My Evening Commute

[bobco85]

I’ve got wonderful news as of this evening: my bike got repaired!

I took it to the bike shop this afternoon and was expecting to have to leave it while parts were ordered. Much to my surprise, the mechanic took the chainring off, got out a mallet, whacked it back into shape, and said everything else was fine! There was no damage to the frame, chain, crankset, or rear wheel (spokes will need to be adjusted). I was able to ride it home, too, with no issues.

The only things I need to do to the bike are to tighten some of the spokes, get a new chain guard, and to only change gears one at a time (the mechanic demonstrated the very thing I had done to mess things up, so I understand now).

A big sigh of relief from me was had because I really thought the situation was far, far worse

Before
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12801[/ATTACH]

After
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12802[/ATTACH]

[KLizotte]

Your bike could really use some ibuprofen and a stiff drink. Ouch!

[ursus]

@bobco85 149003 wrote:

I’ve got wonderful news as of this evening: my bike got repaired!

I took it to the bike shop this afternoon and was expecting to have to leave it while parts were ordered. Much to my surprise, the mechanic took the chainring off, got out a mallet, whacked it back into shape, and said everything else was fine! There was no damage to the frame, chain, crankset, or rear wheel (spokes will need to be adjusted). I was able to ride it home, too, with no issues.

The only things I need to do to the bike are to tighten some of the spokes, get a new chain guard, and to only change gears one at a time (the mechanic demonstrated the very thing I had done to mess things up, so I understand now).

A big sigh of relief from me was had because I really thought the situation was far, far worse

Before
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12801[/ATTACH]

After
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12802[/ATTACH]

I would think that the chain-ring metal would have fatigued somewhat which would make a recurrence more likely.

[huskerdont]

@ursus 149009 wrote:

I would think that the chain-ring metal would have fatigued somewhat which would make a recurrence more likely.

I was going to write this if someone else had not, so I’m just going to write in support of it. If it were me and I were Bobco, what with those apparently beastly quads and all those miles, I would just assume that I was going to bend that pig again. Replacement chainrings usually aren’t that steep, and they’re easy to replace. Worth doing it for the peace of mind.

[Crickey7]

I would think it’s a function of whether the chainring would bend in any other situation. If not, and if one believes that a new chainring might bend in a repeat of this event, then I would say use the old ring and buy extra coffee and donuts with the savings.

[bobco85]

@Crickey7 149021 wrote:

I would think it’s a function of whether the chainring would bend in any other situation. If not, and if one believes that a new chainring might bend in a repeat of this event, then I would say use the old ring and buy extra hot chocolate and bacon cheddar scones with the savings.

(corrected)

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I was only thinking short-term “let’s get this bike working again” and not “will this happen again?” at the time. I am now considering ordering a new chainring.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@bobco85 149031 wrote:

(corrected)

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I was only thinking short-term “let’s get this bike working again” and not “will this happen again?” at the time. I am now considering ordering a new chainring.

Not to veer to far off topic, I’d look towards a new chainring and driveside crank arm, or a full crankset. That failure was due to too little support of the chainring. That particular style of crankarm doesn’t have a spider and they fail similarly to what you experienced quite often. That style of crank should really only be used on kid’s bikes and beach cruisers.

Something like this would be a good and inexpensive.

(also, the specs say 133BCD – I’m pretty sure that’s a typo; should be 130BCD.)

Edit: for perhaps TMI, that chainring experienced what’s called “plastic” deformation and it’s ultimate yield strength is now likely only 10 or 20% of what it was prior to failure, so this isn’t a question of “if” it fails again, but “when”, like, probably the next time you pedal out of the saddle.

[DismalScientist]

I have a similar (non-spider) crank on my fixie. It is a piece of crap. There is a lot of play where the chain “ring” (more like a plate) is connected to the crank arm. Here I thought the chain was loose. Nope. It was the crank.

[bobco85]

@Harry Meatmotor 149042 wrote:

Not to veer to far off topic, I’d look towards a new chainring and driveside crank arm, or a full crankset. That failure was due to too little support of the chainring. That particular style of crankarm doesn’t have a spider and they fail similarly to what you experienced quite often. That style of crank should really only be used on kid’s bikes and beach cruisers.

Something like this would be a good and inexpensive.

(also, the specs say 133BCD – I’m pretty sure that’s a typo; should be 130BCD.)

Edit: for perhaps TMI, that chainring experienced what’s called “plastic” deformation and it’s ultimate yield strength is now likely only 10 or 20% of what it was prior to failure, so this isn’t a question of “if” it fails again, but “when”, like, probably the next time you pedal out of the saddle.

Wow, I never really noticed that my chainring didn’t have any sort of reinforcement (if that’s the spider to which you’re referring), and reading that the strength is far lower gives me more, um, “incentive” to get a new one that has a spider. Thank you!

Also, there are different colors of cranksets I can choose from! I’ll probably get a different one, though, since some of the reviews for that particular one mentioned the threading for the pedals being an issue.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@bobco85 149045 wrote:

Wow, I never really noticed that my chainring didn’t have any sort of reinforcement (if that’s the spider to which you’re referring), and reading that the strength is far lower gives me more, um, “incentive” to get a new one that has a spider. Thank you!

Also, there are different colors of cranksets I can choose from! I’ll probably get a different one, though, since some of the reviews for that particular one mentioned the threading for the pedals being an issue.

Yeah – only posted the amazon link to show that inexpensive but decent single-speed cranksets exist. I’d also suspect some of those poor reviews due to pedal thread failure might have something to do with the fact that they were cross-threaded to begin with… but I am just a grumpy mechanic…

anyhow, I’d highly recommend going to a LBS to make sure whatever you get will work, chainline-wise.

[rcannon100]

Wonderful!

[Drewdane]

My evening commute started with my rear fender rattling, so I pulled over to tighten it only to discover I seem to have either lost or stopped carrying my multitool. About half an hour later, I pulled over again because I was slowly losing air for some reason and needed to top off the tire. I somehow managed to dislodge the valve core and get it severely jammed into the pump head, thus necessitating a nice half-mile or so walk to Bikenetic, where Jan kindly tightened the fender, replaced the valve core (just as the original decided to cooperate and let me pull it out of the pump head after all), refilled my tire and sent me on my way.

So yeah, I’ve had better commutes. I got to hang out with the Kool Kidz at Bikenetic for a while though, so the evening wasn’t a total wash.

[dplasters]

My evening commute was lovely. One thing though.

I’ve seen an increase (any amount is an increase over zero) of cyclists on Cedar lane in Vienna where it crosses 66. For the love of god just take the lane. There ain’t room to share the lane and you hugging a non existent shoulder just freaks me out. So as I go north and you go south, please be safe.

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

So as I was crossing the 14th street bridge tonight I gave a habitual courtesy ding of my bell as I passed… a 50 gal. trash bag full of sticks.

[cvcalhoun]

I have been riding the CCT home every day, often after dark. And it appears that the deer are getting used to me. They used to run away when I appeared. Now, they just stand at the edge of the trail and stare at me. I’m drawing the line, though, if one of them tries to hitch a ride on the back of my bike!

[Author]

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