hangeranger

Ever had that déjà vu feeling? No the type where you go round in circles in an oil palm estate from a bad check. This is far more sinister. I had a broken deraileur. Practically the archilles heel of modern biking this little piece of CNC'ed aluminium snapped from my frame and collapsed my mountain biking world into a singularity.

The wheels literally stopped turning cause it just can't be turned no more. What happened was as bizarre as what follows. For those who believe in cosmic influence - analyse this!

Recollection of date was impossible as we ride to forget this artificial constraint decreed by Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century. Anyway it was during the time of the end of the first rainy season of the year, the Chief and I were doing some recce up in Awana Genting highlands. It was a long forgotten trail and we had to leave our bikes a few times to hack away at the 7 foot lalang. And then after that there were the mimosa minefields - thorny thickets that has to be carefully hacked because they usually cover a large area and have extremely fine thorns that sticks to clothes and skin. As an aside, some species of this plant contain tryptamines and mimosine. Just Google it if you want to know why that's an interesting mention.

Anyway, it was almost time to go home when it happened. I can still see how it happened even though it is now the second rainy season of the year which means six months have already passed. I got on my bike, clipped on to my every reliable Time ATAC pedals on my right leg and proceeded to push off. My right leg made a 90 degree rotation, and the next tine I knew was a low frequency metal bending sound with ended with a high frequency snapping report. Like the slo-mo of a bad Taiwanese movie, I turned my head back and what I saw was a gnarled deraileur on the ground. I knew that at that moment it's the end of the game. I am not sure what causes it - most probably was the hard stem from a lalang. The mangled bit looked quite bad not unlike mangled body parts of a suicide bomber.

What follows next is the source of my anger and frustration. For those of you not familiar with the trouble of broken deraileurs, take heart, it could happen to you!. Following the destruction, I immediately contacted Leong of KSH. (Names have not been changed to protect the guilty). He told me he would get right down to ordering the hanger first thing the next day. He even took down my number and promised to call back as soon as the hanger arrived from Singapore. All well and dandy, except, it was more a month later without hearing anything from him, I gave him a call. Being ever courteous, he apologises for not remembering to order for me. He promised he would do so the first thing the next day. Déjà vu, huh. That again went on for weeks and this time I decided to tell Boon my predicament. He gave me a number to call - a Specialized dealer in Singapore. This was great - the lady said I was in luck (not many ladies have told me I was in luck before!) and she has just made an order and the shipment would arrive in 3 weeks time. In the mean time, I was also writing in to the customer support for possibility of getting replacements. My first email was answered by a gentelemen by the name of Jeff from Store.CustomerService@specialized.com. He says that he will have to check and get back to me. Cool, this is great - I am thinking to myself - well, I am a bona fide customer who bought a high end product and I should get some customer service. Wrong! Make that double wrong!. There was no reply from Jeff after that despite my emails. Mark Sinyard, if you are reading this, crap on this guy. Bad customer service. Meanwhile, a few more calls to the lady who said I was in luck turns out to be no luck. Shipment is delayed call back next week in the usual reply. The last call, said I should try before Christmas. Tried no luck. Next was my last desperate hope to get it from UK where Sernawi is. A series of emails ensued and he says I could have it for EUR30 plus another twenty for shipping. WOW that's steep!. I had to reconsider.

So one day, just out of frustration with my luck I visited KSH in SS3 and asked if they had any Specialized deraileurs. They don't know if they have the one for my Epic and made a call to Leong. He says over the phone that he is aware of my case and is waiting for the hangers. Not willing to give up just yet, I asked them to show me all their Specialized hangers. Lo and behold, I found a bunch of Specialized hangers that fit. It was in their store all this time. I have come a complete circle and after all the trouble it was right at here literally at my doorstep. As I step out of the shop, it started to rain - yup, we are in the second rainy season of the year. Lost my hanger in the first, found it in the second. Went halfway round the world to look for it found it at my doorstep. Life!