Postscript: The final indignity

August 25, 2022

A mystery solved; now what's next?

ODYSSEUS RETURNED HOME YESTERDAY, having been in the care and keeping of the Cody WY bike shop where I left him at the beginning of the month. They did a very good job of getting him prepped and packaged for shipping.

While they were so engaged they called to let me know that they had found a broken part and wanted me to know that it had already broken by the time I dropped the bike off with them; it was neither their fault nor that of the shipping company. I thanked them and made a mental note to check, when the bike got back to me.

And they were right: there is indeed something rotten in Denmark.

I had been noticing, over the last several days of my ride, that the bike just didn't feel as solid as it ought to and as I remembered it being. It felt as though the rear end were a bit loose and wobbly, or had developed a sort of shimmy, more than I could clearly remember from past history.

In such situations there's always that initial haze of uncertainty that goes with a gradual, creeping, incremental change. Am I imagining it? (No.) Has it always been like that and I just didn't notice until now? (Also no.) Am I suddenly more sensitive because of the rear tire issues, to the point where I am suddenly conscious of a sensation that's always been there but I just didn't notice? (Nope.) Do I in fact have an ongoing issue with the back tire pressure? (No.) Has something changed in the way I load the bike, that might account for it? (No.)

At the time, I attributed the flexing to the rear panniers flopping around more than I remembered or possibly to a sketchy rear tire. (Despite all the problems I'd had in that department, the tire was in fact properly inflated at all times except when it was actually flat. So that wasn't it.) I had checked all of the bolts that hold the rear rack in place and confirmed they were tight, so I knew the source of the feeling wasn't the rack flopping around. And I wasn't even really certain that what I was feeling was in fact a new and different feeling than what I'd previously experienced.

I was, in essence, grasping at straws but not looking in detail for a problem I'd not even considered as a possibility and wasn't even sure really existed. Nor is it clear that I'd have thought to look at the point where the problem actually lay.

Something here is not right. This is the spot where the upper legs of the rear triangle connect to the frame tube that holds the seat mast. The bike is built with a hinge at the point where the lower legs of the rear triangle connect to the main frame member, and the pictured quick release at the upper end; opening the QR skewer enables the rear section of the bike to fold forward, reducing the size of the frame and enabling it to fit in its suitcase. The ends of the upper legs of the rear triangle have dropouts welded or brazed on; the QR skewer holds them in place and secures the frame.

In fact it's wrong... very, VERY wrong. The dropout on the left leg of the rear triangle has broken off from the "seat stay" to which it should be VERY firmly attached.

No indeed, it's not supposed to be like this. Not at all.

One of these things is not like the other.

A close-up view of the end of the top leg of the left side seat/chain stay triangle. I have no way of knowing how long the failure had been in progress but it certainly hadn't been like this at the start of the tour when I assembled the bike.

I've broken a (diamond) frame before so I know what that feels like. It was not the frame's fault, nor mine, nor the manufacturer's. It was the fault of the a**hole who, some 15 years prior to the actual failure, had attempted to steal the bike by yanking on the crossbar of the U lock that secured the bike to the rack. All the would-be thief succeeded in doing was putting a dent in the seat tube; the dent ultimately proved fatal when, after an additional decade and a half of "spirited, vigorous" riding and hundreds of thousands of flexion cycles later, the weakened spot finally gave up the ghost.

The point of failure on my Trek touring bike that eventually proved fatal to the frame. I'd probably still have been riding this bike had it not died in action, of wounds received a decade and a half earlier.

The break is NOT the manufacturer's fault.

Prior to the terminal failure, I had begun to notice a certain lack of stiffness in the way that bike rode as well, but as in the present case it never occurred to me that I could be feeling the onset of metal fatigue-induced structural failure. It finally parted with an audible "ping" during a moderately loaded tour, and immediately the bike's riding properties got very wonky so there was a very obvious issue; all I had to do was give the bike a careful once-over and the source of the problem became clear.

Back to the present. Had I thought "possible structural failure" while still on tour and done the same sort of systematic structural integrity inspection I might have found this break sooner. But really, how often do you break a frame? It's certainly not the sort of thing that comes immediately to (my) mind as a possibility, especially when it's not a sudden and dramatic event. There was no "ping", no abrupt change in the feel of the ride, just a vague nagging feeling that all was not as I remembered, nor as I thought it should be.

Now that I've found the break the mystery of the "flabby" ride characteristics is solved, and I have yet one more reason to be glad I made the choice to stop in Cody, and to have made that choice when I made it.

The question now becomes, what to do about it? I'd pretty well already decided to replace this bike even before finding this issue and had already started casting about, casually and in a very desultory fashion, for what the next ride might be. That search has suddenly taken on a bit more urgency, although in point of fact I don't really expect to have any successor in hand much before the end of this coming winter.

But what to do with Odysseus? I expect that the broken bit could be relatively easily repaired, but does that entail sending the bike (or at least the frame) back to Bike Friday? Is it a possible warranty repair? Even if it is (and I rather doubt it- the bike is 15 years old and has been ridden several thousand miles), the cost of shipping makes it less than appealing to consider.

In its present condition I can't sell the thing for anything like what I was thinking to offer it for. I could offer it "as is" and with clear documentation of the problem, leaving it to the buyer to decide how to proceed. Or I could look for a local welding shop or bike builder who would be willing to do the repair, then sell the repaired bike with disclosure of the history.

Stripping the bike isn't realistic; I have no use for the components as such, separate from the frame, and wouldn't transfer them to another bike. Nor do I think they'd fetch much if sold on the interweb; who wants a bunch of well-used, fifteen year old components?

So, do I have a white elephant on my hands? I'll do some research and find out what my options are, then make the final decision. I'm all but certain, however, that the decision will not be to repair and keep the bike and continue riding it. It may get repaired, but it's going to change hands one way or another.

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Mike AylingBad news Keith. Is there a bike recycling charity in your area?
They may be able to reuse the components.

Mike
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1 year ago

Keith AdamsTo Mike AylingThere is, though they tend to del in complete bikes that get sent to less fortunate areas of the world. When they get higher-end bikes in their donations they often re-sell them to generate operating money. But it's worth thinking about- a much better outcome than simply scrapping everything.
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1 year ago