Now, it will probably amuse some of you to hear that I had gear failure on my Adventure ride yesterday………………………………………….. I was tucked in behind Dudley on his big orange whale when we came upon a clay road in the first section heading up a very very steep hill. I couldn’t pass Dudley easily and didn’t want to make a racing pass as there was a big drop off and it would have been a silly move so I sat behind him. Getting close to the top I saw Jim standing at the lip taking photos so I slowed a little and then gassed it in order to get a bit of air over the top. Just as I was on the last 5 metres of the ‘ramp’ my back wheel locked up completely and I skidded to a stop pointing up that steep slope. Thankfully I managed to stop and hold the bike on the slope without falling over. On a slope like that, I could not deal with the problem or get off the bike and spin it around. I put my foot down on the high side and pushed away so that the bike slid a bit. I managed to turn it down the hill but with the wheel locked up I couldn’t roll down. Finally though, I was able to dismount and see what the problem was. Looking at the wheel, I could see my white nylon showerproof jacket wrapped around the axle and sucked deep into the brake caliper. Looking more closely, I could see where the failure was: my Oxford saddle bags had split on one side and the contents had started to spill out. Hell! I didn’t even have much in there and it wasn’t really heavy! Jim and I lay the bike on it’s side and we pulled the jacket out of the brakes and off the axle. I then had to walk down the slope to find some of my belongings that had spread themselves around the place and then tie up the buggered saddle bags so I could ride on. This meant I ended up with straps and ties across the seat that I had to sit on for the rest of the day; ouch! Moral of the story? Buggered if I know! Shit happens? Now I need a new saddle bag: check out the video (stop motion). And I bet some of you were thinking my KTM had broken down!! Rotflmfao!
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 02:34:19 +0000