My husband thinks my bike is trying to kill me
I got home for lunch and showed him my mangled water bottle cage and he said that I'd better hurry up and sell my mixte. "I think that bike is trying to kill you".
About six weeks ago, I was heading to work when out of nowhere, my front fender managed to get caught on my front tire. It was right as I was heading out into an intersection to cross the street. The end of the fender basically got sucked up between the tire and the rest of the fender bringing my bike to an immediate and hard stop. Had I been going any faster, I would have gone over the bars. As it is, I basically got my bars in my belly as I was thrown forward. I immediately got off the bike and dragged it back onto the corner (out of traffic). I managed to yank it out, but it was not rideable. I walked it home (I was just down the street) and drove my car into work.
We contacted Planet Bike and they got us a new fender. Because of the way the front basket is attached, I need to have fenders on the bike, so I just didn't ride it until I could get the replacement installed. I've been riding my touring bike to work since then. Yesterday, I fnally got the replacement fender on the bike.
Anyway, today as I was crossing the same road as in the above incident (but at a different intersection), I came to a grinding halt once again. I had installed a bottle cage on the down tube where there were no holes. I bought this system where you use these ratchet strips to attach the mounts and then you mount a cage as normal. It's been there since I bought the bike. Today, as I was heading out into the intersection, my pant leg caught on the cage and pulled it to the right without my knowledge. The second pass of my crank (so now I was in the MIDDLE of the intersection) caught on the cage and literally tore it off and into my front chain ring. I came to an immediate stop...again. I was blocking all traffic and there were cars all around me! I managed to reach down and grab the bottle cage, and hobble across the rest of the way to a sidewalk. There I tossed the mangled cage into my basket, bent back the derailure, and made sure everything still worked reasonably well. I finished my ride back to work with no further incident.
Is it true? Is my bike trying to kill me? Who would have thought that a bike could be so dangerous in and of itself. Mabye it's trying to tell me something?
Anyone want to buy a blue mixte? :rolleyes:
