Monday, February 12, 2007

RIP






The end of an era, or at least the my favorite bike I've ever owned. The do it all beast. Fixxie or free, I could ride this bike anywhere. Road, offroad, cross... This bike rocked.

A little scavenger hunt alleycat on Friday. Celebrating Ausitn Bikes one year anniversary. Riding with my GB, Eric Mills. Going down some stairs I locked up the rear wheel and my rear wheel really locked up. Thought it was just the chain that fell off, but the crank wouldn't turn all the way around. And then I saw the crank was getting caught on the drive side chainstay!

Shit, we were out on the east side and I had a long ass walk back to Austin Bikes where beer and party was waiting, let alone to get home. A little weight to the bottom bracket and my crank would pass. Easy ride back, but if I stood the crank would hit the chainstay on the drive side.

Took her apart. Yep, the chainstay is definately bent. You can see it got crimped on the little dimples Surly builds into the frames for clearance? Same place where my 1x1 broke a little over a year ago.

Brought it over to my buddies at the Peddler. Jeremy threw it up in the stand and put a frame allignment tool on it. Yep. Bent about 1/4 of an inch towards the drive side. Then we saw that the drive side drop out was also broken where it attachs to the stay.

They're going to try and take care of it for me. See if QBP will warranty it. Seems like they should. Thought steel should last more than a couple of years. The frame bent on an intentional dimple. Probably weekens the steel a bit when they bend it, I guess.

5 comments:

cvo said...

bummer,

but I'll just bet they stand behind it...

len said...

I frickin hope so. don't really have enough cash to buy another frame right now.

Thinking about possibly upgrading to a spot cross bike though.

MG said...

i bet they'll take care of you lenny. keep the faith.

i know it's a bummer though. getting home on a broken frame is never fun. but look at it this way. you're a hard man. most people never break a single frame in their entire lives, and you're massive enough to just keep poppin 'em on the chainstays. the only thing that's breakin' them at that point is your MASSIVE POWER.

have a good weekend brother,
mg

len said...

surely you jest!

you make it sound like breaking frames is a good thing. seems like an expensive habit to me. good thing I like steel and am not into riding plastic. that would be scary.

Cornbread said...

Damn Len, sorry to hear about the ride. Glad to hear you're riding bikes enough to break/bend them. You animal! :)