The Short-Lived Life of My First Fixie (Part 4of4)

Week 4: Huh?

So yeah, I was out riding few hours ago...just minding my own business riding with a couple of the guys...when the unspeakable happened. I don’t know why it happened, but She’s dead. Stella, the bike they gave me at the 24 race, is dead; Or rather, I killed her...somehow, I think. I don’t know how it happened. We were riding down Moreland passing the half-cloverleaf towards away from L5P, and then the pedals, well, the pedals started… twisting in ways they should not twist. It was like Stella was actually flexing sorta and it felt like the pedals had come loose somehow. I push hard on my pedals, stomp up hills, and I do have a history of killing bikes, but the bracket had been making noise all day, so I figured it had to be something internal. The bottom bracket is connected to French-made cottered (sp?) cranks after all and they’re known to be a problem, right? But then…

Upon closer inspection we found that the frame had cracked just above the bottom bracket on the front tube at the weld-point. I tried to ride lightly on it a little further and the pedal rotated sideways like 45 degrees. I freaked out and walked it from there. I could get it spot-welded I guess, but the frame is 30 yrs. old, so I dunno how solid of a fix that would be - I’d only put 270 miles on her when the frame broke and we hadn’t had time to get to know each other yet. She was 29, but Stella was still young to me....too young to snap like a twig in the winds of time, too young to break my heart! *sniff!  Man, I just can’t get it out of my head. It’s tearing me up inside! She’s gone! stella… Stella!

STELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!