On Monday I was travelling home from work, enjoying the sunshine when all of a sudden I heard the dreaded pst,pst,pst,pst coming from the back wheel of the Langster. Got the puncture all fixed up and continued on my merry way...at the back of mind I was quite glad as that had meant that I had now had three punctures in three weeks. Surely, I would now be on for another of the long spells without any bicycle woe....these things come in three after all don't they?
Well, low and behold, the next morning I was out training on the Planet X and after managing a mere one lap of Regent's Park I heard the familiar sound of a spoke breaking. Quick inspection revealed that one of the front spoke had indeed broke.
I soldiered on home quite content that this was probably the incentive I needed to learn how to change the tubs on the carbon wheels - for those of you that don't know - this can be a dreaded procecc involving gluey stuff and having a inexplicable ability to line a tire up pefectly on a rim. For someone of my technical expertise - a massive challenge. But what the heck, I need to learn how to do it and now is a good a time as any, specially with the Worlds coming up so soon. So, am now waiting for a new spoke from Planet X and another spare tub to take to the worlds. They suggested I get a pro to do the spoke fitting though cause it can be complicated. Trip to the LBS for that one I think - just to be sure.
In a bike sense, the average person would probably think that nothing else could go wrong over the course of one week after these event I would imagine. However, come Wednesday morning, the fixed was starting to make a strange noise and could simply not quite work out where it was coming from, could have been the pedal, could have been the transmission, could be the BB - who knows, but it was making a racket, a real bad noise - was actually pretty embarrassing riding around town. After work I headed to the LBS and got some lube - I had not done the chain since having it and thought I would also put some in the pedal. Did all these little jobs outside the bike shop and set off on my way...no joy. Those noises were still there and just as bad.
Got home and decided it was time for some major surgery so set about removing the chainring and chain and cleaning this all up. Got everything off and started to clean the bike when I think that I found the problem...
Yup, that's it...the frame has completely sheared and broken on the chain stay. I think that I must have done this on the way home last night when I was doing my sprint starts from the traffic lights.
Well, quick call to the lovely chaps at Brixton Cycles and they said that I should just bring it in and they will give me a new frame and tranfer all my kit from the old steed to the new one. Good bunch of chaps at Brixton Cycles! All I need to do now is to work out how to get the bike down to them and work out whether or not to risk riding the Planet X to work, albeit I could leave it upstairs and not in the garage.
What an annoying week..it will sure take some beating anyway!
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