Close call - check your tie downs!

flopsweat · 08-25-2022, 09:07 AM

While on the last camping trip, I had an extremely close call. We rode the dirt trail all day, and had about a half hour to ride on the highway to get to the last campground. I got up to 55mph with cars behind me, felt a little pop at my side, which felt like a plastic hook on my cargo net came loose as I expected it to, but it was one of a few redundancy straps so I kept going. A few seconds later, I feel kind of a thunk followed by the chain going CHUNK for a second, like it skipped a tooth. Immediately slowed down, then CHUNK again, and when I was able to safely stop, I found what happened.

I was using a hiking backpack strapped down over my saddle bags, which has an orange rain cover attached, which I used and cinched down. Fatigue may have caused me to forget to check it that last time before the highway, and it flew off, blew in the wind, got caught in the chain and sprocket, ripped it off, twisted itself to the axle between the swing arm and sprocket, and ripped off the chain guard. I had to cut it off with a knife since it was partially melted. The chain guard was pushed inwards and was randomly hitting the chain, causing the CHUNK sound/feel, so that came off as well. I was extraordinarily lucky it didn't get pulled into the front sprocket, and only had some threads stuck on the chain. The car behind me was probably sure he was about to witness death.

Lesson: Check your tie downs often, especially if your gear setup is MacGyvered with paracord and truckers hitches.

For comparison, this is a photo I found on this forum, not my bike, to show what the chain guard used to look like (complete with the famous backwards CSC brush guard

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08-25-2022, 09:07 AM	#1
flopsweat Join Date: Oct 2021 Location: The burbs of Chicago Posts: 235	Close call - check your tie downs! While on the last camping trip, I had an extremely close call. We rode the dirt trail all day, and had about a half hour to ride on the highway to get to the last campground. I got up to 55mph with cars behind me, felt a little pop at my side, which felt like a plastic hook on my cargo net came loose as I expected it to, but it was one of a few redundancy straps so I kept going. A few seconds later, I feel kind of a thunk followed by the chain going CHUNK for a second, like it skipped a tooth. Immediately slowed down, then CHUNK again, and when I was able to safely stop, I found what happened. I was using a hiking backpack strapped down over my saddle bags, which has an orange rain cover attached, which I used and cinched down. Fatigue may have caused me to forget to check it that last time before the highway, and it flew off, blew in the wind, got caught in the chain and sprocket, ripped it off, twisted itself to the axle between the swing arm and sprocket, and ripped off the chain guard. I had to cut it off with a knife since it was partially melted. The chain guard was pushed inwards and was randomly hitting the chain, causing the CHUNK sound/feel, so that came off as well. I was extraordinarily lucky it didn't get pulled into the front sprocket, and only had some threads stuck on the chain. The car behind me was probably sure he was about to witness death. Lesson: Check your tie downs often, especially if your gear setup is MacGyvered with paracord and truckers hitches. For comparison, this is a photo I found on this forum, not my bike, to show what the chain guard used to look like (complete with the famous backwards CSC brush guard )
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