I'm a beast!!! (loooong post)
or so the guys at the LBS told me...
I have to share the events of my slightly-too-eventful weekend with everyone.
On Friday i met a friend for a ride, and i was feeling pretty sore from weights the night before, and opted to use my granny gear on a hill i usually just grind through. click....click....click.... no granny gear. so i grind to the top, knees hating me the whole way.
at the top, i try shifting to the big ring, just for kicks. nada. so i get off and take a look at what might be preventing me from shifting... my front derailleur has snapped in half. the back cage plate just completely snapped off!
luckily, the chain is in the middle ring, where i usually ride, and my friend and i are set to just do 20 easy miles. he offers to help me fix it (ie: install a new derailleur) if i can get one off- line. my friend wasn't too terribly surprised, since the bike is 3-years old and the derailleur was campy mirage (not bad components, but not built to last multiple long tours followed by racing, either).
right, so, saturday is a rest/bike maintenance day, so i'm fixing a flat on my commuter, scraping the mud off my mtn bike, and trying to get the grease off of my road bike. and i have the bike upside down to clean the freewheel and get the grease off the frame (no idea how it ended up on my top tube, but oh well) and i notice that there is a hairline crack in my left crank, accross the knob that holds the bolt. show this to my cyclist-housemate (who is cleaning the grime off of some garage-sale rear cassettes) and he goes "holy -----!" so i'm thinking, this can't be good.
so i go down to the bike store after calling my friend to pick me and the bike up (figure it's not such a good idea to be riding the bike in this condition--- and i blew the engine on my car two weeks ago-- another long story, but i'm happy to say i'll have it back by next weekend! :)) and show my bike to a friend-of-a-friend salesclerk who works at the lbs, who takes me back to talk to the mechanics, who start laughing.
apparently only beast-like men who snap frames in half with their bare hands generally break campy veloce crank arms (the crack went all the way through to the bolt--whoops). so mechanic number one starts talking to mechanic number two and the owner of the shop like i'm not even there, which ticks me off. they're saying, "well, we could put a double on this bike" and the other goes "or we could put a triple xenon (lowest- end campy) on it" and the third goes "better make it a triple mirage" and i pipe up, "no mirage, no double, i want to keep it a triple veloce" and they look at me like i'm from mars. heh heh. and the mechanic says "is it veloce on there now?" and they all look and, lo and behold, it's veloce. hah!
luckily, they have a veloce crankset on hand, and agree to sell me just the left crank arm (since the chainring is more than fine). and the first mechanic says, "well, you'll be off of this for a few weeks" so i reply "actually, i'd like to fix it myself, if i can buy the crank now." another look like i'm from mars. i'm laughing hysterically on the inside now. so the guy sticks my bike in the stand and walks me through pulling a crank. (yaay, i can do it myself now!)
*meanwhile* i had not forgotten to ask about the derailleur. the friend-of-a-friend salesguy is trying to sell me a shimano 150, which is fine, but i'd like to keep all campy components on my baby. he tells me "only old people ride campy now" which is not true, because my buddy i rode with the day before has campy on his custom Seven. so i turn down the shimano, as he is trying to shove it in my hands (and is, according to my friend that drove me there, hitting on me, which i tried to deflect :rolleyes: ) eh, i found a new triple braze-on campy veloce on nashbar for $10 more than he was trying to sell the shimano to me for.
soooooo Mr. Friendly/creepy salesguy goes to ring me up, and i've got a new bottle cage, some tubes, tires, gloves (old ones fell apart :() and my old crank sitting on the counter. he asks if i want to ride with him the next week and i (probably stupidly, given i know this guy only as my one- female- cycling- buddy's- old- classmate- from- High- School) agree and write down my e-mail address. it's just a bike ride, after all, i'm looking for more people to ride with, and i may be able to bribe my housemate to come too (i bake some mean oatmeal cookies :D). total $$$ comes to about 1/2 of my week's paycheck (*choke*), i pay, and my friend and i leave.
in the car, i'm looking at the reciept, and there's no crank. now, cranks aren't cheap, but then veloce shouldn't crack like that. i'm wondering now if they gave it to me under warranty (which has expired) or if Mr. Friendly/creepy was flirting again (ew), or if he just forgot because he was too busy hitting on me in the first place (he even got looks from the other salesclerks like, "what are you doing, dude?")
anywho, i made cookies for the mechanics for teaching me to pull the crank (i was told by the owner that they don't usually like customers back in the workshop) and have to pick up degreaser tomorrow, anyway. i'm debating whether or not i should pipe-up about my new crank arm.... ack!
whew. and that's my weekend! well, plus a nice, uneventful 45-miler today with my housemate and my buddy on the Seven. :)
