Riding in to work today, leisurely, I turned onto Wall street downtown and began to apply a little power in order to make it up the slight incline and through the intersection.
I was rewarded with a strange sensation and the bike shifting gears. It felt really strange. I was convinced a wheel or something had broken. Tried to triage it from the saddle while rolling along.
Then, wisely, I dismounted and tried to figure out what was up....
SNAP!
I've now broken two bikes in my life - and both in the same spot! The former was a pedigreed Trek purchased through a local shop. It had a happy ending as I got into my Litespeed as a result.
In this case the frame was given to me and its provenance is unknown. I have relied on it heavily as primary commuter/rain bike for two years now and had just spun hard with the new team yesterday around Mercer Island.
I'm getting to a moral here - and that is life is too short to trust gear you can't have 100% confidence in. The way to get that confidence is to buy it NEW or if used via a reputable shop who put their reputation on the line. I realize this is contradictory to the Trek story but I'm only riding bikes I buy new from now on.
Discuss.
