clip into one side and kick myself along with the opposite leg... this option worked best... one leg gets tired, coast it out and switch, the kick along some more. I made it to the Roscoe tunnel and hailed a cab on the other side. Cabbie not so thrilled about muddy wet bike-dude getting into his cab and he made no effort whatsoever to get my bike into his cab. After aborting that attempt at getting to a shop I realized I was only 2 blocks away from Belmont... as I'm scooting along I see a #77 sitting at the light... who knows when the next one will come, so I hop off, shoulder the bike, and run.

Pedestrians really don't know how to react when they see a sopping wet 6'6" dude with a bike on his shoulder running at them. Some, wisely, get the hell outta the way. Others stop like deer in headlights.

I made it to the bus, got the bike to a shop, and it's there for the night. Hopefully they can call me tomorrow with a full assessment of the damages. I need this bike up and running for next Sunday's race, so here's hoping the repairs are relatively straightforward... and that I don't need a new rear derailleur.

Derailleur Hanger, Maybe?

I took the new wheels out for a ride on Labor Day... great fun. Leonard, Peggy, Alberto and I took the team route up to Highland Park. Wheels are stiff and roll VERY smooth - the rear's freehub is very quiet, especially compared to my Ksyriums.

At one point on the way back, I shifted into my 26... and hear a faint "cling cling cling". I've heard this before: rear derailleur cage hitting spokes. Damnit. My hanger's probably bent just slightly - who knows how long it's been that way, probably from the last time I shipped it? The Proctor crash?

Grr. Here's hoping this doesn't turn into a fiasco of parts replacement.

Paid! (DHL Broked my Bike, Part 2)

In an earlier post I noted that DHL had broken my bike on a whirlwind tour of the eastern US... looks like they've owned up to it, there was a check in my mailbox this morning. It sucks that they lost my cleanest, whitest 2007 xXx jersey, but I suppose the funds can go towards buying a 2009 jersey.

I will say, DHL's claim process could have been much more of a painful process. I've processed insurance claims in the past and all too often the adjusters have a mountain of claims to handle on a daily basis, with many claims having quite a long tail on them due to inspections, missing paperwork, etc. I probably made it easier on both my adjuster and myself by providing a ton of pictures, narrative, and documentation with my original claim submission... still, two weeks from filing the claim to having a check in hand is a pretty quick turnaround.

Still... it seems odd that DHL chose to send me the check via USPS. Why wouldn't they deliver it themselves? Fear of being damaged?

DHL broked my bike.

In shipping my cross bike from Seattle to Cleveland, DHL decided to send it on a whirlwind tour of the USA.

Yeah, you read that right. Seattle to Ohio to Virginia to Ohio to Pennsylvania to Ohio. Logistics are complicated. What's efficient doesn't always make sense to those not close to the operation. I'm guessing that the Virginia trip was completely unnecessary... and people might wonder why DHL is in dire financial straits, looking to have UPS carry freight for them.

In the process, my bike suffered injury... you've gotta do bad things to a boxed bike to bend a derailleur hanger and knock a wheel out of true. I don't know exactly what happened, nor do I want to know. Along with the bike being hurt, a team jersey must have fallen out somehow, because I packed ALL my clothes (clean and dirty) in the bike box for shipment. The jersey was the only thing dirty because I missed it when I did my last load of laundry, so it was in a separate bag on top. Grr. I'd rather have my jersey than the $69 I paid for it, especially since it was the only 2007 jersey that I hadn't crashed in.

I found a Trek dealer online, took it in for them to install the new hangar and true the wheel - they tried telling me that I should go for a super tune-up ($129!) since I also wanted to have the rear brake re-cabled (not DHL's fault) but I figured that would just complicate the damage claim process to not have a separate receipt for the shipping damages. $63.87 for the wheel true, new hanger, and derailleur adjustment. Not unreasonable.

I'm sending the claim form in today... I figured 2 hours at $30/hour was pretty reasonable since it took me about an hour to figure out what the hell was wrong with the bike, plus I had to drive the bike to and from the bike shop, which took about an hour total. I'm guessing they'll dispute this portion.

Today's Parts Casaulty

Rode "the commute" with The Car Whisperer this morning, taking his preferred route. Just north of Devon/Milwaukee he takes the North Branch Trail/Bikepath. As we started out, he mentioned that there was an oily patch on a turn that was a little slippery. Not able to remember which turn it was, he mentioned that he had lost traction on it several times and had almost gone down. I thought we were in the clear after making the rather sharp left prior to the Caldwell Ave bridge approach... I was wrong. Just after coming down from the bridge there's another sharp left. Brian's about 30' in front of me and cautiously takes the corner... my wheels slip out from under me and I immediately recognized that I was going down.

A few choice profanities later, I get up and realize that the bike's ok aside from a few new scratches... my hip's not so fortunate. I've got a 4" diameter ground beef strawberry just below my hipbone, and I tore some serious holes in my bib shorts.

As we're heading West on Lake Ave in Glenview, I start to hear some rattling... maybe the crash knocked something loose. Thinking it's a bottle cage, we continue on. When we got to the office, I got off the bike and found that I had popped a spoke in my rear wheel. I've had problems with this wheelset in the past, and had just gotten it back from Alex. Since it wasn't wildly out of true, I solicited some ibuprofen from the kind ladies at the health center, and then continued on to the Old School route and back to the city. At the Winnetka 7-11 I stopped to refill my bottles and checked the wheel again. Another spoke. Both nipples are rattling around inside the wheel. Whee.

I open my rear brake and hobble home through the remainder of the North Shore and Evanston... must have been quite a side, bloody and dirty with a wobbly rear wheel. Not bad for 9:30am on a Wednesday.