Madone 6.7 SSL WSD™
OCLV2 SSL Carbon, E2, BB90, internal cable routing, DuoTrap compatible
The Worst Luck.
When it rains it pours they tell me. Seems to be the case for me when it comes to cycling lately. First let me remind myself I have my health and a beautiful family. Now, let me share my story to get some much needed sorrow off my chest..
My beautiful TREK Madone 6.7 SSL WSD with all the trimmings got a crack in the seat stay a week ago. It wasn’t from a crash or from banging it into a wall. It was from attaching a light to it. It pains me to share this because I NEVER attach a light to the seat stay. I got home from work late and there was little light left in the day. Somehow I couldn’t find my regular lights I use and I was running out of daylight so I called the search off and grabbed an old cat eye light I used to use on my mountain bike. Now, I always attach my back lights to my seat post but this time I decided to throw it on the seat stay because that way my left leg wouldn’t rub against it when pedaling.
So I head out to climb route 145 to Lockheart castle which is a ride I do sometimes for intensity training. It’s perfect for a short ride as I ride it at usually over 80% of my max heart rate and get the heart and legs both rocking. On my way home heading down hill at about 65 km/hr the back light moved into the spokes of the rear wheel and got eaten up in a hurry. I stopped, swore, looked at the remains of the light and checked my back wheel and spokes. When I saw there was no damage on the spokes and the wheel seemed true I was relieved and went home.
The next morning when on a group ride my friend behind me asked what happened when he saw the crack. I stopped and initially we both thought it was just the paint. But a few more tests concluded indeed the frame was cracked. How easy it was to ruin the frame. A plastic light attachment that couldn’t break the spokes or untrue the wheel ruined my frame.
So next I decide on what to do, either buy a new replacement frame or try to get this one fixed. I took it into Takezawa cycles where some friends work and asked them to switch the parts over to my winter bike which is an older TREK 5.2 carbon frame.
Today, they call me and said, “Did you know your top tube on your 5.2 has a 4 cm crack in it”?
All I could do is laugh because well…. Crying aint gonna do no good.
I feel like we’re going in reverse here.
So that’s where I stand. I have a bike race on Sunday and I will ride it with my winter bike. I have double checked the winter bike frame top tube and I personally believe it’s not cracked but just scratched. I will continue to use it as a winter bike and as my only bike until I get a new frame or get the 6.7 fixed.
Stay tuned and please, whatever you do… be careful with your frames friends.
Kelly Pettit 