Our 4-month-old, quite curious, puppy knocked over my bike one day while hanging out with me in my home office. (Keep your dogs close, and your bikes closer!)
I use an Upstand Bike Stand to park my bike, and I noticed that the fall bent the Upstand a bit (the aluminum tube inside the carbon tubing. What I didn’t take into account was the pressure the fall exerted on the rear quick release and skewer, to which the Upstand attaches via a little ring gadget.
I eyeballed everything after straightening out and reattaching the Upstand, but admittedly I was in a bit of a huff – and a hurry – and I didn’t spend the time I should have checking the bike thoroughly.
Sure enough, on my next ride, I heard some rubbing somewhere on the bike. Stopping to check it out, I realized that the rear QR was not nearly as tight as it should have been.
So I quickly opened the QR, re-seated the wheel, tightened and locked down the QR, spun the wheel to make sure it was seated properly and spinning true, and got back on the road.
It just raised the point that I should have taken an extra moment or two to physically check out everything and do the wheel re-seating and QR re-tightening immediately after the bike took its tumble. Shame on me for rushing it.
If your bike falls, spend a little time spinning the wheels, checking the tightness of the QRs, alignment of the brakes, etc. – before hopping back on and hitting the road again.
And don’t forget to pet your puppy. She didn’t mean it!
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