I spent the past 9 days biking from Hamburg to Prague and was able to cover some good distance – around 100km every day. I was carrying quite a bit of gear, but everything was going very smoothly. Good weather, no flat tires, nothing to worry about really.
I was just about to complete the tour. Had a nice lunch in town and was about to bike the last 50km to Prague, but I noticed something off with my front panniers. After a closer look, I found a big crack on my fork.
I've visited every single bike shop in town, as well as some mechanics, but nobody could help. Nobody had a fork that would fit and nobody was able to weld aluminum.
I had to give up here and just take the train. I'm waiting for one as I'm writing this.
It's the biggest tour I've ever done – managed to bike 800km. However, it feels like I haven't accomplished my goal, as I was not able to reach the destination. That feeling kinda sucks.
I wanted to buy a new bike before the tour – now I know way more about what I actually need. It's definitely going to be a steel frame. At least I can justify buying a new bike.
Anyone have any similar experiences to share? How do you flip your mind and actually be happy about all the good good days that were spent touring?
by pjkst
10 Comments
Just a little bit glue n noodles and youu arre ready to goo!
Has your bicycle been mounted on a car’s roof rack?
This is why I always ride with a bunch of zip ties. JK, that sucks, not much you can do. My bike coach always made us wash our bike after every ride. He said it was so we would find chips or cracks early.
Well that sucks. But instead of racking your brain over the 50km you didn’t ride think about the 800km you did ride. I’m sure you had an amazing journey and some great memories to think about.
Meh, the last 20km into Prague would have been nasty anyhow. You haven’t lost anything really.
If you want to feel like you’ve finished it, there’s nothing to stop you from going to Prague by train and then renting a bike for a day and doing the final 50km tomorrow. If it means a lot to do the full end-to-end, do it. Prague won’t change much between tomorrow and the next time you visit it. You’ll remember the last 50km FAR better than you will remember wandering around Prague castle.
This is write off fork, get a new one.
Crack might be starting as fatique crack some time ago and now it was just final straw and it gave away. More could be said if you take it off and get us photo of crack. If one side of crack shows different (darker greyish color) due to past exidation, then this is fatique crack induced failure.
You could go and do weld on it, but good welder will cost you as much as new generic fork.
Anyways, how was ride? Will you publish some photographs?
Wish you many safe rides!
Carbon fiber?
Steel is real, baby!
Just got myself a steel bike too.
This is why steel or titanium (if you’re rich!) is always recommended for touring bikes. I bought my old steel tourer second hand for £600, did over 20,000km on it and have had zero problems with the frame.
Comiserations on having to end the tour early, but like many have said, riding into large cities is rarely fun and it’s an important lesson learned before you ride again!
Steel is Real. (nuff said)