Bikes on bridges

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Well if you do decide to travel to Iowa for Ragbrai, contact me in advance. I have extra bikes. Beats paying for hauling/shipping of bikes round trip.

I boxed up 8 of 95 bikes at the end for return shipping to help out some buddies. And there were more boxed by another charter.

About 50% of the bikes on the ride are late model carbon/aluminum road bikes (Trek, Giant, Specialized), but other 50% are anything goes. Oldest bike I saw on the road was a 1950s cruiser. Quite a few 70s 10 speeds. And a young couple suffering on a pair of full suspension Huffy mtbs with 24" knobs. Bents, recumbent trikes, tandems, a triplet or two, trail a bikes, even a 4 wheel bike (slow). And the infection of ebikes is growing.

PS, this year was pretty easy riding. Tail winds about 90% of the time. No rain. Temps about 80f every day. Next year will be the 50th Ragbrai so I expect a big turnout.
 
A tall bike will put you up above the corn and catch more wind! Really, on one crosswind stretch, there was a big difference between the corn (tall) and the soybeans. But okay. I'd put gears on the tall bike. Ragbrai on a single speed is too much work. Done that quite a days over the years on various bikes.
 
5a0dbc1f7407152f_landing.jpeg
double_bike.jpg
sewing.machine.bicycle.jpg
 
Last edited:
Long Sault Parkway, early am on the Nameless Hardrock. Felt like we had the whole world to ourselves
IMG_20220730_074422222.jpg
IMG_20220730_074310283.jpg
IMG_20220730_074343102.jpg

It was really that empty.
Bonus pic, Hardrock beside the empty causeway
IMG_20220730_075603240.jpg

Bonus bonus pic of the golden eagle in the tree at the south end of the bridge:
IMG_20220724_104441964.jpg

Definitely more impressive in real life, that's a majestic beast
 
Cannondale on a new bike path bridge. Just 1/2 mile before a spoke in the rear wheel snapped while pedaling easy on nearly perfect concrete trail surface. A straight pull type. End hidden inside the hub. You have to take the hub apart to get to the spokes. ebay, $16 for 1 or $22 for a 3 pack!. Have to check the local bike shops to see if they have any so it will sit for a few more days. This bike is a 2006 Cannondale Synapse. Carbon carbon carbon. The hollow carbon crank was shot. Left arm has a klunk. lash in the carbon to aluminum spline insert. Someone tried to 'fix' it by overtightening the bolts to the point they stripped the threads in the aluminum bolts and probably in the aluminum axle. I got a used FSA Gossamer for it for relatively cheap and it worked fine today on this 44 mile test ride. Snap. Rode the last 20 miles in 'limp home mode' to avoid more damage. Such a delicate bike so far. 2006 msrp was $3199. Adjusted for inflation that's $4700 now but bike pricing doesn't really work like that. Generally cheap bikes have gotten cheaper and expensive bikes have gotten more expensive when adjusted. I remember when Trek first started selling their OCLV bikes. it was very rare to see one being ridden just 5 years later on. This bike is 16 years old and looks to be in great condition but who really knows. What's next? Former owner was a middle aged tourist. I doubt it was ever ridden hard. The cleanliness shows it wasn't neglected.

I found this recall notice. But the text is about another issue so I'm guessing the bad crank isn't covered.


cannondale.on.bridge.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 2007_carbon_si_crank_recall_notice_en.pdf
    195.2 KB

Latest posts

Back
Top