They Come in Threes

A few weeks ago I found a big crack in my Ute. Patty has been riding it for the past three years so I guess she can take the blame. Well, that would not be fair at all. I rode that bike really hard for five years. I stripped the Ute and put some of the parts on my Strong monster cross. The broken frame hangs in my basement, never to see the light of day again.

Last week I began to hear a creak from the front end of the Strong. I checked the bars and stem. I noticed the fork was a little twisted and that no-hand riding resulted in a pull to the right. Yesterday, close inspection revealed a big crack in the bend of the fork. I put on a new fork last night. This morning I woke up early to go for a ride. I flipped the flop to head up the trail and there on the chain stay at the track-end was a big crack. My baby is broke. Like the Ute, I have ridden this bike hard year-round for four years. I hold only myself responsible for the failures, not the frame and fork manufactures. Problems or defects would have shown up years ago, especially the way I ride. It is not a coincidence that the fork and frame broke at the same time, with the exact same amount of cyclic fatigue. It's also interesting to note that steel and ti never fail catastrophically. The failures happen slowly over time. With Aluminum, I probably would have walked home.

Now what do I do? More than one person has told me I should ride what I sell. Looks like I may be riding a Redline Monocog 29er, for a few years anyway. I bet I could break one of those too after four or five years of JRA Robert style.