Well, Ralph Wiggum did as you can hear here:
In my case, I broke my Campagnolo C-Record (AKA Record Pista AKA Sherrif’s Star) track hub, on the drive side. I waited for a break in traffic (trackstanding naturellement) and was pulling out of my work onto the main road and I heard a ping which I though was a spoke. So I pulled up on the side of the road…my tyre rubbing on my frame and discovered that Sheldon Brown wasn’t making it up!
Edit – Some equally cromulent points are made by “11.4″ about 3/4 of the way through this thread on Bike Forums.
I’ve had them since the end of 2003, so I’ve had good use out of them and the failure wasn’t so catastrophic that it resulted in physical injury and I now will have the pleasure of rectifying the situation (building a new wheel, perhaps) but it still is a bit of a bummer. I also got them for a extremely good price. The bearings also are still as smooth as the first day I got them.
I was on my way to meet some friends and colleagues at the pub, so I called for a lift and commiserated with an Amstel, as you can see below.
Here’s a picture of the pristine and untarnished works of art in happier times…
