[LEL17] LEL2017 bike fails

[JimN]

I might be wrong but I think Alain was keeping a log because of a sale-or-return arrangement with a local bike shop for parts.

The mechanics team (we were 3 at some moments) kept a log of the parts sold, but none of the work load involved. Changing a gear cable can take anything from 5 minutes to over an hour. I'll write more about that when we are back home on monday.

No Alain, be honest. There was really only you (who didn't sleep) and a couple of willing gofers, one of whom was me ..... and who learnt masses. I have a responsible job, but in this environment I was inclined to panic when you occasionally disappeared - perhaps you could bring a commode and screens next time?! Without exception the riders were absurdly grateful for what we did, but nevertheless it feels a big responsibility.  These are top end bikes with top end, committed riders who have put a lot of financial, physical, and mental resources into finishing and are often so tired that they could easily act irrationally out of character (none did). So just for clarity, perhaps it should be made absolutely clear at the outset that mechanical help at the control may not always be available and even at its very best can not match a bike shop either for expertise, time available, or equipment.
Looking forward to your views on the cabling issue. I know what they will be! Please don't hold back.
It was great. And there is no feeling to match the satisfaction of handing that wheel over - glad you made it, blueskies!

[Cold Snail]

But the best fix was a chaps SPD shoe that had separated, if not disintegrated. He arrived at the control in agony, with the cleat still attached to the pedal and a big hole in the shoe where the cleat should be attached, so every time he put any pressure on the pedal the cleat just pushed up against his foot. Ouch! Not great for 25 miles of riding! So after a quick rummage in the outside bins with the other lads who were on the bike stand, we salvaged 5 big rice pudding lids, [disposed of by big chef man CrazyEnglishTriathlete] and set to work. Always carry an angle grinder and two discs - one cutting and a sanding flap disc. We washed the tin lids, made a temple of the shape of his insole, gaffer- taped them together and put the 5 layered plate inside his shoe underneath his insole. It felt good, and off he went, much happier than when he arrived. Did it hold out, and what happened to him subsequently? I've no idea! Really hope he made it back.

A bit of gaffer tape and some cable ties added at Great Easton to your superb handywork to help him along the way, looking at the finishers list, he made it back in time.

But this made the above appear almost normal.




As for tyres on Thursday night at Great Easton.
Continentals appeared to be the most popular that needed attention (one was inside a carbon tubeless rim that was such a bastard to get on/off it took two sets of hands to work it to not cause damage.
A tandem rocked up with an old gumwall "World Tour" tyre that I can only guess was fitted at a previous control, I didn't catch their number, but I hope they made it.
A few simple gear adjusts due to stretched cables and one chap that arrive with his front brake not working, but I guess they work better when there's two pads in the calliper.
Other than that, it was pretty calm on Thursday night.

[mcshroom]

We saw quite a few contis with problems, but then again there were a shed load of bikes on contis in general, so it may be just a stats thing.

[Vince]

I picked up from Geoff at Spalding.
Moved a brake shoe from the rear to the front to replace a brake block that has come out of the shoe.
Swapped an SPD-R cleat for a new one, but that wouldn't clip into the pedal so swapped it back and trimmed off all the worn bits off the original.
I was asked to adjust a headset, but couldn't feel any slack and eventually traced it to a loose bearing in the SON dynohub. Decided that was best left alone.
Unfortunately I wasn't expecting to be the only mechanic, so had only bought my bike specific tool box which doesn't contain the BIG spanners. The only spanner I had that would fit on the cassette lock ring tool was on the other end of the chain whip! Got one cassette off by jamming it against the spokes with a screwdriver. Another one had been put on so tightly that that I broke the screwdriver when trying the same trick.
The best one was where Richard and I spent a lot of time gaffer taping bits of plastic inside a tyre to prevent the tube escaping through the side. Possibly the one mentioned above. I know the rider finished, but not sure if it was on the same tyre.

[Mr Larrington]

Note to self: next time bring your workstand as it has jaws that open wide enough to accept 2"+ diameter recumbent frame tubes.  Wouldn't have helped with some of the more exotic compressed soot machines though.

[Von Broad]

A bit of gaffer tape and some cable ties added at Great Easton to your superb handywork to help him along the way, looking at the finishers list, he made it back in time.

Ah, that's good to here. I don't often understand the words health and safety, but he wanted the shoe attached to the pedal at St Ives, and I must admit to suggesting to him it might be a bad idea to be fixed in like that. Bit easier to ride though.

A tandem rocked up with an old gumwall "World Tour" tyre that I can only guess was fitted at a previous control, I didn't catch their number, but I hope they made it.

That was another story. The fact they got to St Easten is encouraging. As you say - hope they made it.
I'd virtually packed all the stuff away at 1.30 and an Italian chap rolled into the control on foot holding a wheel, with a massive gash [not bootable] and two broken spokes. Wow, it's my lucky day/early morning! Turned out he's gone over/or dropped into something most definitely not tyre friendly in St Ives at the start of the busway and been picked up in the park and ride by three young lads who happened to be hanging around there! His wife was left to mind the tandem in the park and ride while the lads drove our Italian rider back to the control. Must admit to a big slumping of general mental well-being at this point when I saw the wheel. You've got to be kidding me - not now, surely? I had plenty of spokes, but our tyre supply was pretty depleted, so we raided Phil Dysons emergency supply that he'd bought with him - one of which was the one you mention. It looked old, but not that worn. But dated.
And it was the biggest tyre in the selection, and for the tandem [large rim] probably the best we could offer.

Fair play to the lads who bought him over. They were cool and played a part in saving their ride. They hung around watching me fix the wheel and then they took him back to the park and ride to a wife and tandem reunion. They were asking all kinds of questions about what was going on etc

'Is this what you do for a living'?
'No, I'm just here this week helping out fixing bikes'
'How much do you get for doing it'?
'Nothing, we're all volunteers.'
'How long you been here'
'Since Saturday?'
[bit of a pause]
'What all week'?
'Yeah, all week, this is the last night, I'd almost packed everything away when you all showed up'.
'All week and you don't get anything'
'No....but we get all of our food thrown in and somewhere to sleep'.

Look on his face expressed complete bewilderment. Big comprehension failure going on at this point.

I looked at them wondering what on earth they were all hanging around in a park and ride in the early hours of Friday morning and they looked at me thinking what the hell is he doing in a school fixing a wheel at 1.30 in the morning?

[Graeme]

Big thanks to mcshroom for re-wrapping my bar tape in Thirsk while I ate. Self sufficiency fail... Community sufficiency win. Beautiful job too.

[madcow]

We saw quite a few contis with problems, but then again there were a shed load of bikes on contis in general, so it may be just a stats thing.

Having done the Border Raid 600k just two weeks before LEL, I decided to switch tyre brands and removed the Conti GP 4 Seasons.
I put on brand new, but hardened ,Schwalbe Durano  Etapes. Same size just a bit more rubber where it's needed. Only problem during the ride was early on when someone pointed out that my rear tyre looked a bit soft. I stopped and pumped it up hard ,but what I didn't realise was that the tyre had become unseated from the rim for a few centimetres. Sixth sense and a slightly bumpier ride than normal led me to stop again and fix it properly.
It probably cost around 15 minutes in total.

ISTR that on PBP ,mechanical work is charged for. What about investigating the availability and cost of installing freelance or shop based Cytech qualified staff at a few controls?
A shop could have the opportunity to sell gear as well.

[Pip]

I picked up from Geoff at Spalding.
Moved a brake shoe from the rear to the front to replace a brake block that has come out of the shoe.
Swapped an SPD-R cleat for a new one, but that wouldn't clip into the pedal so swapped it back and trimmed off all the worn bits off the original.
I was asked to adjust a headset, but couldn't feel any slack and eventually traced it to a loose bearing in the SON dynohub. Decided that was best left alone.
Unfortunately I wasn't expecting to be the only mechanic, so had only bought my bike specific tool box which doesn't contain the BIG spanners. The only spanner I had that would fit on the cassette lock ring tool was on the other end of the chain whip! Got one cassette off by jamming it against the spokes with a screwdriver. Another one had been put on so tightly that that I broke the screwdriver when trying the same trick.
The best one was where Richard and I spent a lot of time gaffer taping bits of plastic inside a tyre to prevent the tube escaping through the side. Possibly the one mentioned above. I know the rider finished, but not sure if it was on the same tyre.

Dear Vince, thank you so much...I could have eaten my own brain....like scrambled eggs...but as I sat there on the ground, knowing that something could be done but not seeing how to do it, you gently solved the problem....I have blogged the story https://stravaddict.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/its-not-about-the-bike/

[CrinklyUncle]

Fortunately for me other people were more sensible and I was able to borrow a charger for topping up at Alston

Flat Di2 battery (helped by fellow Di2 rider who lent his charger)

I was the lender. I didn't need it on the ride but I was glad it came in use and I was able to help out.

One of my gears was skipping after Brampton southbound, the alignment was slightly out on the rear derailleur and the chain needed some oil. I used the bike stand at Alston to help adjust it and all was good.

[CrinklyLion]

The shiny new bling has Di2?  I really don't pay much attention, do I.  Also totally faily to notice that Deano was riding the DY fixed.

[Gattopardo]

The shiny new bling has Di2?  I really don't pay much attention, do I.  Also totally faily to notice that Deano was riding the DY fixed.

I didn't notice either...

[CrinklyUncle]

The shiny new bling has Di2?  I really don't pay much attention, do I.  Also totally faily to notice that Deano was riding the DY fixed.

Yes it does have Di2 - it is proper shiny

[CrinklyLion]

No Alain, be honest. There was really only you (who didn't sleep) and a couple of willing gofers, one of whom was me .....

Hello!  Welcome to YACF

[simonp]

I've used contis exclusively since LEL 2009. So that's LEL x 2.4, PBP x 2. I can only currently recall two punctures, both on LEL 2013, and one was user error. The other was a flint, on the way into Spalding northbound iirc.

I saw a few punctures within the first 50km this time.

[hulver]

This is the list of stuff we got through in Pocklington, most of it anyway. I bought a bunch of my own spare parts, and we did use some stuff from somebody who packed and was helping out in the last few days.

Tyres
2 - 700x28
5 - 700x25
1 - 700x23 (because we'd run out of 25s)


Other stuff
34 - 700x18-25 Tubes (maybe more, we ran out on Sunday and used all my stock of spares as well, which was at least 6, perhaps more I didn't count them all)
2 gear inner cables
1 tandem gear inner cable
2 full gear cable sets (inner + outer)
2 sets of road brake blocks
3 rear lights
1 11 speed chain

All in all we sold £450 worth of stuff for the local bike shop, as well as £95 worth of tubes that a volunteer went out and got after we ran out of our stock.

[Bokonon]

The freehub on my rear wheel died about 25km from Edinburgh - I limped into Edinburgh with it engaging every so often as long as I never stopped pedalling, didn't change the front ring and didn't go over any bumps. I was lucky enough that a family member came to the Edinburgh control to see me, and I got them to drive me to the nearest shop to get a new wheel - Decathlon came up trumps, I lost 2.5 hours of time or so, but had a working bike and headed off down the road.

If there had not been a friendly relative to get to help, I would have been stuffed - the wheel had done a lot of miles, but wasn't worn out looking.

[thing1]

Only real issues was a flat tyre descending Yadd Moss on the return leg: rear tyre COMPLETELY worn through, inner tube visible beneath the threads !!!

Turns out the "virtually new" GP 4 seasons tyre wasn't at all; we'd used it all winter on shorter brevets too.  (I had a GP 4000 on the front at that time, so forgot that 4 seasons was still on the rear -- problem with tandems as captain you don't look at the back so much!). Happily we had a spare tyre with us so logistically simple (if a lot of swearing involved) to swap it over.
other than that the 4 seasons were  fantastic. No penetration or pinch punctures at all, and felt really solid for tandem duty no matter how wet the roads. Definitely would use again.


Di2 was pretty flawless. The front derailleur started skipping around Pock but a small trim and a chain clean and lube at BC (THANK YOU x1000 MR FRENCH TANDEM!!) sorted that.
I actually spent 10mins at Louth on the way back using the phone app to reconfigure the synchro-shift FD trigger points to allow a wider use of the block. This was also a very sweary process (Fricking Bluetooth!) and almost a major misadventure in tech, but worked eventually and was worth it as it meant I could shift the full range from all 5 of my bar positions. Utter bliss on a long ride like this (otherwise I default back to hoods and never move away from there).
Di2 battery had 50% left at the end, with a brief top up at Pock, so I think we could have made the whole ride without recharge and had about 20-30% left at the end.

Swapping to a 11-36 rear cassette instead of 11-32 was a genius decision (even if doing it a week before the ride was a bit brave). 33/36 proved a perfect low gear that could get us up  the 15% stuff and gave a nice spinny gear for the longer ~8% grades that was surely a knee saver. We never had to walk once (not even on THOSE COBBLES)

The Crud Roadracer guards survived WAY better than predicted, even if the rear was too bent and zero-use for protecting the tandem wheel suckers (of which we had very few compared to USAian riding).

Had to adjust breaks for pad wear a surprising number of times. Forgotten how fast UK rain knackers those things. Surprisingly it was the rear disc pads that wore fastest, not the softer front rim pads. Guess this is just the relative level of use. I must check what compound I'm running back there... thought it was the sintered e-bike pads but maybe they were softer. Like the tyres, these really should have been replaced with known-new items before the start, had time allowed.

Anyway, overall super pleased with how the tandem performed, given a couple weeks before the ride it was still in the middle of a frame repair and repaint.

[jsabine]

... I was amused at a request to pump someone's tyres up. ...

Even on a FNRttC, when I've pumped up a few tyres, I've been relieved when someone else volunteered to do it (generally this has been other peoples tyres, when I'm TECing).  If pumping up tyres at 3am is no fun, I dread to think what it's like after 1000km, at 3am. 

I was a little bemused a couple of times to find a request to borrow a track pump was met with an insistence on doing it for me. All very nice, but I wanted to be able to see the gauge and judge how much pressure my front tyre had lost (tubeless that wasn't quite fully sealed), and I knew that valve-at-bottom meant there wouldn't be a spurt of sealant - both mechanics pulled a face when their turning the wheel to valve-a-third-up resulted in a small ejaculation.
</can't do right for doing wrong>

[wilkyboy]

Alston fails included:
Broken spokes x 3 (2 on one bike, same wheel)
Loose cassette lock ring
Jammed internal gear cable
Loose quill stem
Seized BB bearing
Rubbing brakes
Flat Di2 battery (helped by fellow Di2 rider who lent his charger)
and one rider who, having been shown the track pump, tyre levers and workstand, sat there expecting us to do the actual tube change.

Happily, we managed to get every rider with a broken bike back on the road thanks to Dave of North Pennine Cycles who put himself 'on call' and several times came out in the middle of the night, fetched the parts from his shop and fitted them for no more than the cost of the parts. A hero.

And a bit of assistance to get my rear wheel off — being on fixed-gear, it's always handy to use a workstand for this.  I replaced my own tube, etc., but the workstand was mighty useful, and having someone else get greasy [gloved] hands getting the chain back on was a blessing, thank you 

[wilkyboy]

I had relatively few bike problems at Louth, fewer than I had back in 2013 I reckon, even without accounting for the 50% increase in riders.
Not much really major which required much problem-solving really.

Summery from what I can remember:
Sold loads of inner tubes, possibly 50 or so.
Oiled lots of chains, got through two bottles of chain oil.
Sold 8 replacement tyres, all 700c, ran out of 23mm wide ones and had to send one rider to a local Halfords on Thursday to buy one.
2 gear cables broken inside shifter body, picked out nipple and replaced.
4 broken spokes, two I was able to replace, one wheel had non-standard spokes so he had to buy a new rear wheel, old one was put in bag drop, other wheel had adjacent spoke starting to pull through rim, he had to buy a new rear wheel too, old wheel was toast and was tossed.
1 lady arrived with a broken off derailleur hanger, bike had already been single-speeded at a previous control but the ratio was too low.  I re-arranged the cassette to improve the chainline and allow the rider to use a higher gear.
1 guy with severely bent rear derailleur and hanger, I straightened the hanger best I could, but was weary of snapping it off and replaced the derailleur with a new one.
There were a few other riders with bent hangers, thankfully most had a spare with them so just mounted the spare.
1 guy needed a new chain, as the old one was damaged and about to snap.
1 guy arrived with dead SRAM e-tap rear derailleur, I offered to install a full mechanical rear shift (mechanical derailleur, bar-end shiftier and inner cable/full outer between, rider declined and continued with single-speed.
1 guy arrived with a front tyre which was looked like it was about to go Bang, there were threads showing in places and it was no longer round, bulging in several places.  It was a really weird size (28-451) for which I had no spare and I doubt any bike shop in Lincolnshire had any.  I offered the rider the use of a Fujin which was declined.
Sold 4 replacement rear lights
Replaced 2 seats of worn out LOOK cleats
Replaced 3 seats of worn out brake blocks

And Andy helped me flip my wheel back to 64-inches for the push into the headwind to Spalding — MUCH easier with someone to hold the bike while getting the chain back on with track fork-ends — thank you    I rode on 64-inches to the finish.