Monday, May 14, 2012

I may need a bit more than a tune-up

Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?  I am obviously way too much man for the Scattante.  Before I bought the bike, I did all sorts of research.  But the main question that I could not get a clear answer was whether I should go for an aluminum bike or full carbon.  Everyone told me that the carbon technology was the better way to go and it was worth the extra bucks.  My bigger concern was whether the carbon frame could handle my weight and the tremendous power in my lower body (chuckle).  Based  upon everyone's assurances, I went for it and went all carbon.  After seven months and about 3,500 miles, I was super pleased with the bike frame.  My only issues with the bike were the fancy light-weight race wheels with which it came.  The wheels needed to be trued almost every week.  After less than 2,000 miles, I had completely destroyed the original wheels, breaking over a dozen spokes.  I replaced them with a fancy set of touring wheels which didn't do the trick either, then settled on some sweet Deep V Velocity wheels that have yet to come out of true in 500 miles.

I was pleased with the frame, that is, until this afternoons commute home.  About half way up Camino Alto, I stood up to try and catch Johnny.  As I torqued up, I felt a huge skip out of the cassette.  I couldn't quite figure out what had happened.  I tried to adjust the cables but just shrugged my shoulders and kept going with the casette skipping all over the place.  As I pulled onto my street, I really felt sluggish.  Upon dismounting the bike, I spun the wheels and noticed that the back wheel was rubbing against something.  I checked the brakes ... nope ... no issues.  I spun the wheel to check for true and the wheel didn't even make a full rotation.  Something was very wrong.


And there I found it.  The chain stay had literally cracked in half.  The outside of the stay was severed but the inside held enough that the bike didn't fall completely apart.  Thank god it held on the Camino Alto downhill section.  I could have been in for some major issues if the rear of the bike had fallen off at 30 miles per hour.

I'm almost positive that the frame is still under warranty.  And I am certain that the guys at the bike shop will take care of me with a new frame and then some.  Should I go for the same frame?  Should I try out every frame for new geometry?  Aluminum but upgraded components?  Steel?  Titanium?  The options are limitless.  I guess I have to wait to see what the shop says.

But this is definitely going to put a crimp in my chase of StravaMo's all-time mile tally as he will be riding all week.  And what am I going to ride in the meantime?  God forbid I have to drive to work!!

1 comment:

  1. Unbelievable. Holy smokes it held up on Tam for you as well recently. Titanium is my 2 cents for you. Tell you more on that later. Oh, and I rode today...but likely not the rest of the week. It's time to rest up and come back even stronger.

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