Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Safe to Enter?

Spent a few more days than planned away from home waiting for the fumigators to finish with the house. Finally returning home to the following posted on my door.




Unfortunately my office parking garage was NOT safe to enter. I had the bike on it's rack. It is about an inch too tall for the cross beam at the entrance. Yes, I forgot about it and drove in... *BANG* Luckily (?) the rack broke. It's much cheaper than a new frame. Or seat post even.

I did a *thorough* check of the seatpost and frame for cracks. No damage evident. The scary thing about carbon... it doesn't always show stress until it fails. And I had no idea how much force it takes to break a bike rack. I didn't have a good feeling about this.

Then I spun the back wheel. It had a good wobble to it. I have a good sense of what it takes to bend a wheel. I've seen bigger whops from hitting potholes. So, I rest easy that the frame and seat post didn't take a hit harder than what they're designed to take. A relief.

I tried to true the wheel. I got it pretty close to straight. But... the spoke tension was pretty huge one one side, and way loose on the other. Time to rebuild this wheel. Tonight I disassembled it, and am awaiting delivery of a new rim, spokes and nipples....




And if that wasn't enough... I replaced brifters...




Added a longer stem and new bars...




These are to relieve a problem with the elbow and lower back that have been niggling since my accident. Need a bit more reach to straighten the back, and allow the arms to flex. I really like the new cockpit. The new Ultegra internal cable routing is a lot neater.

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