So I’m cruising home from work on my bike on friday. I have a pannier with a shoulder strap now to hold my laptop and sundries. I take a sharp turn at speed, maybe 15 miles an hour, and intentionally lock the rear tire to make it skid out, which it does. As I finish the turn I go to apply power again and there is a horrendous clanging noise and I skid to a stop. The shoulder strap got sucked into the chain, which caused the plastic buckle to pop free. The plastic buckle got caught up on the spokes on the opposite side from the chain, making a perfect loop around the tire, wrenching off the bike computer sensor, destroying the expensive rubber dust protector grommet on the rear hub, bending the fender and fender mounting hardware, and generally making a nuisance of itself. It sucked! It took me a while to work it out of the bike. The good news is it doesn’t seem to have damaged the rim or spokes, which I was sure it had done at first based on how tightly it was compressed against the rim. The tires are inflated to 75psi (that’s no typo – I was surprised too), yet the laptop strap had compressed the rubber tire flat against the rim. The bad news is I have to bring the bike in to get the grommet replaced, which will take a while since the part has to be ordered from Germany. It also ripped off several bolts that hold the rear fender secure, so now it rattles like an old jalopy. I tried several hardware stores and Walmart on Saturday morning but had no luck. I’m going to try another tonight.

All in all a major bummer. It could have been much worse so I guess I should count my blessings and move on. I can’t ride it in the wet until I get that part from Germany either.