Cycling to work last Wednesday, I take this rural hill route of about 15 miles and as I near my place of work I have to descend off the hills and fly down the road at 35-40 mph. I get to the bottom and there is a 5 min level ride to my office which I use for a warm down.
On this particular day I was on this last 5 minutes long stretch when I heard a strange noise from my cranks, I stop the bike and inspect the chain to find that one of the links was on the verge of coming off.
So I cycle gently onwards hoping it won’t fall off before i get there. Then there is one loud pop and my bike screeches to a halt. I get off to find 4 snapped spokes on the rear wheel. Since they all went on the same side the wheel had lost tension on one side and was jammed hard against my frame causing the wheel to effectively lock up.
Luckily I was doing about 12 mph here just cruising. Imagine what would have happened if this had happened 10 minutes earlier when I was doing 40mph down a steep and winding tarmac hill with drop offs on either sides into deep gullies and on coming traffic.
I was aware that the spoke were a little worn and was about to order a new set but i didnt know how worn they actually were.
I still cant get rid of the sick feeling in my gut thinking what a lucky escape i had, I'll take it as a warnign to check my bike more regularly .Life really does scare the shyt out of you sometimes.