My Bike Is In Ruins

This was supposed to be a semi-witty title for load of photos I took while out in the snow last weekend. However, the bike is actually in ruins. About a mile from home I felt the cranks suddenly go a little odd, both of them, I assumed that the bearings in the bottom bracket must have given up so I limped home. I got in, had my usual recovery drink of Bikefood protein and had a hot shower in an attempt to get some feeling back into my feet, and then got the bike up on the workstand to have a look. What had actually happened was that the thread in the drive-side of the BB shell had come off completely, the whole BB was loose inside the frame.

I think the frame is probably a write-off, it's a big thread to attempt to helicoil and there's not a lot of material there anyway. The only thing I can think of to do with it is to weld a new BB straight into the frame, but it's made of a heat-treated magnesium/aluminium alloy and so I'm not quite sure how to go about this.

Fortunately, this was not one of the race bikes, just the cheap and cheerful singlespeed, or I would probably still be crying!

Anyway, here are the pictures of my bike in ruins, click on them to make bigger:

Fortunately, I had a spare frame lurking in the garage which I was able to assemble into a full bike that evening, ready to ride the next day, every part just moved straight across, no messing about with headset sizes, BB shell widths or seatpost diameters and of course no gears to set-up. It's one advantage of a singlespeed which is rarely mentioned, a full bike can be built in little over an hour and half.



New sinlgespeed in the snow the next day

Despite ruining one frame, I enjoyed the weekend, I love riding in the snow, but it was properly cold. Richard recorded -14.8 degrees at his weather station nearby.