Wednesday, August 04, 2010

2010 WNR 12

Abandonee at Moss Landing.
Ed started up before me so I was looking forward to chasing him down. JB hadn't started yet so it seemed like a good beginning. Talked to a guy named Steven on Doncaster and he was looking for a group but didn't know when they were supposed to be there. I said, "Just go, you'll find somebody to ride with."

So just after the dips, the Gruppo Taleo came by with another half dozen riders including blog reader Ward in a good pack and it wasn't much of a grade yet so I hopped on too. I made a joke about everyone attacking me when I buggered up a shift; I'm not sure anybody heard me. Then just a few minutes later, I really did have some shifting problems and suddenly my chain totally jammed up in the back.

Turned out one of the plates had come loose from the pin. While futzing with it on the side of the road lots of people offered their assistance but I was pretty sure none of them would have been any help. Anyway, I have a mini chain tool on my multi tool thingy and managed to get the link out and the chain reconnected after about 20 minutes. Of course it was not one of the links that's generally removable so it was kind of a crappy connection, and now my chain was covered with ditch dust too, so I gave up and turned around; happy I didn't have to walk back to the truck.

I've got a new chain still in the box that I bought a couple months ago. Been telling myself I need to replace it soon. I'm going to have to start listening to myself. I think I'll stick a master link in my saddle bag too.


And maybe some hand cleaner.

1 comment:

Curtis Corlew said...

Ouch. What a pain.