Last summer i got my bike tunes about 10 days out from IMC. As part of the tune-up I asked them to mount a new Conti Ultra 2000and true the wheels. I didn’t ride much following the tune-up, maybe once at home, less than 20 miles. Then in Penticton, once up yellow Lake and back into town.
And then while pre-riding the Marathon course (before I learned that the course would be changed) on Saturday AM I was in OK Falls and heard a loud noise. A spoke had broken and on the opposite side of the broken spoke the tire casing had come off the wire bead.
long story short I got the spoke fixed, had a GP 3000 mounted, and the race went off without a hitch.
Back home i asked my bike shop about it and there response was more or less, “these things happen.” Honstly I was pissed, but I’m low key by nature. . .I pressed them a little, and they got me a new tire from the Conti rep.
OK–No problems with the wheel/rim–Then >100 miles after the pro’s do what I normally do myself the whole thing melts down–Here’s the question:
Is this a stiuation of ‘these things happen,’ or what?
Hmmm, probably impossible to tell based on what you’ve told us. Our philosophy on pre-race tune-ups is, without exception, “If in ANY doubt, REPLACE!” Some customers are resistant to this but we usually give them the hard sell on this: “You’ve spent all this time and money preparing for Ironman but you won’t spend another $300 to get your bike running dependably?” I think most people’s expectation when they come through the door for a pre-race (especially pre-Ironman) tune-up is that the bike “just needs to be looked at” or “gone over quickly”. They perceive it will be about $40-$60. I bet the average pre-Ironman tune-up is around $150-$200 in here including replacing worn cables, tires, handlebar tape, adjustments, new chain, etc.
It’s tough to tell if your bike shop was in some way responsible for your mechnical problems. You deserve credit for taking care of them before the event and doing a good job testing your equipment. Well done. Not every bike shop understands how critical getting these bikes right actually is. Put it this way: A Formula 1 racing team doesn’t take their racecars to the local Ford dealer for service before the Monaco Gran Prix. Working on race bikes is different than servicing $350 mountain bikes and family bikes. The stakes are higher, the standards are higher, it is a more serious endeavor. An average cyclist goes out for a ride on their Trek 800 at the park and has a mechanical problem, they call someone on their cell phone and say, “I think there is something wrong with my bike, could you pick me up please?” Then they have a picnic, go to the beach or fly a kite that afternoon instead. A guy with a new Cervelo P3 goes to Ironman and blows up a wheel at mile 60 and comes home and says, “I spent $8,000 buying equipment for, traveling to and getting ready for this race. I devoted a year of training and was ready for the experience of my life. An .89 cent spoke took me out of the race.” That’s a tragedy.
Tri bikes are like race cars, the space shuttle or military helicopters: There is no margin for error. It is either right, or it is replaced. “Good enough” is never good enough.
Thanks, I was actually looking at the race tune-up topic on your site when I decided to post the question. I hadn’t thjought about it in a while but it was abig deal last August. After re-reading my original post I’ve noticed two things.
My typing sucks.
I forgot to ask if you or anyone has seen a tire blow out right at the bead before?
The shop I go to is not the only game in town, but they are the only one that sells tri-specific bikes. That said, I was ready to give up on them after they kind of shrugged off my question.
Hmmm, another good question. This is exactly like the last shuttle disaster with the foam damage on the tiles and the previous one with the “O” rings and low temperatures at launch. The failure you expereinced at the bead may be attributed to any number of things, including but not limited to:
Defective tire.
Tire stored improperly and bead damaged during storage by heat, packaging material (bundling tape, zip ties, etc.), Ultra Violet radiation (sun), chemical vapors or liquids (degreasers, aerosol lubricants, etc.).
Casing of tire damaged in transit from friction, impact, abrasion, sudden change of pressure in pressurized cargo compartment of aircraft while in flight case.
Casing of tire damaged due to frcition with improperly adjusted brake pad.
Damage while riding from collision with foreign object, i.e. road debris.
Damage sustained due to improper installation.
As you can see, there are many factors that could have contributed to, or been exclusively responsible for the tire to fail. Any combination of a number of these factors could conspire to create a failure. Tough to tell now, impossible for me to tell over a forum.
When we inspect a bike for a race we are looking for things that me a minor indicator of a failure: Scarring on a tire, irregular wear, flat spots, abraisions, etc. Even on a new tire we inspect it visually and by touch before and after it is installed. This is not a big deal, it amounts to running your hand around it, rotating it and looking at it carefully, It takes well under a minute per tire. It is critical though. Absolutely critical. There is no margin for error here. If there is any doubt a different tire is installed without question. It is always better to be safe. Tires and tubes are inexpensive compared to the loss you may incur if they fail. The price of a tire and/or inner tube is cheap insurance. If your shop is an experienced tri shop, and it sounds like they are, I wager they did check your bike carefully. They may very well be right, it is just “one of those things”. In other words, something happened beyond their control- one of the things I listed above. In any case, as I mentioned, you do deserve credit for being dilligent and checking out your equipment before the race.
The key lesson here is: Who is responsible for the condition of your race equipment? You are. In this case, your responsibility may have saved your race. Good job. You’re a competent triathlete.
It’s impossible to say. I raced cars for several years back in another life and we had an expression back then “shit happens”, which really meant sometimes mechanical things break. When this did happen it was usually due to a basic simple human error but ocassionally it could just be a flaw in the mechanical component. The shop is right when then say “these things happen” because they sometimes do, but then maybe the mechanic over torqued a spoke or something by mistake. Who knows. It’s good that you got it sorted, received a new tire and where able to run the race without any further problems.