The cost of crashing

[Beaver]

Saturday Sept 17, I went for a ride on Upper Oasis I'm tooling along having a great ride airing here and there, riding logs, flying through rock gardens..... Having one of those rides where you feel good, really good. I came across a rollercoaster, It was a ramp that if taken at the right speed you could coast up, across, into the compression up the next roller and down to the launch. It was about 50' long and a foot wide. Well, I hit it a little slow and had to pedal across the top. As I made my first pedal stroke I noticed that my chain had dropped to the small ring up front so I didn't get the acceleration expected and it was trying to change back up to the middle ring. This fucked me up a bit but I regained my composure and continued. Down through the compression and up and shit not enough speed again. So I pedaled, wobbled, and rode into the air. My ballance and stroke were such that I did not get any power to the back wheel as I went off the ramp.

As my front tire hit the dirt I watched as my fork twisted with the impact. I then tucked my head and rolled off my bike into the dirt. No problem, I didn't even scuff myself. My bike however was not so lucky. At first glance the front rim was bent at about 90 degrees. Upon further investigation I saw I had bent it so hard that I had also driven my front rotor into the dirt and bent it badly. So I pull my rotor off and try to straighten my wheel enough to roll through the fork. Well, I busted the rim in half trying to straighten it. I zap strapped my tire to the rim to hold it somewhat round and proceeded to walk out a few KM. Bikeing shoes suck for walking/running.

So I had the LBS build me a nice new rim a somthing or other MAG 30 with tapered stainless steel spokes bla bla bla and a new 8" rotor. I figure it's all good and I take it home and throw it on my bike and hop on for a ride. As I hit the street I let go of the bars to adjust my helmet and the bike vers hard left. "WTF" so I stop and have a close look at things. My steering tube is bent. So LBS gives me a new (used) one free and sends me down the road to the machine shop. They look at the job and say they'll have to build a jig to press the old one out and a jig to press the new one in. It'll cost $60 or so. So LBS calls Marazocchi. They can do it for about the same after shipping so I figure I'll send it to them. Then as LBS guy is looking at it he say's, "I wonder if you bent the crown. It doesn't look quite straight." So we make some measurements and sure as fuck it's out by 2mm. So we call Marz back to see if they can put a new crown on. Well they offered me a new fork for $175cad. So I took it. It should be here Wednesday.

A little pain free whipeout cost me $400 with taxes and shipping. What a pisser.

[Tap]

wicked pissah. sorry to hear it bro but glad you're ok.

[seatpostclamp]

Wow glad your OK dude, a bent steering tube could lead to a broken steering tub which means you could be rollin' on 4 wheels like this:

Be careful out there!

[Arty50]

A little pain free whipeout cost me $400 with taxes and shipping. What a pisser.

I had a similar bill earlier this summer. It was accompanied by much head shaking and a suggestion to buy a bigger bike. God damn 5Spot is just too smooove...and bomber. I've gotta stop breaking the stuff attached to it.

[JR]

Dude, I've known you long enough to know that anything even remotely cross-country just ain't gonna cut it for you. Pounds = tough. Light = excessive trips to the LBS. My ride is 46 pounds, never bent a thing nor had a flat for that matter. Of course now that I've said that.................

[Beaver]

You're right, I should probably have a DH bike but all the ones I rode didn't pedal/climb for shit and i do like xc riding albiet somewhat extreeme xc sometimes. My bike is fattening up though. I've got a Mavic 729 rim on the back and an Intense Mag 30 up front so I won't be bending my rims easily. My new fork is a 2006 Dirt jam pro with 130mm travel. It's suposedly a beefier fork than the exr supra that I bent.

[crashnburn'd]

big bikes break too

[dogwonder]

Every time I take my DH rig out (GT DHi) I always break or need to repair something. Saddle twice, chain guide, rear derailleur, i-drive, rear brakes. DHing has quadrupled my biking budget between going to lift accessed parks, entering races and constantly keeping the bike maintained. I'm single handedly keeping the industry alive.