More Revenge

I haven't been posting. Nobody really reads blogs anymore and I don't have anything interesting to say. I don't race, barely ride outside, and mostly flog myself on a stationary trainer these days in a hopeless attempt to fend off the approaching darkness a little longer.

I will say the Tour of Anchorage sounded somewhat interesting to me this year, but I decided to put it off until I actually build some sort of base of fitness for that sort of thing. Riding on a trainer for 45-90 minutes is not the same as race pace riding. I would be dangerous, and I would potentially hurt myself and others. Plus, it rained for the first couple of stages, and I really don't need the extra misery right now. Maybe next season...

Saturday morning I got all suited up for another exciting trainer session and clomped my way into the garage. The bike had felt "off" for a couple days, shifting strangely and feeling mushy. I ran through the gears and adjusted the derailleur a bit, and found nothing obviously wrong. I hopped into the saddle, started pedaling, heard a creak, and immediately felt the bike mush to the right. Looking down, I saw the chain stay had a very dramatic lateral break. I was a clean 90 degree angle. Pretty impressive.

This was the old Trek Livestrong Madone frame that I had painted black and used as my crit bike. It was relegated to trainer status almost exactly two years ago (June 24, 2024) when my Storck frame ripped in half.

I didn't tear up. The Storck frame tossed me over the handlebars and I broke my collarbone. I went down hard in a crit on the Madone and thought I broke my hip. Effectively, that was my last race. I tried afterwards to jump back in to a race or two, but I realized I was done. I couldn't maintain the fitness with my travel schedule and the type A mentality to hold position in a pack was shot. I don't blame the bike, but as generally pragmatic as I am, I also believe in the power of mojo.

So yeah, destroying the frame wasn't traumatic. Might have been a little cathartic. I have lots of bikes.

I stripped all of the bolt-on parts off of the frame and chucked it in the trash. Significant structural damage like that isn't something I am going to repair or have repaired. The frame just doesn't have that sort of value on the market, and my trust is gone. Probably sounds wasteful, but I value my health and wellbeing more.

I grabbed one of my travel frames out of the case and started building it up. In this case, it was a turn of the century Merlin titanium frame I had used on the trainer when I was traveling for work. I don't travel like that anymore, so this is a perfect use for the frame. It's beefy. I rebuilt it with some of the parts from the old Madone, omitting things like brakes and a front derailleur. My skills have faded now that I'm not wrenching on bikes as much, and it took three times as long to do a somewhat mediocre job. Hours later, I finally got on the bike to ride.

I just realized I have more titanium bikes than carbon fiber these days. I'm down to my Madone and my ancient (relatively speaking) Fuji TT bike. For titanium, I have three Moots, a Lynskey, and the Merlin. My fat bike is aluminum, but that doesn't really count.

My garage is packed with bikes. Every day more seem to be added. A week ago I added another fat bike. Despite me not riding so much, I have more bikes than ever. The difference is that less and less are actually intended for me. My son currently has three bikes. My daughter has two. My girlfriend brought over another four. Maybe more. I lost count.

A couple weeks ago I went though my giant pile of bike parts and took a couple big boxes to the local bike collective. Mostly the lower end road components, but it probably represented a few thousand dollars of initial investment. Honestly, I was happy to see it go. I still have enough drivetrains, brakes, wheelsets, and other components to build three or four bikes, so I should be able to keep my dinosaurs running for a few more decades.

So yeah, losing a jinxed frame is not causing me any heartburn. These days, something not causing me heartburn is rare, so I have that going for me.









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