...or Why I Need to Buy a Torque Wrench
So I took the Blur for her maiden voyage on Saturday. Original plan was to bike up Canyon Trail to Charcoal Road to Saratoga Gap and back down Grizzly. However, after futzing around with the front derailleur for 90 minutes trying to get it tweaked right, I had to opt for a shorter ride.
So I headed up to Fremont Older. It was hot as hell, but the Blur handled like a dream. I cleared all the hills to the top without stopping or breathing too hard. Blazed down the single track and back down the Coyote Trail. Back out on the road, I had just cleared the small hill just before the new (ugly) town homes. I went to hop the curb to get on the patch of "singletrack" next to the road. Just as I bounced and tried to lift the front end, my left crank fell off...
...see I had worked on the Blur for 2.5 days over a two week span putting it together with the help of a friend from work (who I bought the frame and most of the components from) and some of Mud's time as well. We didn't have a torque wrench and hand tightened the cranks with an allen wrench...or I should say my friend did (at least that's what I will tell him tomorrow when I see him
). In reality, my fault for not double-checking everything. So anyhow...
...the tire didn't quite make it over the curb. See Uber lowside...
reallylowside as it ditched out about 4 feet. See Uber slide down ditch into bushes. See Uber's bike fly over and slam him in his face. Fortunately, nothing broken. I actually popped up and got back up on the curb. I guy had stopped his car when he saw the whole incident. I think I said something like, "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" before he could ask if I was OK. He commented, "That was pretty awesome, I wish I had had a camera for that one."
The bike was fine (which is the important thing). I on the other hand have a nice shiner from where the handlebar smacked me in the eye. However, I could not find the bolt to the crank so I had to ride home with my right foot clipped in and doing most of the work and my left foot alternating pedaling and kicking the left crank back into place. I stopped at Chain Reaction and they put in a bolt for free. They also tightened both sides down with a torque wrench so hopefully I'm good to go (until the next stupid Uber trick).
Went out again this morning. Hit A-dero with Kelly for a short one. Damn, I love my bike!
