End of time...?

[huw williams]

12.00 noon today...the light rain clears just long enough to coax me onto the road for a lap of our lunchtime route, a slightly hilly 19 miles.

A few days ago I set a PB round here and yesterday I had a very positive session on the powertap all of which is contributing to the fact that despite a heart rate well within my threshold I am absolutely flying - its indescribable, I seem to have threshold power for 10bpm less and without even trying I'm a minute up at the first marker 30% of the way around the course.

"Don't loose it" I'm telling myself, trying not to get carried away - "stick to the target watts /heart rate and the speed will be there"

Over the nasty rise after Warlingham I'm shading 28mph on the drag towards the mini roundabout at Titsey and I'm smilling like the village idiot cos it feels so good.

2 left turns and I'm screaming down the descent into the bottom of Hessiers Hill thinking "those testers are gonna be SOOOOO proud of this..." when KEEERACACCCK. Everything comes to a grinding standstill. I look down and there's pieces of rear derailleur all over the road. Bad enough. Worse is that one of those pices is still attached to the cracked derailleur hanger which is no longer attached to the other half which is still on the frame.

How has this happened - I wasn't even in mid-gear change it just went!

I didn't need to get the tape measure out to know that I was exactly, and I mean EXACTLY half way round the course and therefore at the furthest point possible away from home
Everyone at the office was out in the van bike-testing so there was no-one to call. I didn't have a chain-splitter so couldn't shorten the chain and rig up a single speed.

You guessed it - Shanks pony for 9.5 miles with my faithful Time VXS dying in my arms

Walked up Hessiers and along the top past the white bear pub, (amazing self control not to go in and have several conciliatory pints while waiting for a cab) Freewheeled down the hill to Featherbed lane - walked the length of that (4.7MPH AV) which took bloody ages. Walked up Gravel Hill (148bpm HR) freewheeled down the other side. Total ride/walk time of 2.hrs 45mins - 9.5 miles on bike, 9.5, miles on foot.

Is it the end of the Time? A lot of men in Geoffrey Butlers were standing around it with long faces. It was a depressing sight so I left and said "call me if there's any change"
Its a replaceable hanger so fingers crossed the drop-out itself is not bent - the fact that it freewheeled ok suggests it might be all right after an operation.

[Snoop Doug]

I'm sobbing buckets, this is worse than Lassie Come Home...... the saddest thing I've read fer years huw - hope all ends well

[Andrew G]

Fingers crossed that's a really nice bike.
I'd have opted for a few Black Sheep in the White Bear and a cab without even thinking twice.
A bit "after the horse has bolted" but I can recommend the Top Peak Hummer multi tool, it has every thing you'll need (allen keys and screwdrivers) including an 8mm allen key (Campag square taper bottom bracket bolt size) and a chain splitter. The Mini 18 for a tiny, lighter one also has everything, just a bit more fiddly to use. The chain splitter on these Top Peak jobs is very good, I've regularly used them instead of my main one to save going down to the garage as they are just as good.

[Stu Merckx Man]

poor old huw. my thoughts are with you and the time during this difficult errr...time

[Ian A4size]

Thats not a bad time, beats my PB for that course by some 15 mins.

I have a gun if it needs shooting...

[Grahame]

Bah, it's a test bike. If it's properly broken, you'll have something interesting to write about it.

Guy Kesteven used to (and I assume still does) love it when a bike broke on one of his army of testing volunteers. He got bored of writing "It's a Marin full suspension bike, it rides like every other Marin full suspension bike. Neutral. It just works. Everywhere." or the equivalent for each other brand. I remember being on a ride on the North Yorkshire Moors with him when the bottom bracket shell sheared offf a Giant Cadex mountainbike. His first words were not "Oh poo, we've a long walk back." They were "Oh, fantastic an interesting review to write. How did you do it?"

PS. What was your power output on the way back?

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Remind me what make of component suddenly imploded?

To the bunker

[Mike I]

A walking speed of 4.7mph average - in cycling shoes - is pretty impressive.

I'm sure it's nothing a bit of duct tape and some zip ties can't fix...

[huw williams]

Your all too kind

unfortunately the powertap doesn't register when there's no pressure on the pedals so walking along pushing the bike doesn't record how many watts you're putting out but HR and speed still work

I've always been a quick walker and I think the 20 minute warm-up at threshold on the bike contributed to the high leg speed cleats or not

The replaceable hanger snapped half way down and the resulting trip to the tarmac has smashed the derailluer around rather than any failure on the derailluer's part

In its 4th year of riding you still might not expect this to happen but I recall 2 years ago that Ryanair bent the hanger quite drastically on my return from Bealach Na Ba - and Pete at GBs said it's strength might be compromised sometime in the future when he bent it back - which is what appears to have happened.

We'll now see how good Time's service department (via R.J.Chickens) is

Guess I'm forced into ride the Look 585 for a while

Fortunately SRAM cassette spacing is the same as Shimano's so I should be able to use the powertap wheel on it no problem

[Elliot M]

you're supposed to replace bent hangers not bend them back! i am amazed you walked 5 miles in cleats.

[quote="mrP(Boonen)VT"]Remind me what make of component suddenly imploded?

To the bunker

[Grahame]

Yes, the truth is out there:

[quote="huw williams"]The replaceable hanger snapped half way down and the resulting trip to the tarmac has smashed the derailluer around rather than any failure on the derailluer's part

[huw williams]

Oh what twaddle - I had 2 more years out of that after we put it in the vice and hung on the other end

Anyway - there's a replacement on the way but its gonna take 3-4 weeks.

3-4 WEEKS? Apparently they "don't keep those in stock"

So this morning I was forced out onto the 585 (it's a hard life ) in full race trim for the first time. IE no extras on it whatsoever
Sweet Jesus that's a nice bike - more to come when I've spent some time on it

[Marek]

Why didn't you have a chaintool with you, is it too heavy?

I don't leave home without one, which a number of people who ride with me will have been thankful over the years.

Cheers

Marek....

[quote="huw williams"]Oh what twaddle - I had 2 more years out of that after we put it in the vice and hung on the other end