patentcad

Today my pal and team mate Don and I are riding over to the Cyclesport ride down in NJ (aka the Tour de Fred) and on a nice 8 mph 13% upgrade, SNAP!!! Pcad was in a heap. Why? Here's why:



That's a Dura Ace 7800 crank arm.

Fortunately, nothing broken, just a big contusion on my arm that makes it look rather Popeye-esque:



Iyam what Iyam.

It all breaks kiddies. I think I've established that there's very little bike crap I can't get to detonate.

But it has a happy ending: I got the Slice TT bike fitted with the new improved Cdale BB30 crankset I copped off eBay and test rode it for an hour this afternoon. The forearm was a bit uncomfortable, but nothing I can't tolerate for tomorrow's 11 mile Bear Mtn TT. New position is great.

Cue obligatory Dura Achee bashing Campy jerks. May God Help them.

P.S. Put the deposit on the Soloist with D.A. 7900 today. That will be the best race bike EVER. You'll see.

BananaTugger

Should've bought Campy.

DrPete 

HTFU and ride one-legged.

patentcad

I knew I could count on you BT. Would you prefer the smoking or non-smoking section of hell? Only joking, it's all smoking of course. And botto does have dibs on the window seat.

-=(8)=-

Wow !
Cranks and stem snap are the two most dreaded
breakies I can imagine !
Glad your OK, relatively speaking.

BananaTugger

I'll take the aisle seat.

Where there's fire and brimstone, there's diarrhea.

It's also important to note that Campagnolo's aluminum cranks don't break. Unless they are ridden by 250 pound dudes for tens of thousands of kilometres, but even that might not work.

UT_Dude

Dang. That's a hard one to do!

patentcad

I'm trying to imagine how that same failure would have been going uphill on the Tour de Fred sprint at the end of the ride @ 24+mph (it's a long uphill jam), but I don't want to think about that.

Looking at the broken piece, one side is discolored, one is clean, which does indicate there may have been a crack there for months (which resulted in one side getting weathered) that finally gave way. So you may all want to inspect your crank arms from time to time. Never occurred to me, but I just learned the hard way. Find the cracks, forestall the catastrophic crashes.

BananaTugger

You should have enlisted Chipcom.

He knows where the crack is.

patentcad

Incorrect kid. It ALL friggin breaks. Trust me. Just hope that when yours detonates it's going up a hill at 8 mph like me, not in a sprint @ 30+. Of course you would have to actually ride your bikes for that to ever occur, so you're probably safe.

-=(8)=-

No chance of shipping damage from Greece ??
I know, stoopid, but just a thought......

BananaTugger

So, the 140KM I did this morning before Stage 13 of the Vuelta doesn't count?

Reynolds 

You need that Fredesque gadget to know your cadence?

BananaTugger

Really, now.

Are you unable to move your neck to look down, Pcad? Can you even feel your legs anymore at your age?

Dick Rhee

That is a pretty impressive falure. Is it the image, or is there discoloration at the break point?

Also, I take it you're going to try to get this replaced? Shimano may be interested in knowing that their crankset broke at the spindle.

patentcad

We'll count it if you STFU and ride tomorrow. And nobody here knows what a 'KM' is anyway.

Beaker

Glad you survived to torment the BF masses another day, pcad. I've never heard of that kind of break before. At first glance at the picture I thought the pedal spindle had gone (looks like a Keo), but it's a interesting that the pedal spindle is stronger than your crank arm; Look could probably use some good PR about now.

Now, go get an anchor tattoo before the swelling goes down.

Sixty Fiver

It's good to hear you survive relatively unscathed.

It's quite the pisser that something like a D-Ace crank would give out like that

DrPete 

I rode 860KM today.

Flatballer

^It's probably more likely for a DA crank to do it than a lower end one.

Make it lighter, more likely to break. My drive side crank has a scratchy looking thing on it (DA 7701) that I'm keeping an eye on.

txvintage

A compound fracture of your crank has gotta suck.

slimvela

before someone else says it to be mean, i'll be polite and take the sting out of it just for your uncle pcad. Now get well and get back on that repaired steed!

Sixty Fiver

Agreed... I rock some pretty old parts and have never has a crank arm snap off.

gsteinb

what did the shop say....other than 'get out?'

patentcad

The only got up to 'get...' and then I flashed the $1,000 cash deposit for that Cervelo I was ordering and they got all friendly again.

Good seeing you today Gary. You even look fast in street clothes standing in front of a 7-11. Nice bicycle too.