Kevin and I headed up to Salmon Falls this weekend. My Enduro was out of action due to a couple of broken spokes so I decided to take the Sugar out of the barn. I hadn’t ridden my Gary Fisher Sugar on a serious trail in a long time. Right around the beginning of the year I broke the second frame on it so I decided to park it.
When we started the climb up Flagstaff Hill I was starting to enjoy being back on the Sugar and was seriously thinking I should take it out more often. Then we hit the top of the Mickey Mouse section and I was having all kinds of trouble. The back brakes were way out of adjustment and I remembered that the Sugar was just a bit big to be wrestling through the windy manzanita maze at the top of Mickey Mouse. Then about 1/2 mile from the top I started hearing the tell-tale sign of something rubbing. I stopped and investigated but couldn’t find what was wrong.
The problem continued intermittently until eventually I figured out what the problem was. The carbon fibre chainstay had separated from the aluminum piece that connected to the pivot on the front triangle. When I put my weight on the bike and started rolling it would separate, but when I got off the bike the carbon chainstay would slide back into the aluminum piece and you couldn’t tell what was wrong.
So our day ended with me walking down most of Mickey Mouse and limping the bike back 8 miles to the truck with the rear wheel dragging on the frame for most of the ride. Lesson relearned, Gary Fisher Sugar frames crack so if/ when I get this frame back from warrantee it is going to go up on e-Bay the next day. Anyone looking for an extra large Sugar 1 frame?