Another wreck another busted spoke

NappyT — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:39:45 +0000

I rode Sycamore Canyon with a few friends Saturday afternoon. It was going to be a relaxed ride with a few friends. It turned out to be me breaking a spoke and walking out of Sycamore Canyon. We were on our way back from doing our loop when I had toseparate from the group to make it back to my house for a cookout. I was about halfway between the south gate and the rangers station when I heard an eerie but familiar sound going t’ing, t’ing, t’ing. I wasn’t sure what it was but I knew it wasn’t good. So a few seconds later my drive train seizes and I am over-the-bars. So I dust myself off and pickup my bike to see what the hell happened. I see my chain is behind my rear cassette and I have a single spoke blowing in the wind. Best I can figure is the spoke broke and was making the t’ing, t’ing, t’ing noise. The only thing I can figure happened after that was the spoke most have gotten caught in the chain and/or cassette causing the bike to seize up and thus send me over-the-bars.

Being halfway between the south gate and the rangers station I figure I’m in luck I’ll hike-a-bike to the ranger and get a ride out of the canyon. Soon as I see the ranger station I see the ranger…driving away in his off-road kart. I tried to get his attention but the kart noise drowned me out. I tried to catch-up with him until I saw him make a turn towards the Ridge Trail which wasn’t the direction I need to go. I figured I was going to end up walking out of this place alone. Worst part is on any other day it would not bother me. Saturday I had a group of friends and family coming over to my house for a cookout that I was hosting.

I had just about reached my truck before one of the guys I was riding with Scott caught up. (I wasn’t that fast I just took the short route home to save time and they took the long route.) As we were making our way to our trucks I heard the rangers kart coming up the trail. Seems my brother-in-law Jeremy was getting a ride out because he was tired. Any other day I would give him crap but I was bummed about my bike and just in a hurry to get home.

Today I took my bike into the shop to have the mechanic Morgan take a look to see if there was any damage beyond the broken spoke. He gave me a little crap being how a few months earlier I had busted a few spokes and broke the rear derailleur hanger. He looked it over and said that beyond the broken spoke everything else looks OK. I had banged up my rear derailleur when the hanger broke so it was already on borrowed time but he said he will let me know if he has any problems tuning it up. So it looks like I might get away with a $30 fix. He said my bike would be ready tonight so I’ll wait and see if he finds any other problems. I was a little rough when I was trying to remove my chain from behind my rear cassette. I wouldn’t be surprise to find a few extra spokes needing to be replaces or damage to the chain, cassette and/or rear derailleur. I’m just hoping for the best.

It was shaping up to be a great ride and it was until the breakdown. Looks like my old Superlight is going to be the sweat heart for tomorrow’s Lake Hodges ride.

NappyT's Ride Reports

Another wreck another busted spoke