Senior Member
Join Date: May 2020
Location: Great White North
Posts: 1,226
Bikes: 2013 Cannondale Caad 8, 2010 Opus Fidelio, 1985 Peugeot UO14, 1999 Peugeot Dune, Sakai Select, L'Avantage, 1971 Gitane Apache Standard, 1999 Specialized Hard Rock
Mentioned: 10 Post(s)
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Maybe not every ride is a good ride
Go ahead and grab yourself a nice cheese and please forgive me for I'm about to start whining. Today was supposed to be a good day because I was due for a little "me" time to start doing some work on my bikes and then go for a nice ride while the weather was pleasant. I don't have a ton of bikes but most are older and they all need some type of work so I started with my favourite bike - my vintage 80's Peugeot which is really starting to show wear on the finish. Cleaned up the rust starting to spread under the cable housing going over the top bar and then some touch up paint. Not going to raise the value of the bike but at a distance, looks OK. One job done.
Pulled out my newer Cannondale road bike which I haven't ridden since last fall and noticed a bit of rusting on the chain. Ok, will get that cleaned off and then oil the chain after I take it for a quick test ride. Hmmm, doesn't sound good, inner tubes sound all dried out and making creaking noises while riding and shifting is really rough. Save this for another day.
Let's take a break from bike work and go for a little ride on one of the bikes which is usually a steady Freddy - the 1990's Peugeot Mtn bike which I recently had the cassette and chain replaced. Riding along and feeling good - I think I really want to convert this bike into a drop bar conversion I like it so much and then bang! One of the pedals breaks off. WTF? I have no tools so can't get it back in and it looks threaded. I had just replaced the pedals recently with some flat pedals do did I screw up? add this to the Dumbest maintenance mistake made thread?
Manage to limp to a bike shop with one pedal and bless their hearts because I didn't bring my wallet, they managed to get the pedal back on but confirmed, the crank arm is toast. He said, I'll get you home but it's done. The shop was a high end road bike shop so he was nice enough to ask if I wanted him to try and order a replacement arm but i knew he wasn't interested in fixing an old man's mtn bike.
thanks for reading, I'm a bit down on myself and wish the day could have been better but I guess just another day at the office when it comes to owning older bikes.
I hope your day was better