Broken Carbon Bike

Ya, I did it. I broke my new carbon fiber road bike….

Let’s step back.

I was out on my third ride with my new beauty (see here) having a glorious time with her.  I started climbing one of the few local climbs (a cat 4, by Strava) and all was going well.  I was kinda focused on the differences that I was experiencing from my old Giant OCR 3 – particular the new 2×11 gearing.  I got to a steep-ish part, was moving very slowly, stood up to put a bit more effort into it, and got about three crank revolutions then CRUNCH.

The bike stopped.  I really hate it when that happens…

I’m still clipped in thinking about how much I wish I wasn’t still clipped in and could put my foot down so I wouldn’t have to feel that hard concrete contact my nice soft shoulder.

Perhaps my mountain biking is paying off as I did get a foot out of the peddle JUST BARELY in time and avoided a second crunch (the one on my shoulder).

It took all of two seconds to find the problem.

The rear derailleur hanger had broken.

Bummer.  That was the end of that ride cause I sure was not carrying a spare hanger.

I picked up my bike and stepped off the road.  Surprisingly, this little guy was nearly under my shoe!

Yup, that is a rattle snake.  He didn’t look super healthy but was healthy enough to be annoyed that I was bugging him. I think maybe all the overnight rain had caused him to be washed out of his hiding place to this spot on the side of the road.  Poor baby….

Very thankfully, my riding buddy knew someone about a block away with a truck.  He borrowed it and in short order my broken bike and I were both home.

I sprang into action to find a replacement hanger.  This is my first real negative with a Chinese frame (clone??) – I have no ability to tell the bike shop that I have make/model X.  I tried stating that it was a Pinarello Dogma (cause that’s what it looks like) but that didn’t get me anywhere.  I contacted VeloBuild.com hoping they could tell me something about the hanger. That got me nothing but frustration.  So, I went to three bike shops and sorted thru boxes of hangers hoping to match one up.  Believe it or not, this was successful (but took several hours).

Whilst I was putting everything back together, the cause of the problem slowly took shape in my tiny little brain.  I ASSUMED that a new frame would be setup such that a straight hanger would result in a properly aligned derailleur.  WRONG!  During the initial build, I noted that the derailleur was not well aligned but it seemed to be working ok.  That is another mistake – or at least a continuation of the mistake.  I believe what happened is thus: I was in the lowest gear (largest sprocket) for a long time while sitting – all was ok.  When I stood up, I must have really started flexing things so things moved things just enough for a spoke to catch the jockey pulley brackets which then ripped the derailleur off the bike.

Ok, I’m clearly not very smart but at least I learn from my mistakes.

When I installed the new/replacement hanger, I spent a lot of time gently bending the hanger to get proper derailleur alignment.  I don’t have an alignment tool but its value quickly became obvious to me so I ordered one.  It is not perfect but fairly close.  It will be perfect shortly after the alignment tool arrives.

While I was doing maintenance I decided to address the play in the fork headset and further trim the steerer tube.  As I noted earlier, I was nervous about cutting the steerer too short so I cut it long until I had a chance to ride the bike a bit.  I’ve done that and am happy with the position, even a bit lower position, so I brought the steerer tube down another 1.25″.

Note from JD: The following shim was a mistake. It later started creaking, was removed, and I was able to tighten enough to eliminate the slop.  I’m not sure what I did wrong the first two times, maybe just didn’t tighten it enough.

The headset play was a fairly serious problem.  The headset lower bearing provided by VeloBuild.com does not fit the frame very well. It begins going in fairly snug but loosens up once in position. There is nearly no side to side play but fairly significant fore and aft play.  If left like this, it will eventually destroy the frame by beating the bearing seat into an unusable shape.

To resolve this, I made a thin spacer out of aluminum sheet and inserted it as shown in the following photo. This took up all the slop and eliminated the headset play. Someday I plan to try a name brand headset to see if the bearings fit better (I hope they do) but that will have to wait for another day.

I’m happy to report that my sweet beauty is operational again and I put twenty miles on her this morning.  She is performing well once again.  I’m also very thankful for the chain events that transpired, or, rather, didn’t transpire.  I could have destroyed my back wheel (ripped out the spokes), I could have tipped over and landed hard on my fragile little body, I could have stepped on and been bitten by a rattle snake, I could have had to walk all the way home carrying my bike, I could have destroyed my frame, I could have destroyed an expensive part – like the derailleur.  None of that happened and that is most certainly reason to give thanks!