daveinva
03-17-2014, 07:17 AM
Got a bunch of snow AGAIN in the D.C. area overnight. It got up into the 60s on Saturday (PERFECT riding weather, enjoyed myself around town), and by Sunday night it was snowing... again.
It came down really wet and heavy at first, with about three inches or so by 12 am. I was still up sitting in my home office when I heard a metallic WHOOSH-CLANG! coming from outside my window.
Sadly, I immediately knew what it was: my Bike Barn had collapsed atop my Spyder under the weight of the snow. :gaah:
So there I was, at midnight, out in sweatpants and slippers, trying to put the Barn back together again under a driving snow. What happened was that the snow had piled up towards the lift-open back part of the Barn (at the rear of the Spyder), causing the Barn to pivot to the rear, lifting the front of the Barn off the ground, up over the front of the bike. (It's my own fault-- I don't have the Barn secured to the driveway in any fashion, it's blocked between my fence and my house so the wind never moves it so I just never think to put down sandbags or the like to weight down the frame :banghead:).
84957
(Note the center of the Barn where all the ceiling frames come together-- that was the pivot point, it all tilted backwards over the rear of my bike lifting the forward floor frame over the front of my bike, basically leaving the entire Barn in the air).
What made it REALLY worse was when I went to pivot the Barn forward back to the ground, the horizontal frame poles caught on the rear taillight of the Spyder (EACH pole caught on the frame, grrrr). So I had to climb over a rapidly-snow covered bike to grab each frame pole and yank it out and over the back of my bike, all while holding the ceiling frame of the Barn to keep it from falling back over. Meanwhile, parts of the frame are now popping apart, with more metal joints clanging to the driveway in the dark. :gaah::gaah::gaah:
Anyway... after about 20 minutes of wrestling around with a job that REALLY needed an extra pair of hands, I got the Barn back to where it needed to be and all the framing poles connected back together. I made sure to weight down the front of the Barn (just rolled my lift jack over the front frame) and, thankfully, I woke up this morning to see the Barn all in one piece.
Still, what a serious PITA
It came down really wet and heavy at first, with about three inches or so by 12 am. I was still up sitting in my home office when I heard a metallic WHOOSH-CLANG! coming from outside my window.
Sadly, I immediately knew what it was: my Bike Barn had collapsed atop my Spyder under the weight of the snow. :gaah:
So there I was, at midnight, out in sweatpants and slippers, trying to put the Barn back together again under a driving snow. What happened was that the snow had piled up towards the lift-open back part of the Barn (at the rear of the Spyder), causing the Barn to pivot to the rear, lifting the front of the Barn off the ground, up over the front of the bike. (It's my own fault-- I don't have the Barn secured to the driveway in any fashion, it's blocked between my fence and my house so the wind never moves it so I just never think to put down sandbags or the like to weight down the frame :banghead:).
84957
(Note the center of the Barn where all the ceiling frames come together-- that was the pivot point, it all tilted backwards over the rear of my bike lifting the forward floor frame over the front of my bike, basically leaving the entire Barn in the air).
What made it REALLY worse was when I went to pivot the Barn forward back to the ground, the horizontal frame poles caught on the rear taillight of the Spyder (EACH pole caught on the frame, grrrr). So I had to climb over a rapidly-snow covered bike to grab each frame pole and yank it out and over the back of my bike, all while holding the ceiling frame of the Barn to keep it from falling back over. Meanwhile, parts of the frame are now popping apart, with more metal joints clanging to the driveway in the dark. :gaah::gaah::gaah:
Anyway... after about 20 minutes of wrestling around with a job that REALLY needed an extra pair of hands, I got the Barn back to where it needed to be and all the framing poles connected back together. I made sure to weight down the front of the Barn (just rolled my lift jack over the front frame) and, thankfully, I woke up this morning to see the Barn all in one piece.
Still, what a serious PITA