David Gelinas
12-09-2008, 03:30 PM
Today was a rather sad day – long story short I’m out what I believe is a 56C Nova Special; black triangle with purple stays and yellow decals with 600 groupo.
As Paul Harvey would say, “Now for the rest of the story”. When the weather is conducive we ride Tue & Thurs early (predawn/dawn) mornings. I have been riding with two good friends for about three years now and I personally or either of them for that matter have never directly had a problem. About 6 months ago a young friend about 24 decides he’d like to ride with us and I now ride my Fierte so I lent him my Nova Special. He’s a young kid with a wife and very young daughter and they are really great kids; so I had the extra bike so I let him ride it knowing full well what the eventuality of it all could end up being. My brother, a former racer and long time rider has gone with us on our early morning rides maybe 4-6 times over the past few months.
The kid had never ridden road bikes before this so needless to say he was a real squirrel when he started to ride, but his abilities have improved. As a matter of fact on our way out this AM I was noticing that he was riding much better, or so I thought. I was tired so I turned around early expecting them to catch me when after a couple of miles my phone rings. It’s this kid calling to tell me he’s broken my bike and my brother’s 2 year old Orbea w/ Recoerd groupo and Zonda wheels. The kid was in front and cornered at a high rate of speed – he just way over shot the corner and nailed the curb at ninety degrees. The problem was my brother was drafting off of him and also hit the curb. Both top and down tubes are badly crunched. My brother’s wheel will clear the down tube but my wheel protrudes about 50% into my down tube. Oddly enough, neither front wheel appears to be flat spotted – go figure. I would assume the steering tubes are also toasted but we haven’t gotten that deep into them yet.
Physically speaking they’re both okay. The kids fine aside from his pride and the fact that he feels really bad about the whole thing. My brother has a good size knot on his forehead with a little gash in it as well as some road rash on his face – not to bad for being a couple of years short of 50 (Trust me, his face doesn’t look any worse than before the ride).
Unfortunately I don’t think my frame is worth saving or even possible, maybe some of you can give me some insight. The frame still road great but it did have a tiny bit of spider webbing going on, on the top tube just before the seat tube lug. I’m gonna really miss that bike. It’s not the monetary thing; I only paid $600.00 or $700.00 for it three years ago when I stated riding again. It’s just the sentimental thing – man I loved that bike. Sure it had crappy 600 components on it but it was still special to me. Not to mention how sexy that frame was, how the pinch bolt is integrated into the seat stays – man its beautiful, very old school.
And I feel bad for the kid. Like I said he’s got a young family and he can’t afford to buy his own bike let alone replace someone else’s; and I don’t want him to worry about that. Like I said, I’m no dummy; I knew what could have happened when I let him borrow it. As a matter of fact I’d like to try and find another decent riding 56 of any make to build back up for him. Needless to say I’ve got a few used parts now lying around that I could use.
Like I said, they’re both okay. Just let this be a reminder to you; ride with novice riders, help them, encourage them, teach them – just keep them in the back of the group or at the very least keep an eye on them so they don’t kill themselves or you.
David Gelinas
As Paul Harvey would say, “Now for the rest of the story”. When the weather is conducive we ride Tue & Thurs early (predawn/dawn) mornings. I have been riding with two good friends for about three years now and I personally or either of them for that matter have never directly had a problem. About 6 months ago a young friend about 24 decides he’d like to ride with us and I now ride my Fierte so I lent him my Nova Special. He’s a young kid with a wife and very young daughter and they are really great kids; so I had the extra bike so I let him ride it knowing full well what the eventuality of it all could end up being. My brother, a former racer and long time rider has gone with us on our early morning rides maybe 4-6 times over the past few months.
The kid had never ridden road bikes before this so needless to say he was a real squirrel when he started to ride, but his abilities have improved. As a matter of fact on our way out this AM I was noticing that he was riding much better, or so I thought. I was tired so I turned around early expecting them to catch me when after a couple of miles my phone rings. It’s this kid calling to tell me he’s broken my bike and my brother’s 2 year old Orbea w/ Recoerd groupo and Zonda wheels. The kid was in front and cornered at a high rate of speed – he just way over shot the corner and nailed the curb at ninety degrees. The problem was my brother was drafting off of him and also hit the curb. Both top and down tubes are badly crunched. My brother’s wheel will clear the down tube but my wheel protrudes about 50% into my down tube. Oddly enough, neither front wheel appears to be flat spotted – go figure. I would assume the steering tubes are also toasted but we haven’t gotten that deep into them yet.
Physically speaking they’re both okay. The kids fine aside from his pride and the fact that he feels really bad about the whole thing. My brother has a good size knot on his forehead with a little gash in it as well as some road rash on his face – not to bad for being a couple of years short of 50 (Trust me, his face doesn’t look any worse than before the ride).
Unfortunately I don’t think my frame is worth saving or even possible, maybe some of you can give me some insight. The frame still road great but it did have a tiny bit of spider webbing going on, on the top tube just before the seat tube lug. I’m gonna really miss that bike. It’s not the monetary thing; I only paid $600.00 or $700.00 for it three years ago when I stated riding again. It’s just the sentimental thing – man I loved that bike. Sure it had crappy 600 components on it but it was still special to me. Not to mention how sexy that frame was, how the pinch bolt is integrated into the seat stays – man its beautiful, very old school.
And I feel bad for the kid. Like I said he’s got a young family and he can’t afford to buy his own bike let alone replace someone else’s; and I don’t want him to worry about that. Like I said, I’m no dummy; I knew what could have happened when I let him borrow it. As a matter of fact I’d like to try and find another decent riding 56 of any make to build back up for him. Needless to say I’ve got a few used parts now lying around that I could use.
Like I said, they’re both okay. Just let this be a reminder to you; ride with novice riders, help them, encourage them, teach them – just keep them in the back of the group or at the very least keep an eye on them so they don’t kill themselves or you.
David Gelinas