Mechanicals
Two mechanicals this weekend. One with the bike, one with my back!
I owe the Flash-Point blog a post or two so I set out yesterday into some devilish gusty winds with a pair of deep rim wheels and a prayer to the cycling gods. Before long the winds had me weaving across the road like a Chianti sodden tifoso at the end of a Giro stage, so the rest of my route was largely decided by the amount of tree cover available. Actually it wasn't all that bad and I did manage to get some more miles into the wheels, which incidentally are doing a very fine job at the moment. What was far more alarming was the mechanical I suffered 10 miles from home. All of a sudden the steering started to seize up and it wasn't long before I only had about 5-10 degrees of movement of the front end. I loosened the headset but that had no effect, this was more than an amateur over-tightening error. So it was a very edgy and careful cruise home praying that whatever was causing the problem wasn't doing permanent damage to my frame and forks.
After a few very hairy moments and some tactical shortcuts I managed to get home without major incident. The bike went straight up on the stand and out came the fork with a shallow circular scar around the steerer tube about 15mm up from the fork crown. Now I was worried (thankfully the damage was later confirmed as only cosmetic). It didn't look to be a fault in the fork so I checked the headset. Inside the lower headset cup where the collar pushes up into the frame there was a 2mm deep 'wrinkle' of metal pushing out from the inner surface. I should just explain that headset and forks were only fitted last weekend. I took the whole lot down to the local experts and after admitting they had never seen anything like it before agreed it seemed to be a headset fault. They were also very helpful in offering to knock it out there and then and fit a new one. I will send the original back to the manufacturer who at present will remain nameless, suffice to say they are a well-known brand who also make cranks, stems and bars. I wasn't about to try another of the same brand so I spent a little more to get a really solid unit that I can 'fit and forget' as the saying goes.
So far so good, today's ride went without problems.
Unfortunately I can't get the local bike shop to replace my back, which I put out tidying up the living room last night (more evidence to persuade my wife that too frequent tidying isn't advisable ;-)). Luckily it's not too bad but I am finding it difficuly to find a comfortable position to sit in. I still took the bike out for spin today, strangely it's the only position that doesn't give me any aching. So I'll be setting up the trainer and spending the rest of the day watching the rugby and eating from the comfort of my Selle Italia Prolink!
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