Last night, the pinkbike fell over on its kickstand, and when I righted the bike, I saw that the left hand brake lever had snapped. I was not impressed.
We can take a look at the two fracture surfaces to see if we can learn anything.
Not much to see on the lever end, other than the fact that it is a crappy cast aluminum part. I thought that Alfine would imply better quality, but I was told that some other cast Shimano parts such as XT thumbies have had similar issues.
On the other side, there was another crack that runs perpendicular to the fracture (red arrow)
This could have been caused by over tightening, and it could have weakened the lever. On the other hand, the crack might have happened at the same time as the fracture.
Since the lever is hydraulic, it was too much hassle to deal with myself, so I towed the bike to my favourite bike shop.
When hitching the bike up, I was reminded of one of the cool things that I especially like about it: the fork dropout is angled so that brake forces can’t eject the front wheel.
Carey told me the next time to leave the lever a bit loose so that it will move rather than break; apparently this is an old MTB trick.
While at the shop, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this Gekko trike with an e-assist. Note that the battery is integrated into the rack, and that the motor is a new version that is apparently a little lighter. Pretty short spokes on that 36H 406 rim!
Hope the Pink Panther heals up soon! That is a nasty break indeed. We had a customer who’s loaded touring bike fell over into the shop yesterday; his hardened steel bottom-bracket spindle actually fractured where it attaches to the crank arm. Truly amazing how such things break.
Hope the Pink Panther heals up soon!
Tim