Interesting day in Ballyhoura...

concussion

Hey all, did the white loop (~32km) in Ballyhoura yesterday. When I say 'did' I really mean I got the bike and myself from start to finish, you couldn't really call it mountain-biking!

Started off grand, mostly dry trails, no wind, no rain. 1 km in, as I'm putting power down coming out of a corner my chain skips from the big chainring to the middle and my knee smashes off the stem, tearing open the skin and leaving me screaming and swearing. Definately not pleasant but I find if I dont stop spinning I can keep going. So on we go.

12 km in, pumping down one of the best trails there, about 12 minutes of pure singletrack bliss and I come over a small rise. My fork goes 'clunk' and I think 'that shouldn't be enough to bottom out the fork'. Next thing that happens, as I start braking on a long left curve, is that the steering has gone squirrelly and I go down as the bars are ripped out of my hands. I pick myself up, climb aboard and see fork oil pi$$ing out of the left leg. Turns out the arch has cracked around the top of the leg. A quick consultation with the rest and the general consensus is it should be all right if I don't do anything stupid on it. So I press on as its miles back and if I sit around the car park my knee is going to seize up.



100 m later I realise I can't really turn left as the steering gets unpredictable

15 km in and my front brake fails as its contaminated with fork oil - this turns out to be a good thing as it means less force pulling on the wheel to the left and I'm actually confident on the trails again (though very slow :pac:)

32 km later, loop finished, hot chocolate all round and we take the wheels off to put the bikes in the car - its then we see that crack has gotten bigger and the arch has now separated entirely. The only thing holding everything together was the drop-outs being pressed against the hub by the quick-release!



So that was my day, the end result is I have an imprint of the stem on my knee-cap, a completly knackered fork and my credit card is soon going to be put through the mill. And this is just after Christmas, the first one in a long time when I told everyone 'there's nothing in particular I want'. Typical :rolleyes:

TinyExplosions

Jaysus, that mountain biking sounds expensive -should just stick to the road

Turbulent Bill

Was the fork old or abused? I thought Marzocchi Bombers would be, eh, bombproof, so having it fail spectacularly on standard terrain might be due to a manufacturing fault. The neat way that the arm separated from the leg also suggests this (not sure if these are forged, welded together etc.).

Might be worth checking if this is a known problem before splashing the cash on a new fork.

concussion

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Was the fork old or abused? I thought Marzocchi Bombers would be, eh, bombproof, so having it fail spectacularly on standard terrain might be due to a manufacturing fault. The neat way that the arm separated from the leg also suggests this (not sure if these are forged, welded together etc.).

Might be worth checking if this is a known problem before splashing the cash on a new fork.

Yes indeed
I've had them six years and bought them second-hand. In that time I've given them some serious (ab)use so I'm not too upset about it. May get some thermite and give them a viking funeral

Húrin

That's what ya get for cycling ya muppet. :pac:

Drapper

you know what chopper would say?



Ballyhoura is for mtb gobbers! get to real trails!! :-)

concussion

Drapper wrote: »

Ballyhoura is for mtb gobbers! get to real trails!! :-)

I take it that gobber is a derogatory term then? Sometimes you just have to go ride some trails which aren't hub deep in mud. Hence Bally H

Drapper

only joking man! get out and pedal! fair play to yeah...... the only tricky bits in BalyH is the boardwalks!

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=pSd_JpDgykQ