So I took the Speedco to the track as planned to see how it rode with the 60mm stem on it and did a slow pump lap to get used to the bike again and it felt pretty good. Much better than it did with the shorter stem on it thats for sure.
On my second lap I decided to push a bit harder down the start hill and near the bottom of the start hill I heard a loud crack and I saw the ground coming up towards me 🙁 Once I brushed myself off and checked that everything was OK and nothing was broken I checked the bike and found that the chain was no longer on the bike!! I looked up the start hill and the chain was in about 4 different pieces!
I was really surprised that this had happened as the chain was an expensive KMC chain and they hardly ever snap! Looking the chain over I actually snapped one of the pins about 8 inches from the “missing link” quick link! The bar end was also smashed to pieces and when I looked I could see why as there was a gouge in the tarmack where my bar had dug into it!
Apart from that the bike seemed fine so I decided to do some pump laps until I started to ride the bike and found that the stem had moved so it was hard to ride. As I had left my car on the road as the carpark at the sports centre was locked, I didn’t have any tools with me so I decided to cut my losses and limped back to the car 🙁
When I got home I left the bike in the car and went into the house and cleaned up all my wounds and led on the healing couch and watched Netfilx for the rest of the evening!
Considering how fast I was going and how hard I landed, all in all I came out of it pretty well. My little finger, forearm and knee are a bit smashed up on my right side from hitting and skidding along the floor and my left knee is a little bruised most likely from hitting the frame as I went over the bars but apart from that I’m all good!
This is especially surprising as I had no body armour on which is unusual for me and again highlights the fact that I should always ride in body armour!!!