After amassing close to 200 miles in the first few days of the month a wrench was thrown in my progress. Business required me to head out of town for Thursday and Friday, the weekend offered no relief as my wife worked pretty much all of it and my favor pool is currently light. Monday morning had me heading to work early (6am) but leaving quickly to supervise U-verse installation. My diabolical plan had me riding back to work from there and then commuting back home that evening. Alas, the install ran over so I simply drove back in reasoning that I would just go home via bicycle and commute back in the AM…pretty regular stuff.
I kitted up and sat out Monday afternoon relishing the weather and the just rebuilt back wheel smoothness courtesy of OYLC when “disaster” struck. I heard a loud pop and lost all chain tension as it went skittering off the chain ring and cogs. I pulled over and started working on the rethreading the chain. I noticed the rear derailleur pulley set was very floppy and had no spring. That seemed a bit off but I wasn’t for sure…worry began to set in. Just then a friend from work who lives in the area stopped and and asked if I needed help. My choices were – go to Clarksville Schwinn or go back to work and drive home to deal with it later. Seeking the least friction at home I decided just to pack it in for the day…plus I wasn’t really for sure it was broken yet.
I sent a pleading after hours email to OYLC begging for immediate attention in the AM so I could ride at lunch because I was really starting to yearn for a ride. They graciously replied so I set out first thing to have it looked at. Drew confirmed a broken spring but didn’t really have anything to fix it. In a textbook example of serving your loyal customers he made some calls and directed me to another shop that had some vintage Suntour parts and could make the fix on the comparative cheap. I shot over to see Skiles at The Black Spring Bike Shop & Coffee House. I ran into another bike acquaintance and chatted for a bit while my bike was repaired for a very reasonable price. I needed it after just rebuilding the back wheel and working on a limited budget.
A few hours later it was finally lunchtime and time to get out on the bike. Weather was warm but otherwise perfect. My friend from the office who is on the mend from shoulder surgery joined me and we decided to head out for “Buck’s Ride” into the Floyd’s Knobs and the formidable Moser Knob Road. I wanted to repeat my time trial and compare the times. I started out with a good run up to the main hill. As I began the assent I notice the bike felt springy…not think too much I charged onward and upward. Finally I looked down and back and saw the source of the bounce…flat tire. Blech. I jumped off and felt the tire, it wasn’t completely flat. I pumped it back up thinking maybe I just lost some pressure in transit. As I was closing the presta valve the locking mechanism just flat broke off. The tire seemed to be holding air so I took off, yeah right. I walked the rest of the way up and found a shady spot to make the tube change.
I recently put a Conti 27 x 1.25 (32mm) Ultra Gator Skin on the back wheel. Besides being a great riding tire it was a dream to change on the side of the road. It pryed off easy enough and the bead reset without much wrestling and pushing. It didn’t take long at all to get back on the road. Pumping that high volume with a frame pump was an experience but hey…whatcha gonna do.
The rest went down without much incident. I am ready to get back to event free riding for a couple of days. The rest of the week proved just that. I had a nice ride with Tim again on Thursday and a solo fast ride on Friday. 22 miles at 18.5 pace. Rain set in around 16 miles and I can’t say I really even minded it.
