Last night, I again worked on the bike. Sunday's crash left me with two bent rims, a few bent spokes, and a broken handlebar. Thankfully the rest was OK.
As I was replacing the handlebar, I started thinking about all the bikes and bike parts i've destroyed over the years. BUT the one part i never broke was a stem. I've only heard of one person actually breaking a stem.
Aside from changing the frame, I think the most annoying broken part to change is the handlebar. I just wish there were an easier way to change it. Usually, one side of the bar is still perfectly fine. Very often even the bar tape is completely intact. It just makes no sense that all the work i put into setting up these bars go to waste. I wish they'd have clip-together bars where you can just remove the defective half of the bar and replace it with
a new one so you don't have to re-do both sides.Here are a couple of photos from Sunday's debacle. The gross body shot is the most PG-rated of them all. (The others are just too gruesome to inflict upon unsuspecting readers looking for some light internet perusing from the office while dining on their morning bagel and coffee.)
11 comments:
ouch!
hey its so out of focus it could be strawberry jam spread on your knee
;)
but -
after CX Nats and what not i figure changing bars is something you've become quite accomplished at ;)
Oof. I hope your new Campy lever survived.
yeah, changing bars is easy but it still doesn't change the fact that it is time consuming and tedious.
One of my campy lever rubber grips is ripped and scratched a bit but otherwise fine. Thankfully I heard our team bikes are arriving by next weekend!
remember - Zen...
tedious is just a negative word for something that can be relaxing and meditative
You are supposed to stay POSITIVE...
wait - maybe I'm the one who's trying to stay positive
(and i'm working on finding a new avatar/icon)
oi! my coffee and bagel!
A poor advertisement for carbon bars. All the best from down under.
Hi armon:
NO, in fact it is just the opposite. I bet that if the bar didn't break upon impact, i would have had a broken collarbone, wrist, arm. Thankfully the bar took the impact and spared my body. If anything, i should write a letter to Easton telling them how appreciative I am of the thoughtful technology that went into that bar!
All the best from Belgium.
Why take pictures if you are NOT gonna show them to the world? Give the readers a little credit, willya? Some of us actually LOVE blood and gore with our chili supremes.
Hey paul:
I'm not quite following you on that one. I always appreciate a good debate.
Okay, i'll be the first to talk about broken stems!
I've had two TTT stems that cracked on the mounting faceplate (once while riding!! Not fun when all of a sudden you're holding bars not attached to the bike!)
I've also had a bolt in an older one-screw stem snap as well.... I'll only ride stems with four bolts now!
The old stems were the worst thing to change - since you had to *slide* it off the bar, and had to take everything off..blech.. Tech has come a long way, thankfully!!
Glad you're healing up well! Get some aloe on there! =)
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