Bike update

[lethargic_man]

After a weekend away, I've just finally got to look at my bike after my second accident. Turns out the reason my tightening the nuts where the mudguard fastens onto its supports failed to stop the mudguard hitting the wheel again is because that's not where the problem was. Instead, the place where the supports are attached to the front fork is loose. Turns out the thing isn't securely attached at all. There's a plastic mount which goes around the frame, and is tightened in place with two wide cable ties. (I'd link to a picture, but there's no such thing on the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative website any longer; perhaps other people had problems with them too, and they no longer make them.) I pushed the mount back into place, and tried tightening it, but couldn't get anywhere, so I just pushed it as far up the front fork as I could: as the front fork grows wider higher up, that will jam it into place.

The rear mudguard is secured in the same manner; and I discovered one of the two plastic mounts securing it was also loose, so I did the same there.

There's now a very wide clearance between the wheel and both mudguards, so I should hopefully get a bit of notice if I keep my eyes open before the problem recurs again, but when I take my bike in to get the derailleur looked at (after my second accident, it's now hitting the spokes in first gear, which means no more first gear when climbing Mt Hampstead for the time being, *groan*), I might see if I can get the mounts replaced with something more secure.

Comments

Re: A 'bit of notice - hopefully' is not enough

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

To me, the idea of getting on your bike when you know it has a fault that has caused two accidents, is plain stupidity.

The fault that caused two accidents (which would have only caused one if I'd realised what the fault was) is now fixed. Sooner or later the mudguard supports will slip again, but it's taken four and a half years for them to do so once; I don't think it's going to happen again soon.

Instead, why don't you remove the mudguards completely, and put them in your backpack or something while you ride to the bike shop. If you do this on a dry day, you won't even notice they are missing.

All right, all right. I've removed the front mudguard now. Removing the rear one would require taking the saddle bag off too; and given that only one of the mounts for the rear one was slipping, and the other was totally secure, I'm happy to ride the bike like that, at least in the short term.

The fact I was fretting on the way in is totally irrational; I have been aware of this all along.