Bicycle Travel > General Discussion

Tales of Calamity and Woe

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misterflask:
On recent TA I cracked a frame and broke a hub flange.  Both events happened at fortuitous locations and together resulted in only a day-and-a-half of downtime.  So I'm sure many or most could better my tale and I thought a thread to share tales of disastrous tour events might be enlightening.

irc:
Worst I've had was a broken seat post on a Transam. Luckily it was still usable with care and I made it 30 miles to the next town where I got a replacement. It was a suspension seat post which I didn't really need. So I'll put that one down to bad equipment choice on my part.

Other than that I've had no failures barring punctures on my two transams.

Anything  can break but good choices can reduce the chances. I always start a long tour with new tyres/brake blocks  and SPDs for example. In general I try and choose gear that isn't borderline light and look for durability.

John Nelson:
I've been pretty lucky. Worst was a cracked rim, which I discovered in a town with bike shop that could build me a new wheel. Second worst was when I had to ride on a failing bottom bracket for a week before I got somewhere that could replace it. Neither one affected my progress.

indyfabz:
During a day off in Bowling Green, OH a shop Discovered that my rear rim had cracks around nearly every spoke hole. Since I was with a group I had to keep moving so I had little choice but to shell out big $$ for the wheel off a tandem.

In the middle of nowhere Andalucia the following March, my right pedal spindal started to size up. Stramge feeling when you are pedalling and your pedal axle won't rotate. I managed to work it free but it kept acting up every few miles. I finally got it to get it to stop and made it to that evening's destination. I was then faced with the choice of trying to ride to about 60 miles to Cordoba the next day, where I was sure there would be some good bike shops, or taking a bus there and back to get a new set of pedal. I opted for the former. Not 5 miles into the ride the pedal started siezing up again. I think I finally managed to crush enough of the bearings to dust that the problem stopped for good. Found a great shop near Cordoba's city campground and told the salesman the pedals were "basura."

adventurepdx:
I once snapped my handlebars on tour.

Thankfully, it happened on an off day, when I was riding around town unloaded. And the snapping happened right when I started to pedal after the light turned green. It could have been a lot worse.

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