11 January 2009

Not meant to be

After a week of commuting on the XTC, I was looking forward to a semi-serious MTB this morning. A contra'd leave pass had been obtained, via booking Els to go on the monthly club Women's MTB ride, and I was going to wander off into the bush while she did that, and then ride home.

What should have been a pretty small ride was looking like becoming bigger than Ben-Hur, my boss taking it upon himself to arrange a heap of our customers to come along as well. Luckily a phone call at 8:55am saved my arse there, they decided to go out on a road ride instead.

So we were saddled up with 6 starters, and off we went. About 500 metres, my rear end (the bike, not the person) started behaving oddly. Very loose, and the handling went a bit funny. Hmm, what's up with this? Stopped, grabbed wheel and shook, no movement to speak of. Loosen and tighten quick release, no improvement. Rode up (slowly) to the top of the trail head, and had another look.

Can you guess what the problem was?

One of the pivot bolts had vibrated loose and dropped out entirely. Grrrr.

I limped back to the car, while the rest of the group crawled back down the track looking for the offending loose parts. One half of the pivot was found, but the other half could be anywhere. The last ride on the Rocky was a full-speed descent down Hollow Way (Mt Bogong access track), about 20km of 45+ km/h full bore rocky goodness. I'm guessing the other half of the bolt is somewhere there.

So tomorrow at work will consist of trying to find a Rocky Mountain supplier, with pivot bolts in stock.

Luckily, one of my mates lent me his bike for a ride (which ended up only being 45 minutes after the stuffing around), as he had completely burnt himself out on the road on Sat. Thanks Doug!

As they say, the best laid plans of mice and men... This will teach me to check over the bike more often and more thoroughly!

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