@Wingnut , I was in your old stomping grounds over the weekend. Hubby and I rode the Trinity Trail all day Sunday. Great day as the weather was cool.
TomSea's post about WD40 gave me a laugh as WD40 and an inept guy at a bike shop nearly got me killed Sunday. When I had my bike assembled, I saw the guy at Performance Bikes spray the BB with WD40 before he tightened it. Now, I don't know if he used the proper torque wrench and tightened it as he should have, but I was shocked that he had the WD40 out and spraying it on my bike as I have repeatedly read not to use it. I have an SRAM Red carbon crank and BB.
I assume you've ridden the Trinity many times and will know where i'm talking about, but there's a bit of a steep downhill not far from leaving the Benbrook Lake Dam area heading towards Ft. Worth. While flying down that downhill, my bike shuddered, hopped around, and shook enough to nearly make me soil my bibs as I thought I was going down and was done for. I'm a bit old to take such a tumble. I assumed I had a flat after I got her shut down as it felt much like a blowout does in a car. Nope. Tires were fine.
We rode on to the entrance of the park and stopped at the picnic table that is close to the bike trail. Husband looked at the gears as I have been griping about the front derailleur still not working properly after having Performance Bikes, the same people that assembled my bike, check it twice only to have them bless it as fine, looking at me like I'm nuts and telling me I must not be shifting the levers correctly. "Shift at the same time and only briefly. Don't hold them down." which is how I have been shifting them.
Husband looked around at the bike a bit, then shouted "WTF?" along with a few "Holy *bleeps* The BB and crank were loose and severely crooked throwing off the front derailleur. He didn't have a proper torque wrench, much less an Allen wrench that was large enough, but he took two Allen wrenches put together to tighten it as much as he could. That worked until I hit the first good bump. From there, I limped along fairly slowly until we got to the bike shop along the trail. They were terrific, cleaned it up, and torqued it properly for me. They couldn't believe I had the bike professionally assembled. She was a sweet ride afterwards.
Since I had the bike built, she never behaved quite right. Crank slipping, big ring not shifting, odd little hops every once-in-a-while. It's a miracle I didn't break my fool neck as I have been riding near daily for over a month with a loose BB. Husband said he would listen to me in future when I complain about pedals slipping, crazy bike hopping, and such. LOL That alone was worth the trip to Ft. Worth.
I did take a tumble about 1000 feet from the end of our ride. A LARGE man, his wife pulling a baby trailer, and four other adults were riding three deep. I repeatedly announced "on your left", but was ignored. In my impatience, I regrettably decided to pass them on the right as the trail widened due to a fork. I thought I could get around them quickly and go on. What I didn't see was the railroad track as I had my eye on the baby as Momma decided to veer right and cut me off. Front tire went down into the gap of the track and down I went. I left the ride a bit bruised and scraped, but they got out of the way of the other riders as "the old lady" going down caused some others that were caught up behind them to yell and threaten them. I nearly caused a riot at a family park. :/ If I'd realized we were so close to our vehicle, I would have had more patience and just crawled along behind the rude people.
Even with the two mishaps, we had a wonderful, memorable day. We plan to return soon before it gets too hot as there isn't much shade on that trail.
