Hi gang,
Yesterday morning, I was fortunate enough to take my Raleigh Team bike out for its second ride (well, the second time *I* rode it). I'm still in the process of tweaking the fit, so at the 10 mile mark, I stopped to adjust the seat height. While loosening the seatpost binder bolt, I experienced that familiar unsettling feeling... you know.. the feeling where the bolt suddenly becomes very, very loose! Yep, the bolt broke, and I had the pleasure of riding home w/o sitting down. :-P
In truth, I wasn't surprised that the bolt broke, since I had noticed
that the "ears"(?) that the bolt passes thru were bent inwards a bit, which
produces a bending moment in the bolt. (f.y.i. you can see a pic of the
bike model at:
http://bulgier.net/
My question is: what are the best options for avoiding this problem, or fixing it?
My immediate fix was to replace the broken bolt portion with a plain steel M6 allen bolt, with the hope that it would be stronger and less brittle than the chromed Campy part. I'm still using the "nut" portion of the Campy seatpost binder bolt. If I carry a spare M6 bolt, I'd at least be able to fix any future failures.
So, for all of you who've had this occur, how did you fix it??
thanks,
Steve Kurt
Peoria, IL