User error - Caygill broken!

Glad you had a lucky escape, crying shame as I really like(d) that frame..

Literal and metaphorical snap.

At The London Classic Prav was telling me of the failure to his lovely frame, which I saw there for the first time and admired. I was riding mine then with its extended seat-tube still intact. Yesterday though it gave, and it's another case of user-error. My frame has oval tubes, which in the case of the ST begins to taper about midway down, which means there's reduced space to accept a seatpost. Because of that I had this one cut short, but alas much too short.

I have been fortunate though. In town for the Guinness ride I spent a while yesterday just killing time riding around to restore my faculties, before riding over to Andy Pancake's to buy some tyres. As soon as I turned onto his very quiet and traffic-free street, I experienced a sensation which I couldn't pin on the typical bike failures. I knew it wasn't a puncture, but I began to fall backwards. Most odd. I lost control of the bike and came to an end after a pathetic but fortunate 6 mph crash.

When I saw what lay next to me it suddenly made perfect sense. I fell as there was nothing to support me. The frame had snapped as clean as a whistle. There'd been no suggestion this was about to happen either - no creaks or wobbles, just an abrupt failure. I'd been on plenty of busy roads earlier, so really I've dodged a bad one with where it chose to deposit me. I still dropped by Andy's as I was so near and explained I'd not be needing the tyres any longer which turned out to be a good decision, as in between diagnosing a lack of seatpost putting strain on the ST as the cause, he gave me SuperTed's number. I called him and walked over to his workshop.

Luckily this is not terminal. I'd never met Ted before but I've only read good things about him so I know I'm in good hands. What's more I immediately trusted him. He suggests fabricating an entire ST replacement. I've been meaning to contact Caygill to have the tubing confirmed, but this has given me all the incentive I'll ever need. Ted did a similar job for B&D on some forks, which turned out to be an exact replica of the original, so I'm confident he'll do the same for me. I have my road-bike which I love but I'm going to miss riding fixed - I have another frame I could convert but I have no attachment to it. I love my Caygill, so it will live once more. It's just now become a longer term project than anticipated as I had recently decided to treat it to the overhaul it deserves, but it's quite exciting really. As soon as I'm able I'll have Ted work his magic, and not make the same mistake again.