km 4068
Five Borough ride was well attended and weather conditions were excellent. A tailwind on the BQE portion of the ride was most enjoyable.
Regrading the SC1800, broke a spoke under static load recently. The rear wheel went very wobbly very suddenly.The rear tyre rubbed on the frame and was forced to completely disengage the rear brakes. Remedied with a couple of spokes being loosened and now runs silently again.
To review current status:
No rear brake.
Both shifters dysfunctional, leaving the rig in top gear.
Rear wheel in dire need of replacement.
Yet this is a resilient machine and still runs from A to B as long as A and B are not greater than 10 km apart.
Maintenance pending....
Regrading the SC1800, broke a spoke under static load recently. The rear wheel went very wobbly very suddenly.The rear tyre rubbed on the frame and was forced to completely disengage the rear brakes. Remedied with a couple of spokes being loosened and now runs silently again.
To review current status:
No rear brake.
Both shifters dysfunctional, leaving the rig in top gear.
Rear wheel in dire need of replacement.
Yet this is a resilient machine and still runs from A to B as long as A and B are not greater than 10 km apart.
Maintenance pending....
posted by Maple Leaf Cyclery @ 20:24
4 Comments:
At 09:45,
Tanya said…
Do you have pictures of the fun Five Boroughs ride? Oh dear it really sounds like everything is now going wrong at once on the SC1800. So I guess A and B must not only be than 10km apart, but also not up any 10% grades, eh? :)
At 17:46,
Anonymous said…
The SC1800 still gets you where you want to go, and back again. At what point do you let it die with dignity? Or, like loving pet owner, do you keep SC1800 alive through old age labouring under assumption that life is worth clinging to? The latter, I think.
Question: when you run into "LBS folk" (like yourself), how do you respond to the "Don't buy a department store bike" line of argument? Just curious.
Keep up the good work. You are my hero, man!
At 23:08,
Maple Leaf Cyclery said…
Pix of five boro ride ar up at http://www.panaramio.com/14579 , among other places.
Ahh life of the knockaround bike...
Lately been riding the nice bike, as weather permits and commute goes to 40 km round trip. Sure is pleasant to have a jewel between the legs, instead of a piece of junk.
That being said, if a $99 department store bike gets some body off the sofa and pedalling, then something is being accomplished. Sooner or later they will come to a fork and ride more or ride less. Hopefully the former and they will hop up to a $1000 Kona Dew or Specialized Sirrus, for example.
In the meantime if that DSB gets them from A to B, then wunderbar!
;)
dc
At 12:06,
Anonymous said…
Good points. Sheldon Brown says the average DSB gets ridden about 75 miles before ending up in a landfill. I don't think that's a function of DSBs in general... I think it's a function of casual riders. If they'd invested in a good bike, it would still only be ridden 75 miles. It likely wouldn't end up in a landfill, though, being too expensive to throw out. It would probably just languish in a garage or basement.
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