Sunday 6 July 2014

Sunday Morning Crank Breaker

I broke the original "cheapy" cranks on Mermaid
Sunday morning strava-ism.
Went for a little ride, starting at 06:15.
Get out there while the day is fresh!

Took on the local Cat 3 hill, and made my first ascent :-)
crawled up in a low gear, mind, pacing myself all the way.
Shows just how much progress I have made since Christmas - first time I took on that hill was in January this year, and I stopped 6 times to recover :-)
Managed to get that down to just one stop with Flame (the Pashley Mailstar).
But up "clean" this time on Mermaid.
Still with snow tyres, naturally :-)
Slow, but I'm up!

So I was dealing with the section beyond the hill.
Came to a small uphill.
Standing on the pedals in top gear (again!), pumping away for all I'm worth.

Ominous noise...
Uh-oh!

A crack has formed at the base of the left-hand crank, and the crank is tilted outwards slowly.
So I limped back home again.

Time to find another crank.
I have one, but it is from a child's bike, so it is going to be a bit short ...

But if it fits, it fits :-)

Update, 6 July 2014:
Broke the drive side crank this evening, while sprinting up Castle Hill (the steep part has a 10% grade)
As a temporary measure, I have short (152mm) "kiddie" cranks on both sides now,
But it is still a lot better than walking!
Time to get some new cranks!
the "kiddie" cranks are a good bit shorter
than the 170mm cranks I broke!

Mermaid back in action with short
cranks from a "teen" bike being used
as an emergency fill-in

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