Mercer Chain Jinx
This year, when Chris came out to Seattle for the Second Annual Let's All Ride The Seven Hills of Kirkland Ride, we did a lap of Mercer Island a day or two before, just to see the sights and enjoy a nice ride. That day, Chris had a problem with his chain: one of the links locked up, and made it very difficult for him to pedal. As I recall, he had to time his pedal strokes to softpedal when the link was making its way through his rear derailleur assembly.
Today I rode with Joel, the roommate of some of my frisbee peeps. Joel's been looking for some new riding routes in the area, so I was happy to oblige, showing him Mercer. Since getting to and from the I-90 bridge (via a couple of different routes) is a useful bit of cycling knowledge to have, I figured it would be a good starting point for him.
We met up at Speedy Reedy at 9am and started heading out. The ride out to the bridge was pretty uneventful, but Joel started having some trouble shifting as we rode up the ramp on the Mercer side, towards the Lid. We stopped at the park and adjusted the barrel retensioner on his rear derailleur, and I prompted him to ride around the parking lot a couple of times to test it out. No improvement. So we had a look at the front, since it seemed a bit of noise was coming from there as well, and he kept throwing the chain off the inside of the small ring. As I looked at the chainrings, I saw the problem right away: a link was badly damaged and about to give way. One side of it was no longer connected to the pin!
Clearly, this was no way to make a lap of Mercer. We opted to double back and head for Triumph in Leschi. Chain fix, no problem. So I started off back down the I-90 bridge again, and looked back to find that Joel had stopped about halfway down the ramp. I rode back up to him to find a grisly scene. His chain had broken while he was simply coasting, and it had lodged itself between his spokes and the big sprocket of his rear cassette. Completely trashed the derailleur, tearing it off the mount bracket. One of his spokes was badly damaged, too, and the chain was inextricable. This reduces a bike to a 20lb., non-rolly weight that has to be schlepped somewhere to be fixed. Sadly, I've been through this drill.
Joel took of his shoes and helmet, and we began the hike back to Leschi. I showed him my 'carry the bike by the rear wheel with a straight arm' trick, so we made decent progress. We walked back to Starbuck's and called a cab (sadly, he had forgotten his cell phone with his roommate's new cell number programmed in--he couldn't recall the new number...). We disassembled the bike enough for it to fit into the 'Mafia trunk' of the taxi, and I saw Joel off on his way back home.
After that, it was up to me to ride back home solo. Completed the ride without incident, and savored my after-ride Coke. Total distance, 28mi. Total time, 2:45! In retrospect, this prompts me to a) have a look at my chain more often, and b) think about carrying a chain tool. Maybe we could have nixed the bad link (or two), and at least saved the derailleur before things went sideways.
Today I rode with Joel, the roommate of some of my frisbee peeps. Joel's been looking for some new riding routes in the area, so I was happy to oblige, showing him Mercer. Since getting to and from the I-90 bridge (via a couple of different routes) is a useful bit of cycling knowledge to have, I figured it would be a good starting point for him.
We met up at Speedy Reedy at 9am and started heading out. The ride out to the bridge was pretty uneventful, but Joel started having some trouble shifting as we rode up the ramp on the Mercer side, towards the Lid. We stopped at the park and adjusted the barrel retensioner on his rear derailleur, and I prompted him to ride around the parking lot a couple of times to test it out. No improvement. So we had a look at the front, since it seemed a bit of noise was coming from there as well, and he kept throwing the chain off the inside of the small ring. As I looked at the chainrings, I saw the problem right away: a link was badly damaged and about to give way. One side of it was no longer connected to the pin!
Clearly, this was no way to make a lap of Mercer. We opted to double back and head for Triumph in Leschi. Chain fix, no problem. So I started off back down the I-90 bridge again, and looked back to find that Joel had stopped about halfway down the ramp. I rode back up to him to find a grisly scene. His chain had broken while he was simply coasting, and it had lodged itself between his spokes and the big sprocket of his rear cassette. Completely trashed the derailleur, tearing it off the mount bracket. One of his spokes was badly damaged, too, and the chain was inextricable. This reduces a bike to a 20lb., non-rolly weight that has to be schlepped somewhere to be fixed. Sadly, I've been through this drill.
Joel took of his shoes and helmet, and we began the hike back to Leschi. I showed him my 'carry the bike by the rear wheel with a straight arm' trick, so we made decent progress. We walked back to Starbuck's and called a cab (sadly, he had forgotten his cell phone with his roommate's new cell number programmed in--he couldn't recall the new number...). We disassembled the bike enough for it to fit into the 'Mafia trunk' of the taxi, and I saw Joel off on his way back home.
After that, it was up to me to ride back home solo. Completed the ride without incident, and savored my after-ride Coke. Total distance, 28mi. Total time, 2:45! In retrospect, this prompts me to a) have a look at my chain more often, and b) think about carrying a chain tool. Maybe we could have nixed the bad link (or two), and at least saved the derailleur before things went sideways.
posted by Sanford Owings at 5:04 PM
1 Comments:
Ugh that sounds horrible. The worst mechanical failure I've had during a ride is... a crank arm coming off. That was my fault for not tightening it after changing it, and fortunately I had my Alien tool which had an 8mm. I think I'd be in trouble if my chain died like that.
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