Yesterday it was pretty cold out, but I bundled up and headed outside on the cross bike. I hadn't ridden outdoors in a few weeks. Originally I planned to just hit the woods to stay out of the wind, but since I wanted to ride for two hours, when I got outside and realized how warmly I was dressed, I rode the road. There just aren't too many trails on my local network that are suitable for the cross bike, and I didn't feel like looping over the same ones repeatedly.
The cross bike isn't too bad on the road. It has no cages, so I have to carry a bottle in my back pocket, but with 38C knobbies (suitably worn down) I don't have to worry so much about flatting either, which is good, as changing flats with frozen hands sucks. I did, however, bring my spare and tools, just in case...
Looping around my usual haunts, I avoided the roads near the lake, as the winds were pretty strong. I hit one road that was closed for construction, but I got through, and it was nice to have the road to myself. At about 1:15 I found myself at the front entrance to Borderland, and as it was late in the day and getting cold, I figured cutting through and looping around the town forest would get me out of the wind and still finish close enough to my two hour goal. Borderland's trails were all frozen, and deserted, but still warmer than the road, and safer than riding it with the blinding setting sun.
I came out the other side of the park and headed into the town forest to re-explore the "bushes where a rabbit wouldn't go" trail. Big mistake. I was cruising through, picking my line and having fun, when suddenly the bike went into a gargantuan messenger skid. Uh-oh. My long-cage 105 derailleur was now entangled in the spokes and pointed toward the sky. The dropout was, shall we say, mangled. Luckily, I had a multi tool with me.
Removing the derailleur revealed the dropout was not hitting the cogs. So far so good. I was only about two miles from home (and less then a quarter mile from where I as when the mountain bike fork broke), but I didn't feel like walking. In the waning daylight, I fumbled with my chain tool almost blindly, as I need glasses to see things up close, and I don't carry them. Going by feel, I broke the chain (I think this is a low mileage DA 9 speeder too, doh, there goes $30, at least I didn't *see* a Power Link, not that I could have...) and took out several links. I got it back together with a reassuring "click," threading it over the middle ring and finding a cog in the middle where the chain was both straight and under reasonable tension.
Getting back on, I gingerly pedaled for a bit, and all worked out OK. Not wanting to put too much pressure on the chain, just in case, I tip toed out of the woods and rode home on the street. This worked out well too, as originally I thought I might hop on the trainer for some good spinning post ride, but the downhill run home in the 38x21 accomplished the same thing. So now both my off road bikes are broken. This will give me something to do other than make nodcasts if we get snowed in tonight (which I'm still betting won't happen. Thanks for reading.
bummer dude - but props to the blind mechanic...
ReplyDeleteya get bonus points for doing that blind and in the cold!!!
You should just go whole hog now and make a fixie of the fucker. That'd teach the bastard for shitting the bed on you in such conditions.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, much respect. I carry a multi tool, too. However, about all I could do with it is use it as a projectile should a mugger or stray dog try to attack.