All entries for Monday 28 April 2008

Cycled to destruction

This is what happens to a bike when you ride in excess of 8000 miles on it over at least 7 years. This happened shortly after my birthday towards the back end of February. I was cycling at the time and the fork half snapped, only the horseshoe shaped V-brake assembly and front wheel axle was holding it together. It wobbled all over the place, especially when braking as the wheel wasn’t true and the braking was uneven.

Over 7 years of rain, 8000 miles of pounding, hard braking and all sorts of abuse did this. It lasted through 6 London to Southend bike rides so helped me raise lots of cash for charity. The bike served me very well, although over the years, I had put on it 3 new front wheels, 4 new rear wheels, about 8 tyres, an entire replacement drive train (including rear gear derailleur, chain, cranks, front and back sprocket sets), new gear shifters, at least 10 pairs of brake blocks, 5 rear axles and associated bearings, 4 new gear cables, 2 new brake cables (including outer sheathing), countless inner tubes, new saddle, seat post, 4 sets of handlebar grips, 3 sets of V brakes arms, and god knows how many lights, speedometers etc…. but when you have a catastrophic frame failure like this, its time for a new bike.

I now have a GT Avalanche 1.0, 27 gears, front suspension, twin dual-cyclinder hydraulic disc brakes (which are the sharpest brakes on the planet), suspension saddle post and a heavy duty pannier rack for carrying all my shiz. All on this on the Warwick Cycle Scheme which I highly recommend to any Warwick Staff member.

Mark Jarvis : 28 Apr 2008 23:46 |  Tags: Bicycle Bike Broken Cycle Cycling Destruction |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem