Back in May I was on a group ride with my toddler in the front seat of "our" Sam Hillborne when I got my first flat ever for that bike. Probably approaching 2000 miles on it, so not too bad, I thought. Walk to a bench, snack and sippy cup for the kid, get out the patch kit. As I pulled the frame pump out from between the double top tubes, though, I noticed a suspiciously rust-looking discoloration along the lug attaching the lower top tube to the seat tube. I'm perfectly comfortable doing my own maintenance, but frame issues are definitely "above my pay grade" - assuming that 1 1/2 top tubes would still be pretty good, I rode straight home and then the next day I took it by my LBS for diagnosis.
I was hoping maybe there was just a gap in the paint that allowed water and then rust in, but the shop owner knew better what to look for and showed me that there actually was a crack, about halfway around the joint between the lug and the seat tube. Hard to say how long it was there, or took to develop - It was on the side I lean against the wall when I park it, and opposite the side I usually mount from, so it's not an area I looked at much. So it turns out the flat was a good thing. Once we got it cleaned up, I was able to get an OK picture or two (the little "tab" on the right is bent out a bit because we were picking at it trying to decide if it was a paint chip or metal). <https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-jyhjNqQpbFk/U81oZFxg80I/AAAAAAAABcg/M7i258IK7YY/s1600/DSC_0306.jpg> I got the frame secondhand, so Rivendell had no particular obligation to me (I was concerned about spending that much on a frame at the time, so saving a couple hundred bucks helped make my decision to get a Riv), but I figured I'd give them a call for advice on how to go about getting my frame repaired. Keven told me that while it could be repaired, they were curious to know how/why it failed, and would like for it to go back to the factory for inspection. I'm on the large side at 220ish lb., and I do carry the baby and/or groceries on occasion, but most of my riding is relatively low-stress city riding and commuting, so overall I probably cause much less stress than the other bikes on this list that get to go on off-road adventures/Jamborees/Entmoots/S24Os on a regular basis happily endure. Plus, it had fairly low mileage compared to a typical steel frame's lifetime (it was secondhand, but unbuilt/ridden before me). Keven worked with me on a much-more-than-fair deal to swap the frame for a new one, which with the recent sizing change durned out to be a better fit for me - I was between the 56cm and 60cm in the old lineup, so the new 58cm is right on the money. The new frame was on its way to me within a week, and the next weekend I swapped out the parts and sent the cracked frame back in the same box. Aside from the bare cable runs being ever-so-slightly longer, it was a pretty smooth process. The teardown was a lot quicker than the buildup, as expected. I figured I'd put my GoPro (sadly, having such things appears to be necessary with so many grumpy drivers around) on the ceiling fan and see what the top of my head looks like when I'm working on my bikes: http://youtu.be/EgTIcVUVnkA It's been a while now, but I still want to publicly thank Keven/Riv for going much farther than necessary to make sure I was back on a complete, non-broken Rivendell when there was really no obligation to help me at all. My question for the group is: did I get a second "new bike day," or just a "fixed bike day"? There wasn't a dramatic change in feel between the old and new bikes, though I'd say my position did feel slightly more sensible - which I guess is a sign of a closer fit between the frame and rider size. Regardless, my co-pilot and I have been enjoying the new 58cm frame this summer (This picture also should answer the question: what good are those giant Bosco Bullmoose bars, really? Getting around babies with giant heads, of course!): <https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SzummpC179E/U81uEahzALI/AAAAAAAABcw/PYE4LnUrm0w/s1600/IMG_2496.jpg> Two thoughts on shifting since moving to the new frame: 1. I had a bear of a time getting the front derailleur to shift properly when I swapped frames, especially into the smallest chainring (of a Sugino triple). I was using what I think is the same low-profile Shimano MTB derailleur that Riv sells, but I just couldn't get it to move in far enough, and anyway, when I mounted it as low/close as Shimano recommends, shifting to the big/big combination (48/32) would make the chain rub on the lever arm where the cable attaches - this must not be an issue on bikes with steeper seat tubes, because otherwise it seems like a silly fault to make it through the design process. I couldn't say for certain since I had already removed everything from the other frame and hardly ever need the small chainring anyway, but I vaguely recalled having the same trouble on the previous frame as well. I decided that trying out a road derailleur was worth the $30 it would cost me, and when I installed it all the trouble magically disappeared. The limit screws were even set perfectly right from the factory. So for posterity, and anyone else in a similar situation, the 5mm chainline difference between the road and mountain derailleurs (which I wasn't really aware of before) and the different design with the lever arm out of the way turned out to be just right. 2. When I built up my (original) Sam, I was coming from STI shifting on a road bike (still a nice ride occasionally, but not kid-compatible for sure), so I set the (Shimano) bar end shifters to indexed mode. The cable tension wasn't quite right a few days ago and the chain was clicking against adjacent cogs, so I turned the dial to switch to friction mode. The friction shifting has been "good enough" that I haven't bothered to go back and fiddle with the cable since. Makes me more inclined to trust Grant's "good enough" recommendations on other things in the future. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
