The Fine Print

The Fine Print

I am an odd sort of human, and I WILL do everything that follows.

I WILL ramble. I WILL lose topic. I WILL create metaphor chains that lead to no where, and never return to the original topic creating closure. I WILL say things that make absolutely no sense.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Cracked Fork Brace

When in tight high speed turns on highways and such I was noticing some slightly scary shaking in the wheel.  It almost felt as if the wheel was moving independently of the handlebars.  I was reading online and it seems that the fork brace is known to have stress cracks, and eventually break.  This will cause the bike to go into a tank slapper and you hitting the ground.  Not cool.  I wasn't certain this was really my problem, until i pulled the fork brace...
 Yes, I know my aluminum is seriously oxidized.  I have serious work to do with every piece of aluminum on this bike. 
You can see the stress crack in the aluminum.  There is a couple more cracks elsewhere.  This piece of aluminum looks fancy when it's on the bike, but it is cheap cast aluminum and only 1/8" thick.  I plan on making a nice replacement, but to get me home safely I just cleaned up a scrap piece of aluminum laying around the shop, put a few holes in it and slapped it on the bike.
Once again, this is just to keep me on the road safely until I can make a nice replacement.  But working full time and taking college classes really limits the amount of time you get to spend working on the bike.  I know a lot of you out there understand that.

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