Another DNF, but this time because of a mechanical after a pedal ate its bearings.
I’d be lying if I said this was one of my favourite rides – it’s too lumpy for my taste – but it’s local and I’ve ridden it several times now. The plan was to ride it with my LEL team mate Andy. We wanted to finish in a decent time (around 15-16hrs seemed realistic) but without wrecking ourselves.
The 2am start was cold and we were both suffering with frozen extremities. Warmer gloves and socks would have been helpful, but that’s the trouble with these spring rides – knowing the temperature was due to rise to over 20 degrees later I didn’t want to layer up too heavily with kit that I’d end up carrying.
We made decent progress on the rolling roads to Okehampton and had a quick stop at the control, which was two volunteers, both experienced audaxers, sat on a street corner wrapped in a sleeping bag. They looked like Big Issue sellers. Thanks Heather and Jeremy!
The next stretch, from Okehampton to Barnstaple is on the kind of terrain I hate. No significant hills, just constantly sharp up and down roads which make it impossible to maintain momentum. Andy was distancing me on most of the uphills, while I grovelled and swore behind. The rest of the route is much more friendly to my meagre abilities, so it wasn’t a cause for concern.
After a while I started to get a niggling pain in my right knee. Very similar to what I experienced on the ride to Dad’s the other week. It was a worry because I thought I’d fixed it by adjusting the new cleat. After a few more miles the reason became apparent when the right pedal body came off the spindle. It was the exact same issue I had a couple of months ago. I could still ride, by applying pressure from my foot and keeping the pedal on the spindle, but that meant I could only make decent progress on the flat. On hills I was one-legged and suffering stabs of pain when the pedal slipped out of position.
Barnstaple (and a bike shop) was 20km away, but I’m pretty sure they don’t stock my brand of pedal (Crank Brothers) and I wasn’t minded to buy and start riding a new brand part way through an audax. Besides, the ride there would cause more knee pain (and potential damage) and there would be a long, very cold, wait before the shop opened. The only sensible decision was to fire Andy off up the road while I limped to the nearest train station around 11km away.
The outer bearing had completely disintegrated. I’ve tried before to replace bearings on Crank Bros pedals, but it’s incredibly hard to match the pedal to the correct bearing, especially if you can’t remember how old the pedal is and which model. The very old base models (the Smarty, which they don’t sell any more) had bushings, rather than actual bearings, and although they usually became hopelessly sloppy with wear, they never actually failed. Now I can afford slightly posher pedals they come with bearings which fail catastrophically. I suppose that’s progress.
All my bikes have Crank Bros pedals and I’ve been using them for 20 years without any serious issues, but two identical failures have shaken my confidence. I could just stick on another pair from my stash, but I’m worried about it happening again. A spell of Googling shows that Crank Bros have a reputation for fragility, so I’ve decided to try a different brand on Achilles. That means different shoes compared to the rest of my fleet, which is a PITA but manageable. Pedals are a bit like saddles – people tend to stick to what they get on with, so changing pedals is a pretty big deal and a forced change in the run-up to LEL really isn’t ideal.
More Googling came up with Time Atac XC pedals. They have a reputation for being extremely reliable and are a similar off-road, two bolt design. Baggy used them for many years, so we have a few cleats and pedals knocking around in the various boxes of spare bits that lives in the outhouse. I could have switched to Shimano SPDs (I have plenty of those around as well) but I don’t like the cleats – they always feel too chunky and intrusive, even with shoes designed for off-road pedals. A new pair of Time Atac XC 6 pedals will be arriving soon, so I’ll see how I get on with them. If they don’t work out I can always go back to Crank Bros, but I’ll be checking them very carefully before LEL.
Meanwhile Andy steamed on alone, contending with a fierce headwind from Barnstaple to Cheddar and finishing in an impressive 15hrs 35min (second rider back). Despite struggling on the horrible grind from Okehampton I’m pretty confident that if my pedal hadn’t died I’d have managed to hang on and do my turns on the front. The next ride we’re scheduled to do is the Back to the Smoke 400km, which is much more to my liking, so all being well it should be a fast one.
Other notes:
Made guava paste & cheese kebabs. They worked, although the foil wrapper was a pain to get off cleanly. Might go back to greaseproof paper next time or simply put them in individual sandwich bags. Perhaps Apidura make a handlebar mounted half-grapefruit to stick them in?
Well Chuffed Cycling 