Bad crash



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A

Andy Smith

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I had a pretty bad crash (for me) this afternoon. I was joining a cycle path that had a very
slightly raised kerb, even though it shared the pavment. I don't usually go for cycle paths often,
but this one has a good surface. As I moved to join, the front wheel struck (I think) I swerved,
lost the front wheel (?! QR, but fastened *very* securely), landed on the forks, and went over the
bars. Thankfully my leather mits saved my hands, but I picked up a couple of grazes.

The chrome forks (Reynolds 531) have been bent 45 degrees out on the one side, the front wheel rim
is a dead loss, and my bike is pretty knackered. It's going to need a new fork, stem, wheel, etc. So
I figure I may as well direct this money into a newer bike as this one is kind of old compared to
the newer ones around today.

This brings me to the question; I'm on a tight budget (student) and I need a racer bike. I was
already after one for uni commuting, but now I need my primary transport back, too. Any good shops
that will do a decent (not groundbreaking, let's be fair) bike for 250-300 (maybe a little more!) &
deliver (UK Mainland)? Or what shops will deal secondhand? So far, deesidecycles second hand page
looks good, but the goods are mostly marked as sold.

I'm pretty shocked at the damage, and I'd never go on a cycle path again. I've done a few thousand
miles in total, and 99% of that has been on roads, and trouble-free. Oh, the irony :(

If cycle paths that share pavements really have to exist, putting a shallow & deceptive kerb on
them, where the real height can easily be masked by dirt cannot be good practice whatsoever. I'd
have a white line, as from my experience, the kerb serves no purpose, not even keeping pedestrians
off it. The council *needs* to know this.

Thanks for your replies!

--
Andy
 
Andy Smith wrote:
> The chrome forks (Reynolds 531) have been bent 45 degrees out on the one side, the front wheel rim
> is a dead loss, and my bike is pretty knackered. It's going to need a new fork, stem, wheel, etc.
> So I figure I may as well direct this money into a newer bike as this one is kind of old compared
> to the newer ones around today.
>
> This brings me to the question; I'm on a tight budget (student) and I need a racer bike. I was
> already after one for uni commuting, but now I need my primary transport back, too. Any good shops
> that will do a decent (not groundbreaking, let's be fair) bike for 250-300 (maybe a little more!)
> & deliver (UK Mainland)? Or what shops will deal secondhand? So far, deesidecycles second hand
> page looks good, but the goods are mostly marked as sold.

eBay or the mag ads might be useful if you're clued up about what size and spec you need.

But I woud not completely discount the idea of rebuilding your bike. Rim can be replaced without
having to get a whole new wheel; new forks needn't be very expensive. See bike shops and SJS Cycles
for steel forks, and Xpedia, Parker International, etc for carbons.

I've at long last started the process of doing up my "hack" tourer bike. It is an expensive business
but then so is buying a new bike.

Sorry to hear about the crash. I know what that kind of shock feels like. You'll be back!
...Probably with a better bike, one way or the other.

I take /all/ curbs like a complete granny ever since having a few mishaps with them as a kid.

~PB
 
I was contemplating fixing the bike, however, the forks/headset are pretty well stuck in place; and
now the screw from the stem has sheared. I've never done this before, so I'm sketchy on the part
names :) All in all.. it's pretty stuck, and sawing seems to be the only way to go; if I want to go
that way of course. I think this would be a good opportunity to replace a fairly old bike, but it's
still disappointing to see it end up like this.

As for new bikes, I first saw the Barracuda stuff; got put off by reading what people had said, and
now I'm looking at a reasonably priced Fausto Coppi. Any comments on the Gavia? I'm prepared to go
for the Sora parts, after reading some reviews of them from other bikers on www.roadbikereview.com,
however I would be interested on feedback on the bike as a whole.

Thanks for the SJS pointer; looks very useful.

Any other mags that would be good for secondhand ads apart from Cycling weekly?

Pete Biggs wrote:
> Andy Smith wrote:
> > The chrome forks (Reynolds 531) have been bent 45 degrees out on the one side, the front wheel
> > rim is a dead loss, and my bike is pretty knackered. It's going to need a new fork, stem, wheel,
> > etc. So I figure I may as well direct this money into a newer bike as this one is kind of old
> > compared to the newer ones around today.
> >
> > This brings me to the question; I'm on a tight budget (student) and I need a racer bike. I was
> > already after one for uni commuting, but now I need my primary transport back, too. Any good
> > shops that will do a decent (not groundbreaking, let's be fair) bike for 250-300 (maybe a little
> > more!) & deliver (UK Mainland)? Or what shops will deal secondhand? So far, deesidecycles second
> > hand page looks good, but the goods are mostly marked as sold.
>
> eBay or the mag ads might be useful if you're clued up about what size and spec you need.
>
> But I woud not completely discount the idea of rebuilding your bike. Rim can be replaced without
> having to get a whole new wheel; new forks needn't be very expensive. See bike shops and SJS
> Cycles for steel forks, and Xpedia, Parker International, etc for carbons.
>
> I've at long last started the process of doing up my "hack" tourer bike. It is an expensive
> business but then so is buying a new bike.
>
> Sorry to hear about the crash. I know what that kind of shock feels like. You'll be back!
> ...Probably with a better bike, one way or the other.
>
> I take /all/ curbs like a complete granny ever since having a few mishaps with them as a kid.
>
> ~PB
 
"Andy Smith" <andy@[email protected]> wrote:

> This brings me to the question; I'm on a tight budget (student) and I need a racer bike. I was
> already after one for uni commuting, but now I need my primary transport back, too. Any good shops
> that will do a decent (not groundbreaking, let's be fair) bike for 250-300 (maybe a little more!)
> & deliver (UK Mainland)? Or what shops will deal secondhand? So far, deesidecycles second hand
> page looks good, but the goods are mostly marked as sold.

What size are you after? I've got a good spec race bike sat in my garage now for around £275.It is
around 20 inchish frame,so only any good for short arses like me at around 5'7" or smaller. E-mail
me or post here if you (or anyone else) is interested.

alan ( at ) darkroom.plus.com

--
Change the 'minus' to 'plus' to reply by e-mail. http://www.dvatc.co.uk - Off-road Cycling in the
North Midlands.
 
Pete Biggs <pLime{remove_fruit}@biggs.tc> wrote:
>
> But I woud not completely discount the idea of rebuilding your bike. Rim can be replaced without
> having to get a whole new wheel; new forks needn't be very expensive. See bike shops and SJS
> Cycles for steel forks, and Xpedia, Parker International, etc for carbons.
>

Before doing so check the underside of the downtube. A crash like that can often twist the head
tube back which creates a crease in the underside of the downtube. If that has happened the
frame is junk.

Tony

--
http://www.raven-family.com

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to
adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George
Bernard Shaw
 
> I had a pretty bad crash (for me) this afternoon. I was joining a cycle
path
> that had a very slightly raised kerb, even though it shared the pavment. I don't usually go for
> cycle paths often, but this one has a good surface.
As
> I moved to join, the front wheel struck (I think) I swerved, lost the
front
> wheel (?! QR, but fastened *very* securely), landed on the forks, and went over the bars.
> Thankfully my leather mits saved my hands, but I picked up
a
> couple of grazes.

Ouch, I feel for you. At uni, pennyless, I was riding a pawn shop bike that had cost me abour £15
a few days earlier. I hadn't had a chance to check it over properly. I was riding along a
dirt/gravel path and for no reason the front wheel just came clean off. Forks hit the gravel, a
second later so did
I. Lost most of the skin on both palms, knees and a shoulder.

Loot is OK for bikes. If it was me I'd look locally. Supermarket ads, local paper, pawn shops (just
don't make my mistake and do safety check!!). The advantage of this way is you can ride a bike
before buying without having to travel too far.

Good luck
 
Bummer - the rest of the guys here are much better on the bike techhie stuff than me. Basically I'm
glad *you* aren't too badly hurt. Things I would add

1. report incident to local authority responsible for design & maintenance of the path - if it's a
bad design they should darned well know about it!

2. Are you a member of, say, CTC where you can seek legal advice on whether or not you have a
financial claim on whoever is responsible for design/maintenance of the path. It may be a
non-starter, but if you don't ask, you don't get - and what with finances being tight - if there
is a case, you could get yourself a new bike out it??

Cheers, helen s

~~~~~~~~~~
Flush out that intestinal parasite and/or the waste product before sending a reply!

Any speeliong mistake$ aR the resiult of my cats sitting on the keyboaRRRDdd
~~~~~~~~~~
 
Andy Smith wrote:
> Any other mags that would be good for secondhand ads apart from Cycling weekly?

Cycling Weekly is best, but also see Cycling Plus mag and the C+ forum at: www.cyclingplus.co.uk

www.ebay.co.uk is worth keeping an eye on too.

~PB
 
Thanks for the offer, but I'm looking for a 23" :)

"A Lee" wrote:
> What size are you after? I've got a good spec race bike sat in my garage now for around £275.It is
> around 20 inchish frame,so only any good for short arses like me at around 5'7" or smaller. E-mail
> me or post here if you (or anyone else) is interested.
 
I intend to report this to the council. If they think that raising shared cycle paths on pavements
is a good practice, then that needs to change. It serves no purpose, and as experienced, seems to
reduce the safety of shared paths even more!

As for legal action, I can only think of those lovely 'claims direct' things, but any kind of
financial reward given I bet 90% of it would go back to themselves. I could try other forms of
advice, CAB, perhaps? But I really don't have any kind of financial stance to undertake this myself.

wafflycathcsdirtycatlitter wrote:
> Bummer - the rest of the guys here are much better on the bike techhie
stuff
> than me. Basically I'm glad *you* aren't too badly hurt. Things I would
add
>
> 1. report incident to local authority responsible for design & maintenance
of
> the path - if it's a bad design they should darned well know about it!
>
> 2. Are you a member of, say, CTC where you can seek legal advice on
whether or
> not you have a financial claim on whoever is responsible for
design/maintenance
> of the path. It may be a non-starter, but if you don't ask, you don't
get - and
> what with finances being tight - if there is a case, you could get
yourself a
> new bike out it??
>
> Cheers, helen s
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~
> Flush out that intestinal parasite and/or the waste product before sending
a
> reply!
>
> Any speeliong mistake$ aR the resiult of my cats sitting on the
keyboaRRRDdd
> ~~~~~~~~~~
 
----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Smith" <andy@[email protected]> Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2003 2:26 AM Subject: Re: Bad crash

> As for new bikes, I first saw the Barracuda stuff; got put off by reading what people had said,
> and now I'm looking at a reasonably priced Fausto Coppi. Any comments on the Gavia? I'm prepared
> to go for the Sora parts, after reading some reviews of them from other bikers on
> www.roadbikereview.com, however I would be interested on feedback on the bike as a whole.

Hi. Long time URC reader, first time contributor because....

I'm also a budget-conscious student (and another Andy, strangely enough) and I just bought an 02
Coppi Gavia a couple of weeks ago from my LBS for 280 pounds... it's always worth asking if the
local guy can source one. I'm pretty chuffed with it although I replaced the push-in crank
dustcovers with screw-in jobs after a couple of days.

One thing to remember about Coppis is that they are measured C-C. My 56cm bike is actually 60cm to
the top of the seat post binder... so a 58cm is probably closest to a 23inch C-T.

Comes with pedals and toeclips so you can ride about in your regular shoes/boots if you so desire.
Rims are Rigida, Hubs are Quando and brakes are Alhonga (these work pretty well as I inadvertantly
discovered on Friday).

As I have a scuzzy ATB which is mudguarded and panniered up for day to day use, I wasn't overly
bothered that the Gavia doesn't have mudguard eyes but the next model up, the Lugano, does if you
need that kind of thing. Again, worth asking your LBS what sort of price they can do on this.

Other things worth considering (i.e things I also considered) are :-

H******s are doing their 02 Carrera Virtuoso for 299 at the moment and still had the 01 model listed
at 159(!!!) last week... whether they still have any of these anywhere is a different matter but if
they do it's got to be worth it for the groupset alone, which, IIRC, is 8 speed Sora.

The Raleigh Chimera also has 8 speed Sora and, weirdly, has a triple shifter for a double chainring
(at least, the one I looked at did)... if you can get the 02 model in the low 200s you can consider
yourself to have got the frame for free and buy something in aluminium if you really have to have
it... same goes for the older R50 which is still available.

An 02 Dawes Giro 300 looks like a good buy at around 300 for sensible everyday use (mudguard eyes
and granny ring)... and as you've already acquainted yourself with SJS, there's the very similar SJS
Giro 3000 (badge engineering?) at a similar kind of price

I plumped for the Coppi because I reckoned it had an air of Italian style about it. Mind you, it
does also have an 'Assembled in Derby' sticker on it
:)

hope that's helpful

cheers

andy fleming

(when emailing reverse the name in front of the @ to reply)
 
<snip> Mind you, it does also have an 'Assembled in Derby' sticker on it </snip>

Lots of bikes are assembled in Derby, as the Moore-Large factory is here; they distribute an awful
lot of foreign bikes around the country. Not that I'd assume 'Assembled in Derby' to have any sort
of quality unless it was stuck to the side of a Rolls-Royce jet engine!

Regards,

---------------------------
Peter Connolly Acute Computing Derby UK
 
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