The Family Sideways: Weekend update (very, very long)

Weekend update (very, very long) 8/08/2005 07:41:00 AM

I thought it might be nice to review what my ideas were for the weekend and see what I actually got done. So, from last week's post:
"Riding, Saturday or Sunday": Rode Sunday. More on that later.
"Tax holiday clothes shopping": Nope.
"See a movie D has no interest in": Done and done. Rented instead of going to the theater.
"Work on website, Google Maps, or Phidgets": nope.
"Hang pictures or straighten up place more": Well, not to the extent I wanted to, no, but I did get some cleaning/straightening done. And hung my rear speakers (finally) for the movie-watching.
"Play with PSP": Absolutely.
"TiVo to PSP": Done. Tres simple.
"DVDs to PSP": About halfway there. Found a good freeware ripper, haven't figured out yet how to encode in the format I need.
"Wrenching on the bike": Oh, would I had made the time for this. (again, more soon).
"Watch a lot of CSI": You know that I did.
"Order some pizza": Done. Fuzzy's. I didn't want to go for "the best Houston Pizza" without Dana here, so I went for this local option instead. And a 12er of Shiner. Don't worry - I didn't go on a binge - there's plenty of Shiner left.

OK, so the story you've all been waiting for. I'm looking for a picture to go along with the one above, and I just don't think anything short of taking pictures myself and uploading them will do justice. Yes, it's that good.

So I wake up at 5:45 on Sunday morning (yes, much earlier than I usually wake up on weekdays) to head out on my ride. I had mixed my Accelerade the night before (it always gets foamy and takes so long, and I wanted to refrigerate/freeze the bottles), gotten the cooler together, and some Clif Bars. All I had to do was wake up, get dressed and go. So I wake up, get dressed, and am out the door with bike in D's car in all of about 15 minutes. I'm on the highway by 6:10 and well on my way, though it's at least an hour long drive to where the ride begins (hence my early morning start).
I did this ride last week - 40 miles with 2077ft of climbing (if I had my google maps/topo integration stuff done I could just LINK to the route. Sigh). But I was going to change it around this time and add about 50% of the distance over again - to make it a 60 miler with (approximately) 3k feet of climbing (having to get ready for the Hotter n' Hell in three weeks).

I'm pulling into the area where everyone parks to go on the ride, and I'm the second car there (last weekend I must have been the last car there), and four or five cars pull in as I'm getting ready. I worry about being the first to go and having people catch - and overtake - me, but go ahead anyway. There's one guy in front of me.

About five miles in, I'm about to catch him when he turns around (dude didn't want to be overtaken himself, I guess), and I'm feeling pretty strong - something that bodes very well 5 miles into a 60-mile ride. So I head up the next climb, careful to pace myself so I don't burn up early (nothing like being stranded in TX heat with 20 miles to go and no energy to climb!), and I'm topping a slow, gradual climb.

Now I should take this moment to explain what the road surface is like here. We're not talking Chicago pavement. We're not talking Barrington buttery-smooth newly surfaced roads. I like to describe it as if the DOT laid down a surface of glue (or tar as the case likely is) and then spread a thin layer of gravel over the tar. Press it down, and voila! You've got a level surface that is jittery as hell on a road bike. But it builds character, I guess.

I imagine falling on this stuff and having the skin ripped right off my body with amazing efficiency. Think: giant cheese grater. On 30+ mph descents, dodging TX pickups (OK, not really dodging them, but at least having to be very aware of them), NOT a pleasant idea. But also a very effective skin-removal device. It's like they DESIGNED the roads for this purpose. That's the best way I can describe them.

Now having put that vivid picture in your mind's eye, let me assure you that I'm totally OK - not a scratch. But that's a miracle. Add a car into the mix of what I'm about to tell you and I'm a gooey road-pancake. Seriously.

Ok. So where were we?

I'm just about to "summit" this long, slow (very gradual) ascent, and shift into a higher gear. I start to cruise along on the following flat (I guess you could call it a "plateau", if you're the kind of person who likes words that end in "-eau"), and I'm picking up my pace. I'd have to guess, but I'll say I'm going around 15 mph and accellerating - when all of a sudden I can no longer pedal. Imagine the jarring effect of no longer being able to move your legs after just having finished pushing your way up a hill - a tad unsettling. Now add to that complete loss of motion in the rear wheel - I started to skid out.

It's all kind of a flash (they always say it happens in "slow motion", but for me everything loses clarity and I get tunnel-vision) - all I can tell is: (1) my legs won't move, and (2)I have no control over the bike.

Somehow - I don't know how this happened - my left foot has clipped out of the pedal (don't forget, non-cyclists - we use a mechanism that locks us into our pedals. Man and machine are one, for better or worse. Usually, it's for better. Not on Sunday it wasn't). I won't claim that it was my split-second thinking or training or innate - I think it was just lucky. But the problem was (use your visualization skills, here), My right leg was down, probably at about 6:00 (meaning my left leg, before it unclipped, was at 12:00). So now all my weight is on my right foot (and, of course, the saddle), I'm skidding out of control, and the bike starts heading into the road (Again, I have no control. At this point, speeding TX pickup = instant pancake transmogrification). I somehow maintain my balance, stop about midway into the lane (mercifully there were no trucks, and even more mercifully there was nobody on my wheel to crash directly into me), and remain - miraculously - standing. Some inner ear on this guy.

I'm totally shocked, adrenaline rushing, and (since I'm already headed in that direction) pull over to the RIGHT side of the road (besides, with what just happened I can only imagine it's time for me to start heading in the other direction - 6.3 miles back to my car).

I look down and there's my rear derailleur (example pictured at the top of this post), hanging by its cable. Not attached, as it should be, to where the wheel mounts to the bike (I'll spare any technical jargon I can). It had broken off.

Not being able to think straight, I can't possibly imagine how this happened. I think, simply, that some kind of tension on the chain just ripped the thing right from its mount. (again, I'll post pictures later)

I realize it's time to start walking home and hope beyond hope that some Christian soul will stop his or her speeding pickup to resuce me. There's no way I'm taking my shoes off to walk 6.3 miles on the razor-pavement, but I know that walking in my metal cleats leaves a lot to be desired. I start thinking to myself, "well, at least I can coast downhill!". Right.

I try to walk the bike towards home but the wheel is stuck on the brake - rear wheel TOTALLY out of true (at this point I haven't figured out why the wheel simply stopped cold - it should have freewheeled - coasted - instead of locking up). Still not thinking analytically, I realize I have to cut the dangling derailleur (how's that for alliteration) free from it's tether - the shifting cable.

I pull out my multi-tool and grab a knife (wow - did my other multitool have a knife?), and it's sharp enought to cut through the steel cable (nice!). But now I've got a dangling steel wire coursing the length of my bike. Not a great idea for the coasting I envision doing down the rolling hills.

So, I cut the cable towards the top of the bike, release the rear brakes (so the out-of-true wheel can roll), and start to walk.

Not long after this, the big group that was assembling in the parking area starts to ride by, and as good roadies always do, ask if I'm OK/need help. As they're riding by I tell them that unless they've got a car they're not going to be much help, but thanks, and they keep riding. Really, I didn't think there was any way they could help me.

But they turn around (of course), and offer to ride back to the parking area, pick up a car and come get me. One of them goes off to do this while I wait with the rest of the pack (probably 6-8 of them). With their inspection, I start to realize what really happened. While one of them is telling me I should put the chain on my big ring and largest cog (to minimize chain sag), another notices a sizable dent on my drive-side seatstay (OK, you get a picture for this one). And all of a sudden, it becomes clear what happened.

The derailleur arm was (somehow) sucked into the wheel (spinning at god-knows-how-many RPMs) and jammed up against the seatstay, preventing the rear wheel from rotating, and locking it up. (I'll post a picture of the chewed-up tire along with the rest of them). This served a number of functions: (1) Stopping the wheel from rotating; (2) Denting the frame easily beyond what can be repaired; (3) tearing the derailleur from its mount and destroying it in the process; (4) Chewing up the tire with razor-pavement; (5) ending my ride about 53.6 miles short of my goal.

And, after further inspection, I also came to relized that my skewer (basically the wheel's axle that connects it - with the quick-release lever that makes bike wheels so easy to steal) was also bent in the process. Do your best to try and bend a skewer with your hands. Not gonna happen. There was a lot of force involved here. Any physicists out there that can tell me how much force it would take to stop 230 lbs (approx. me + bike) moving at 15 mph would be helpful.

Ok, this is getting really long. Award for longest blog update ever goes to....

Anyway - I realize that, basically, I now need a new bike [frame]. This is not a good realization to come to. Bikes are not cheap. Frames are not cheap. And while my first inclination would be to re-use the parts that I currently have (to save money), I'm also at the point where I know that to really excel, and to do things right, I need a professional fit - again, not cheap.

And it's difficult to get a professional fit on a frame with different components. In all likelyhood, I guess, I'll have to swap out at least my stem, at most my stem and handlebars (and seatpost). While I want to go the eBay route, I know that's not advisable unless I'm content getting the same frame I had (or at least one with the same geometry - all bikes are different), and not knowing it's actual condition until I receive it. And getting the same frame would only make me content - just that. To be happy I need an upgrade. It's not like this is a passing fad for me..

All of this just means $$$ adding up. Add on to that a new rear derailleur (and it only makes sense to get Ultegra as that's what I upgraded my cranks and front derailleur and cassette to over the winter), and that's MORE money. At least it'd be Ultegra9 (as opposed to the newer, more expensive Ultegra 10).

So I don't know what to do. Or rather, I know what to do but am hesitant to do it. I need to go to a shop and explain my situation, and spend enough time with them to get a proper fit, find the right frame, and see if I can swap my components...

AND I have to figure out how the hell this actually happened. Is it my fault? Is it unavoidable? Is it a faulty derailleur?

Oh, and is my ($175-$200) rear wheel salvageable? I'm thanking my lucky stars that at least I took the time to retension and true that wheel a couple weeks ago - if I hadn't there would have been spokes ripped out for sure, and then what would have happened?

OK. Long enough post for now. I'll take pics later when D gets home (the derailleur is in her car right now) and put them up for y'all to see. (She, by the way, is more behind me buying a new frame than I am... I'm just worried about the money - WE HAVE SO MUCH DEBT!).

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2 Comments:

Anonymous said...

having had the rear wheel jacked 2x, & the cogs getting f*cked because of it (both times), i declare the quick release rear wheel the "worst thing ever to happen to bikes".

also, having the wheels lock up while around cars =! good. 3rd avenue will teach you that right quick.

sorry for the annguish. i hope you got that 12pack immediately after the 'ride'

posted at 9:29 AM

Milaarhus said...

Where are your *subtitles*!? enough with all this bike jargon... geez!! ;)
Sorry to hear about your accident... What a bummer!

posted at 8:04 AM