Apologies for delaying things

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Well gang the irony of life is just delicious!!

Cycling at the weekend to my Covid vaccine appointment, the rear derailleur of my commuter bike disintegrated, jammed itself into the spokes and locked the rear wheel / pedals at 25mph. So I had quite an impressive off!! I knew I should have taken the bloomin’ Z!!! :p


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What was intriguing was that while being tangled in the bike frame in the middle of the road facing the wrong way and on my back in pain, 3 cars passed me - not one of them stopped or offered help. They did however slow down to drive around the mess I was making on the road, I’m grateful for that at least! The fourth car to pass when I was on my feet slowed to get a good look at the road rash and pull an ohbh face.

I did get a lot of attention though when I arrived at the vaccine centre dripping red stuff everywhere and having holes in my clothes. Oh and at least I was wearing clean underwear. :D I will spare you the gory photos. :p!!!

I spent half the day today in A&E being x-rayed etc as the pain was getting pretty bad - it seems I have a small elbow fracture. Again, grateful for that as it could have been a LOT worse, especially if there had been other cars behind me or coming the other way at the time of my circus act.

So with the side effects of the vaccine and an arm in a sling for a while, I will be slow in processing the dating letters and PMs. I don’t have a lot of energy or patience at the moment Apologies in advance to those waiting on me.

For the cyclists among you, in 33 years of serious competitive cycling and triathlons, I have never seen a derailleur failure like this and it’s a bit of a freak. I suspect it was weakened when some drunk / bored person kicked my bike in at the station bike park a couple of years ago and bent the rear wheel at the same time. I was powering hard to the appointment (way harder than I would commuting to the station wearing a suit) which probably opened a stress fracture.


Check your Z and bike safety features guys, especially now that most of our cars are MoT exempt. It’s too easy for mechanical things to fail unexpectedly and leave you with brown pants and damage!
 

SeanDezart

Well-Known Forum User
It wouldn't happen here, people driving around and passed you..... I'm sorry for you and wish you better asap.
 

Kest

Club Member
From a fellow cyclist glad to hear you're not too messed up.
As for the bike, I'm quite surprised the rear mech lasted as long as it did, those tourney mechs are full plastic bodies and fracture and dislocate all the time.
To reiterate your message (not to point the finger at you), as I tell all my customers when they listen, check your bike (or other desired machine) over before riding it every time, because no amount of "you touched my bike last" or "it was fine last week" won't put the teeth back in your head in the event of something going tits up.
Once again not trying to add literal insult to injury, I'm glad it wasn't worse. Sometimes these things can be much much worse.
Get well soon fella.
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
Better the rear wheel locks than the front :)
I wish you a speedy recovery Ali.
 

uk66fastback

Club Member
Never seen or heard of that happening before, but I am sure it does (as evidenced) - just hope you’re on the mend soon. Tarmac is damn hard!
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
My lad has had a mech go into the spokes but that was on a downhill bike in action. I've had one just touch the spokes when climbing a steep hill in bottom gear with a high load through the pedals. I could just hear it touching the spokes. It was slightly out of adjustment and a bit loose.
 

toopy

Club Member
Nasty, surprised no one stopped to help you and your bike out of the road! Good to here it wasn't more serious though, scary stuff :eek:
 

Bazzateer

Club Member
I've just finished anonymising some CCTV from one of our buildings showing a chap losing control of his Brompton bike on a main road in London. He went down hard and only pedestrians stopped to help.
 

uk66fastback

Club Member
If it's a busy London street, I'm not sure what help a car driver could give that a pedestrian couldn't - unless they were a nurse or something. What they would do is block the road ... !
If there are no pedestrians about it's a different matter (or should be).
 

Bazzateer

Club Member
If it's a busy London street, I'm not sure what help a car driver could give that a pedestrian couldn't - unless they were a nurse or something. What they would do is block the road ... !
If there are no pedestrians about it's a different matter (or should be).
He was in the road so a blocking vehicle would have helped. Police van arrived soon after and did that anyway.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Thanks fellas, appreciate it. #

Rob - Thanks for the offer. I already have 4 bikes and enough spares to build a whole new Z from a rolling chassis - another bike will just tip the balance towards an ugly divorce!!! ;)

I like your logic John ;) !! I did once in the 80s have a front wheel come off while sprinting off a roundabout on a time trial. That also was a no help event where I had to cycle to the hospital by myself. So I guess it's very much par for the course.

Interesting Mr Kest. I had no idea they were plastic! I'll need to up the ante with a better derailleur!
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
Thanks fellas, appreciate it. #

Rob - Thanks for the offer. I already have 4 bikes and enough spares to build a whole new Z from a rolling chassis - another bike will just tip the balance towards an ugly divorce!!! ;)

I like your logic John ;) !! I did once in the 80s have a front wheel come off while sprinting off a roundabout on a time trial. That also was a no help event where I had to cycle to the hospital by myself. So I guess it's very much par for the course.

Interesting Mr Kest. I had no idea they were plastic! I'll need to up the ante with a better derailleur!
from experience :)
 

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