Darth Lefty 

Yup, that crank arm is a goner. Sorry!

Except... I don't know if it's possible to over-torque those things, except that if you go too far you can't go back. I had one I torqued so much that I stripped the crank puller threads and had to take it to a shop... he said "give me twenty minutes. Do you need to save the bottom bracket?"

RidingMatthew

Apparently I did not set my alarm or I turned it off Sunday over Monday night. (we had a big storm and a kid come in our room so i guess i needed the extra sleep) I remember hearing my wife ask me about if i was going to. I remember saying no but I woke up too late to ride yesterday.

Tuesday morning I had to pull out winter gear this morning. less than freezing and windy too.

Phamilton

SylvainG

Sled on a 20 feet ice patch on the MUP this morning riding at 25.3 km/h (according to my Garmin). Got some crosswind and the back wheel slipped sideways left and I went right. Hit the back of my head against the ice and broke off a part of my helmet as can be seen in the picture. Good thing I was wearing an helmet otherwise it's my skull that would have it that ice, ouch! Had a bit of a headache for 15 minutes. Didn't noticed the damage until I took the helmet off. The "amusing" thing (for the lack of a better word) in this is once I fell, I kept sliding on the ice with my bike in front of me sliding as well but at a bit faster pace. Kind of weird feeling seeing your bike moving away like this...

mgw4jc

Glad you're okay after that. Nice to see the helmet doing its job. I had a similar instance on an icy wooden bridge where I went down and slid on my butt watching my bike slide ahead of me.

OhLylo

While we're on a fall streak, I bit the dust yesterday afternoon, too. It was hella windy, and I was cutting through a construction area near home. They had blocked part of it with a porta-potty today so I tried to cut onto the grass at low speed. I expected a bump, but I did not expect what happened, which was that I went sideways and ate crap. No injury other than to my ego, and I didn't whack my head like @SylvainG, luckily. I rode off with nothing worse than grass-stained knees and a sheepish look. Lesson learned - grass is slippery.

@Phamilton I'll have what you're having. My upper back kills after hard riding into the wind! I would also be surprised if we'd gone thousands of miles with too-high seats, but fit is really individualized and subjective, so who knows?

Tundra_Man 

This morning's weather was threatening, but never actually did anything before I arrived at work. 51F with a moderate wind. There was thunder and lightning but outside of a few sprinkles I didn't get any rain.

The loose crank arm saga continues. I had to re-tighten it about a mile and a half from home last night. When I got home I threw the bike in the stand and removed the bolt, then liberally doused it in blue Loctite. I put the bolt back in, tightened it well beyond spec and let it sit overnight. I was hoping that would buy me some time.

This morning I made it two miles from home when it loosened again. So the Loctite did nothing. I tightened it back up and finished the ride without clipping my left foot in, and trying to pedal with my right foot as much as possible. That actually seemed to help as when I got to work a few miles later the crank arm wasn't wobbling and I could only snug the bolt a little bit. Today's work has me at a couple different locations which will total about 21 miles by the time I get home, so I'll be babysitting this for a while.

I agree with the others. I think my crank is shot. Quite possibly the bottom bracket as well depending on if the square shaft is chewed up. I have a week to go before my surgery so I'm trying to milk this as long as I can, then I can order some parts when I'm recovering and bored. Once the rain passes after today I can probably switch to another bike (although my road bike is also currently down needing a bottom bracket.)

pdlamb

@Phamilton, maybe you've shrunk as you aged and just noticed it?

Tundra Man, left cranks are not that expensive, maybe $25 or so. And I wouldn't worry about the BB; unless it's a hoity-toity brand, the shaft is hardened steel. Mere aluminum cranks aren't going to mess that up.

Now for my morning's ride: overcast, which was nice because I didn't have the sun in my face going over the small ridge, and cool. Cool enough that I was glad I had the wool base layer on -- until I climbed the ridge, got sweaty, and then had cold wet wool next to my torso. Nevertheless, had a pretty good ride and missed a bunch of red lights somehow!

Darth Lefty 

First trike commute today since surgery. Other than the milestone and the weird bike, it was pleasant and unremarkable.

Glad you crashers are ok. @SylvainG keep an eye on yourself today. Concussion and head injury effects can be delayed.

@Tundra_Man I have some deferred maintenance too on my comm-MTB since I knew I wouldn't be riding that bike again until August at best

Tundra_Man 

I just ordered a new crankset. This bike doesn't have anything fancy, so both sides of the crank were $30. I bought the exact same model the bike currently has on it, so I'll set the new drive side on the shelf for when my current rings wear out, then I've already got the replacement on hand. The current rings only have about 1400 miles on them so it should be a while until they need to be replaced. Hopefully this new left crank arm will last longer than the old one.

Chinghis

I started work at a new location around Christmas. It's about nine miles with 500-600 climbs at each end, if I don't drive to the bottom of the hill we live on. For various reasons - schedules, kids, weather - I didn't ride at all in February and just a couple of times March. Getting better in April, though - have ridden three of the last four days, and will ride more this week since I don't have to carpool kids to school.

Today's ride was fun. Thanks to "Colton" (sp?), on a road bike, who caught up to me on the final climb to work. He said hi as he passed, and I half-jokingly asked if I could catch a draft. Figured I could hang with him for 10-20 yards; I'm on a mountain bike with 26" slicks and 25 pounds of crap in panniers. But it was nice, we chatted all the way up. I didn't quite have that "able to talk comfortably" thing going on, but it was OK. Just trying to stick with him, I could tell I was going up faster than usual. So, thanks to Colton, and sorry you missed your Rapha ride in the morning.

Phamilton

Darth Lefty 

If I had that crank I'd ignore the 50 for now and go shopping for 42/52 rings... to be installed after the Challenge.

mgw4jc

I nice 62F this morning and I rode my bike for the first time in a week. Felt a little weak in the legs at first, but once the blood got pumping I was fine. Looks like rain and thunderstorms tomorrow though, so may just drive again. Sad mileage week compared to normal.

Tundra_Man 

Rain this morning, which wasn't in the forecast. I was originally planning on either riding my fixie or my road bike today as my normal "rain" bike is now down waiting for a replacement crank arm to arrive. I didn't want to get either of these bikes a messy in the rain, so instead I pulled out my vintage Panasonic, (literally) blew the cobwebs off of it and aired up the tires.

I hadn't ridden the Panasonic in about a year. I was definitely out of practice with frictions shifting via barcons. I kept trying to twist the brake hoods and push missing levers with my middle fingers. I also realized how high the gearing is on this bike compared to my others which I have geared down. But it was kind of fun riding a different bike for a change.

Got stopped for a train, so I snapped a photo:

pdlamb

Nice ride in this morning, middle 60s and a pretty heavy overcast -- I noticed my dyno lights when I got to the bike shed. Parts of the ride were like riding through a green tunnel, between the light green hardwoods, dark green cedars, and of course the dark sky overhead.

OhLylo

47F this morning. Why is it so much colder today when it's supposed to push 90F this afternoon! I can tell I'm already wearing my summer skin, because I was freezing today. And then I'm going to sweat my butt off this afternoon. Ah, spring.

It's NBD for me as well - New Bar Day! My Jones bar is here today and is going to go on either tonight or tomorrow, depending how motivated I feel. I'm excited.

noglider 

@Phamilton, maybe your saddle was too high. There is a fitting your bike section on bikeforums. You can post pictures of yourself on the bike, possibly shot while you lean on a wall. A video is even better, if possible. People will weigh in.

RidingMatthew

It was above 60F this morning on the way in. Jersey and shorts with a long sleeve jersey. Perfect. Currently 76F! so ready for my ride home. TODAY IS MY FRIDAY!

HardyWeinberg

54F drizzle

wphamilton

Heavy rain this morning, which I didn't mind as much as my wife waking me up at 5 worried about tornadoes. The thunder was continuous as were sirens but those were all emergency vehicles I think, and I would have preferred to sleep through it.

It will be about the same going home according to the forecast, high winds by local standards. I had left an extra rain jacket at work yesterday, so that I'd at least have a dry one for the ride home today

noglider 

NYC folks such as @ascherer and @robertorolfo might be interested to know that I'm looking at my travel times over various routes. I've ridden to Hunter College a few times recently and to the upper west side many times. I've found that going out of my way to use the Hudson River Greenway is worth it. It can add a mile to a four mile trip, and the travel time is the same. The stress level is MUCH lower. I'd say it's worth doing even when it adds a little time.

I went from my home in the West Village to Hunter College taking 1st Ave. That is also out of the way, but 1st Ave is a reasonable route. I don't know of another reasonable route along streets. Madison and Park and 3rd are all lousy.

I went to an orientation at the McBurney YMCA on Wednesday evening for my volunteer work I'll be doing on the Five Borough Bike Tour which happens on May 5. I took 8th Ave at 6pm. For a few blocks near Penn Station, the bike lane was FULL of a crowd of pedestrians overflowing from the sidewalk. They made it their lane. It was hopeless. I got angry but then when I think about how they outnumber cyclists, maybe a repurposing makes the most sense. I commiserated with another cyclist, and he said, yes, it's useless to try using the bike lane in that case.

robertorolfo

This makes perfect sense, and indeed my regular ride home is almost completely done on 1st Ave, right up to the 59th street bridge. Not much pedestrian interference in the bike lane (although there is some), and not too much vehicular traffic compared to a lot of other streets. The 1st Avenue Tunnel below the UN is also really fun to ride (no bike lane, but the car lanes are wide and the drivers generally stick right to 25mph, because there are very frequent speed traps at the exit. Gives you a good point of reference if you are trying to go faster than 25).

As for the other streets, I know exactly what you mean. About once a week I ride up Madison from 30th to 59th, and that's pretty bad (no bike lane and plenty of nonsense from drivers). I've also done the 8th avenue thing, and it's ridiculous. People don't care at all, and you really can't make much progress at certain times.

SylvainG

Thanks. That was the weird path watching the bike sliding like that. Indeed, very happy I was wearing an helmet and have gained the experience of not trusting unspiked tire on ice. Now I dismount and walk beside the bike.

Two "says" (not sure if it's the right word) comes to mind:
1. You learn more from your failures than successes
2. Experience is the ability to recognize a mistake when you make it a second time

Glad you only got a bruised ego.

Thanks, shaking my head did hurt the following day. Seems to be fine now. I did make sure to loosen my grip on the handlebar when going over potholes and cracks on the road to lessen the jolting effect on my head.

Phamilton

I’m thinking about making it single speed, is that nuts?