[CR]Most Unpleasant Bike Ride (With Vintage Content!)

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Chater-Lea)

From: "Andrew Gillis" <apgmaa@earthlink.net>
To: "classicrendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:57:50 -0700
Subject: [CR]Most Unpleasant Bike Ride (With Vintage Content!)

CRs:

Here's my most unpleasant bike ride, excluding accident. (There is vintage material in this story!)

I was doing an early spring ride on a Saturday morning, approximately March of 1981. The bike was my 1979 Pinarello, with a Campy NR & SR mix. My ride was approximately 60 miles round trip from Redondo Beach, CA to Malibu, CA and back. The weather was gray and overcast, approximately 60 degrees. I was wearing full length wool clothes at the time:

1. A small piece of road debris flew up and chipped one lens of my fairly new prescription sunglasses.

2. I then had another piece of road debris slice and ruin my rear clincher tire. (The tire was probably a Michelin Hi-Lite Road 23mm.) I was stranded until another rider road by and loaned me his sewup tire, which I installed on a clincher rim (Mavic G40). The other rider accompanied me on my ride back to the nearest bike shop.

3. The sewup was new and there was no glue on the base tape. Consequently, it kept creeping on the rim, so I had to deflate, rotate, and reinflate the tire about six times so that the tire creep wouldn't tear out the valve.

4. When I arrived at the nearest bike shop (Marina del Rey) I bought a replacement clincher tire and returned the still-usable sewup to the most gracious Mexican cyclist who loaned it to me. The sales clerk at the shop (who sold me my clincher tire) then lied to the cyclist (in Spanish) who had loaned me his sewup tire, stating that I ruined the tire. (The cyclist told me of the 'story' stated by the shop clerk; I removed the lightly used tubular tire and showed him that there was no damage to it.)

5. After the Mexican cyclist and I parted (on happy terms) I was about 1/3rd of the way back home when I had my new Regina CX freewheel break. (I don't remember whether it was 6 or 7 speed, probably 6.) The freewheel body fractured, and all of the ball bearings dribbled out onto the ground.

6. I managed to call the president of our local cycling club (South Bay Wheelmen) and he was able to round up another club member who retrieved me and drove me home.

At least I got a replacement freewheel as a free warranty exchange. Ted Ernst provided it to me, and advised that the earlier CX freewheel bodies were too thin, and had been damaged (made brittle) due to excessive heat treating. My freewheel, (I recall) broke under the cone on the right side.

I never had another CX freewheel body break after that. And I never shopped at MDR bike shop, either!

regards,

Andrew Gillis (Long Beach, CA)