Hard learnt lessons

What's black and has two wheels and bounces up and down on the freeway?  My bike after it came loose from the bike rack at 110km/h!  

This year's summer holidays have been memorable for many great reasons, but watching my bike bounce up and down in the rear view mirror at 110km/h was not one of them.  The car was packed to the gills with everything we needed for the next 3 weeks of holidays.  The last thing to do was put on the circa 1995 bike rack; you know the one designed to take skinny bike frames like the old retro one left hanging in the shed.  First on was Paula's oversized Merida aluminium framed road bike and last on was my oversized Scott carbon fibre framed road bike.  We were both planning to compete in the annual Benalla triathlon just after Christmas.  It was clear from the outset that this rack was not designed for these bikes.  By the time I'd wrapped cloths around the frame and put the fastening plate onto the carrier, there wasn't a lot thread left for the flare nuts to screw down on, but it seemed solid enough.

We hit the road and stopped 50km from home to fuel up and feed the boys.  A quick check of the bikes and  a tightening of the bike rack showed everything was okay and so it was until somewhere near Benalla, where the vision of my pride and joy bouncing from wheel to wheel like a double sprung pogo stick almost made me ill.  Somehow I kept it together and didn't even drop an expletive.  The one bike pogo show continued until the bike miraculously came to rest mainly in the emergency lane of the freeway.  My next fear was that a northbound semi-trailer was going to put the bike out of its misery with a crumpling 40 ton load was unfounded.  Fortunately the traffic was light that day.  I pulled over, threw on the hazards and reversed up to collect the damage or should I say fresh road kill.   Both tyres had blown out and wheels badly buckled.  Right shifter twisted 45 degrees, head stem chipped and the seat as grazed as my ego. The frame was still in one piece.  The flare nuts were still on the bike rack.  Somehow the bike had managed to vibrate loose on its way to freeway freedom.  I got the bike back on the rack and this time with the aid of some shoe laces liberated from one of the kid's shoes had a backup fastening device.  

Lament and regret ruled the next 40 minutes of my drive.  Would my bike be okay?  Why didn't I try and squeeze the bikes into the car?  Why didn't I use some strapping as a backup to the flimsy fastening plate?  What if my bike's not salvageable?  Why didn't I bring the old bike instead?  Why didn't I buy that awesome looking bike carrier years ago? It would have been a far less costly exercise!  Should I ring up that guy in Melbourne who had that awesome Giant TCR Advance with ZIPP 404s that I'd recommended a colleague buy?  Who would do such a thing?  Arriving at our destination I sombrely unloaded the damaged bike off the car, carrying it like a limp body incapable of supporting itself.  I took it to the shed and left it there, trying to put the event out of my mind as best I could. Besides I’d beaten myself up well and truly over the incident.  The good news was the West End Bike Hub in Wangaratta would be open on the next day.  It gave me confidence to think that in this era of online bike stores putting bike shops out of business, a thriving bike shop in a shopping strip on the edge of Wangaratta was definitely the place to go.  Wes Samson the owner and keen cyclist himself knew my pain.  Like a doctor with a good bedside manner, he didn't laugh at my sorry story and treated me with the empathy required for delicate moments like this.  Wes commented that blowing out the tyres and buckling the rims was a good sign that they had absorbed most of the impact.  The good news was that the frame didn't seem to have any major signs of damage and the shifters were still okay.  Even more of a relief was that he has a set of Shimano Ultegra rims in stock and a mechanic back on deck just after Christmas who could possibly have the bike back together before the triathlon in 6 days time.  

From misery to joy, it all came together thanks to some good fortune and great service.  No need to buy a new bike, just some minor mechanical work, a new set of wheels, tyres and tubes.  Merry Christmas!  No prizes for guessing what I got for Christmas. I picked up the bike five days later and rode it 25km back to where we were staying and rode it in the triathlon the next day.  It felt like did previously, perhaps even a little more responsive.  Wes did pick up a few hairline cracks in the frame and said he knows of a lot of pro bike riders who probably ride on worse.  He also mentioned my old Mavic Kysrium rims were starting to look a little tired and that I had a tendency to overdo it on the front brake.  He also provided some great advice on cleaning the brake pads after riding in the rain to avoid scratching the rims even further.  It's one part of the bike I've never cleaned before.  

So it was truly a lesson learnt the hard way, so to the rest of you out there, learn from the mistakes of others, because there's not enough time to make them all yourself.  The final word in all of this goes to my mate Tamas who put the whole story into perspective when he said, it could have been worse.  What do you mean, I asked?  It could have been Paula's bike!

Do you have a hard learnt lesson to share?  Feel free to comment and share it.