Keep that Uri Geller away from my bike!

Some times you get a 'Lucky Break' and sometimes a break is lucky, I had the latter (twice) riding to work the other day, I've done thousands of miles on my trusty spare bike. Descended mountains at 50mph+ or racing at Mallory Park it's the best part of 20 years old and one of the first carbon bikes ever produced (carbon tubes stuck into alloy lugs). The original one was my dad's and some years ago (early 90s) I was out riding when I found I could not use the front changer, I gave it a bit of a boot as I went along thinking "It's stuck or jammed" but a good hard Whack! with the right foot usually frees things up , but NO! On closer inspection the tube where it goes into the bottom bracket lug was barely in having come un-glued, the only thing holding the bike together was the front changer cable wrapped under the BB. I know some bikes have tension cables and the Dursley Peterson had a saddle strung from it like a hammock but this was a bit too much 'High Tech' innovation that even Eva Jiricna would not have approved of, I turned the bike over walloped it home and rode home gingerly. Specialised replaced the frame free of charge even though it was well over 3 years old and I noticed the tubes on this one had pins as well as glue. Its usually hung on the wall but it's always being pressed into action at various times as things go wrong through the season with bikes and frames, I've been using it as a winter bike with mudguards this winter since fatigue took my winter bike.




You can see a pretty big dirty mark in the break which means that it's been broken for quite a long time but I only got out the saddle at 15mph on a little side road and it snapped and I had a 'mono fork' for a brief few seconds as I came gracefully (and thankfully) to a halt, when I thingk about it afterwards, well It doesn't bear thinking about too much downhill, in a bunch, on a main road...........
Only the week before the bracket on my front mudguard had succumbed while riding along the busy A47 and the whole guard shot forward gripped by the tyre and wedged itself under the crown bringing me to a sudden and skidding halt. I was lucky that time as well, it took my computer sensor and magnet with it across the road but I was just shaken as I only had my hand on the bars and the other on the peak of the guard (wondering why my mudguard had gone so lopsided?) so let us all learn a lesson to check our bikes more often and if a repair needs doing, do it now don't wait and if something looks or feels strange stop and find out before you find out at 25mph with the unpredictable outcome, do not relie on luck

I'd just like to point out at this time that the South Western Road Club (All Stars) are currently 47th in the National Club ranking at the present time thanks to some sterling efforts by Paul Alderson over the winter months. On the same points as Rapher Condor but way ahead of Barloworld!
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/Rankings/RankingsClubs.asp?rank_region=