With an epic dad groan, I slowly reform from a puddle of ooze on the side of the trail. Everything works, but I’m going to be sore as sore tomorrow. And the next day. My truculent Waltworks V2 is waiting patiently for me, lying on its side in a mess of roots and dirt. I roll my shoulders a handful of times, grab the handlebar, and pull it upright. Everything looks okay?! The bar is straight, brake levers are where I left them. I mean, it’s a rigid single-speed, there’s only so much that can go wrong.
I throw a leg over, stand on the pedals, and I’m off again, like before, only now there’s a metal-on-metal ringing with every proper bump. Something is broken. Ugh. But damned if I can see what. I pick the bike up and drop it on the wheels. Metal-on-metal ringing. I bounce just the rear tire. Same. I bounce just the front tire. Same.
After too much time, I determined that my water bottle made the hardest contact when my bicycle met the ground. It was hard enough to pop one of the titanium welds on my cage. Now, I’ve owned a King Ti cage for twenty-five years. My first one is faultlessly as good as new. I own a couple of these Wolf Tooth X King Cage collab bottle holders and I have zero complaints. Never dropped a bottle. It’s mountain biking, crashes happen, and things break.
But here I am holding a dilemma on multiple fronts. If it was a steel cage I know any number of folks who could super-hot-glue it together for me, but this is titanium. I don’t want to outlay for a fresh one. Even if it is something that would be covered under a warranty – especially lately the bicycle industry has had very little gumption about turning down warranties, even obvious crash or neglect-related claims – I doubt it is getting repaired* and so the thing I bought meaning to have it forever is now garbage and in its place is a doppelganger.
*{Drewitors note: I am confirming repair possibilities and will update.}
Instead of deciding on a path forward, I crank down a zip-tie, Olfa it smooth, and then ride my bike another fifty times. Now it is months later and I realize the cage is still secured, working perfectly, and ring-rattle-free, with the same said zip-tie in place. A forever fix then?
I regularly see chains with multiple quick links. Usually from failures caused by the unprotected chain contacting rocks. Tires with multiple bacon plugs in them that are still being ridden. Brake pads with a yocto of material remaining. Saddles patched in a variety of creative ways. Every ride beyond when we decide to replace something is a free ride, an increase in value.
And lately, for a variety of reasons, I’m finding great joy in truing brake rotors, carefully pulling dents out of rims, and rebuilding used products. Never mind min-maxing the riding experience and finding value in the used market interesting projects are waiting to happen in my own stash of bicycle bits.
I’ve been planning to purchase a German-made Rennkompressor NXT pump for ages. But the CrankBrothers Klic floor pump I’ve been using at least four or five days a week, most weeks, since 2018 just keeps on going. I’m on the third or fourth battery in the digital gauge. It’s been partially disassembled to Slickoleum some air seals a few times. And, sure, The Clairebarian broke the ‘Burst Tank’ and the replacement ‘Burst Tank’ ages ago. But I don’t care, for the rare tire I can’t air right up with the floor pump, we have an apartment-quiet air compressor.
Finally, the pump head died. I was halfway to thinking I could justify putting the replacement money towards the fresh SKS inflator, but I ended up meeting myself in the middle. I had a spare SKS multi-valve (MV) head, the older version, in a drawer and it happens that the hoses use the same internal diameter. Not only has it added a new life to the Klic, but I prefer it significantly to the stock thread-on valve interface, so it’s an upgrade. Nifty.
Anywho, thinking about zip-tying bottle cages and hybridizing floor pumps has me wondering about what other inexpensive product life-boosters folks are using out there. If you have a solid one, please fire me a paragraph and a photo and, in the event I get a few submissions, I’ll share them in a sequel. Heck, I didn’t even mention WZRD Em gluing a new headtube to my V2 this time.
Often, not always but often, the best deal going in bicycling is buying the stuff you already own. That could be servicing a fork or shock, upgrading a few key components on a bicycle rather than purchasing a new one, or, just zip-zapping some plastic tie straps.
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