Last Sunday, my wife, an experienced 30+years rider was on her B/C Rapide heading back home on Hwy 20 in Washington State, perfect day, sunny, clear, moderate traffic, but road was a little bumpy. She was behind a slow car pulling a trailer, ~40mph, she pulls out, overtakes, slightly over 50mph, raises her left hand to signal return to her lane and wammo... wobble, wobble, then a violent slam of the bars to the right, she was pitched off.
Remarkably she suffered only minor injuries, bumps, bruises, and a concussion. Her protective gear did its job, and is wrecked. Very, very thankful it was not worse. She is recovering well and is looking forward to riding her Vin again.
The bike sustained damage to the right side as it slid down the road. All repairable.
On doing the forensics back at home in the shop - several things came to light, a minor adjustment needed to the top nut (~ 1/4 turn), but the big surprise is the steering damper knob was backed off 2 turns.
In the shop, I tightened the damper knob tight and moved the bars back and forth (with the wheel off the ground) to feel how it was working. Watching the knob, it loosened off a tiny bit each turn to the left, eventually a full 1/2 turn in about 8 turns. I have never heard of this!
Taking the knob off revealed that the previous owner had greased it all up. I guess that is not a good idea.
I have assembled the damper on TDF98 dry and it stays put, evidenced by the red dot staying in same place. This really points to paying attention to these things constantly and having that reference dot.
Looking at it all - sadly for Liz, it really seemed like the perfect storm for an off.... road surface uneven, one hand off the handlebars, damper knob backed off, and steering head with a tiny bit of movement. Lesson learned.
I do have a new Spares hydraulic steering damper that came with the bike, but had never been fitted. I will now be making the brackets and fitting the hydraulic damper and applying a red dot using her favourite Chanel nail polish colour.
Remarkably she suffered only minor injuries, bumps, bruises, and a concussion. Her protective gear did its job, and is wrecked. Very, very thankful it was not worse. She is recovering well and is looking forward to riding her Vin again.
The bike sustained damage to the right side as it slid down the road. All repairable.
On doing the forensics back at home in the shop - several things came to light, a minor adjustment needed to the top nut (~ 1/4 turn), but the big surprise is the steering damper knob was backed off 2 turns.
In the shop, I tightened the damper knob tight and moved the bars back and forth (with the wheel off the ground) to feel how it was working. Watching the knob, it loosened off a tiny bit each turn to the left, eventually a full 1/2 turn in about 8 turns. I have never heard of this!
Taking the knob off revealed that the previous owner had greased it all up. I guess that is not a good idea.
I have assembled the damper on TDF98 dry and it stays put, evidenced by the red dot staying in same place. This really points to paying attention to these things constantly and having that reference dot.
Looking at it all - sadly for Liz, it really seemed like the perfect storm for an off.... road surface uneven, one hand off the handlebars, damper knob backed off, and steering head with a tiny bit of movement. Lesson learned.
I do have a new Spares hydraulic steering damper that came with the bike, but had never been fitted. I will now be making the brackets and fitting the hydraulic damper and applying a red dot using her favourite Chanel nail polish colour.
