Crunchy Commute to Bummer Land

Riding home from work today, heading up Eastlake towards the Burke-Gilman Trail, crunching noise emanates from the rear of the steel Ibis, instantly followed by locked up rear wheel. Mr. Derailleur, meet Mr. Spokes. Even though I was in the lowest gear, wasn't even shifting at the time. Damn weird. The results were pretty dramatic....



That my friends, is pretty damn ugly. Wasted '97 era XTR derailleur, chain jammed behind cassette, and severely bent derailleur hanger. It took me awhile to untangle the mess. Plan was to remove the derailleur and convert to emergency single speed to get home. I had all the required tools in my messenger bag. After pulling everything apart, discovered the derailleur hanger was bent enough to rub against the cassette. Incredible. I tried a few cave man methods to bend the hanger back. Insert Dream On by Aerosmith for the correct soundtrack.

A stream of bike commuters buzzed by, since Eastlake is a popular commute route. A few asked if I needed help - including a dude riding a recumbent - I asked if he had an adjustable wrench on him. Score! He had one in his mighty tool bag. The stubby wrench clamped around the hanger gave me the leverage to bend it just enough to clear the cassette. I'll never make fun of recumbent riders again. Well, at least for a few months. Recumbent Dude saved my ass for sure.

Post road side derailleur-ectomy, chain now shortened into pseudo single speed mode, allowing the remaining 15 or so commute miles to be powered by me. Except for the last super steep mile into my neighborhood, that I had to walk; couldn't pull it off with my new "single speed". I was also afraid to really torque on the cranks with the damaged chain, could have easily snapped. That would have just added insult to injury. Or maybe in this case, injury to insult.

Jokes aside, I'm incredibly bummed over this. The entire drive train of this bike needed to be replaced anyway - cassette, chain rings, chain, BB bearings - are all shot. Being tight on dough, I was dragging every mile out of it. Now I've paid the price. Out of all my bikes, this one is the most used by far and my favorite all around bike. It's also the only one currently fitted with fenders, a must for commuting here. Damn, what a pain.

The derailleur hanger is really tweaked, but being steel, think it's repairable. I could probably wrestle it back myself, but I may have a local frame shop perform that operation to be sure everything is back in line. I'll call Davidson tomorrow to get a quote. When I add that cost, plus the drive train replacement, then factor in the flaky left STI old school 8 speed shifter, plus the rear XTR cassette freehub is sticky - a new bike make be cheaper. Ouch.

A new bike in that price range won't be as trick as the old school '97 Ibis Hakkalugi however. I built this bike up in '97 part by hand selected part. The speedo died and was removed years ago. I'm guessing the frame and fork have 20,000+ miles on it. Probably more. Many, many commute rides, some fun rides, and even a 'cross race. It's a damn cool bike. I'll have to weigh out my options.

Bizarrely enough, my carbon Ibis ate a derailleur a few months back, when the replaceable hanger broke off. I've been riding forever and never had this happen on a road bike. Now twice!

I'll wallow in my tears for a short while, then figure something out. Meanwhile, I hope it doesn't rain. Cue up Dream On for an encore...

Back in the Saddle - Part II

To quote an old Aerosmith song, I'm back in the saddle again. Well, commuting saddle anyway. I've been riding on weekends and suffering through the occasional trainer session in the garage; however, the wheels fell off the commuting wagon many months ago. My lamest winter in years. That's been rectified as of today to kick off the Commute Challenge, me being Team Captain of Team Jerckx - that's our official team name - little wordplay on Eddy Merckx. I'd feel kinda lame not rolling it out on kick off day, even if the weather was in the 40s and raining. Yes, a wet 17 miles to work it was.



Commuting Tip #42: Spare PC makes an excellent dryer for wet bike clothes. Disable screen saver and/or hit keyboard throughout the day to keep the heat cranking. Rotate clothes a bit after a few hours for even drying. Presto, warm and dry clothes for ride home. Horrified look on coworkers faces included at no extra charge.

Exhaust fan of PC makes a nifty shoe dryer. Being a Mac fan, I always knew PCs were good for something. Before you get your geek tizzy all lathered up, I've been involved with PC and Mac support for decades now. Pros and cons to both. The old PC does make an excellent shoe dryer however...

The 17 miles home only offered a spritz of rain. I didn't miss the pair of sloshy Sidi shoes at all. Here, my trusty Ibis Hakkalugi rests against a public notice informing peasants a 2 mile stretch of the Burke-Gilman Trail - one of the most used trails in the U.S. - will soon be closed for 6 months for renovations. No detour info provided. Sweet. Besides being my commute route, about a zillion people use this trail on sunny weekends. The summer sounds like a perfect time to close it. Excellent idea. Detours around this will not be easy, since a mixture of confusing and/or busy roads are the only option. For commuting, I'll probably just use the bus lane of the busy road mentioned (no shoulder on this road) and time trial for 2 miles to make it quick as possible. I'm betting other bike commuters will be pulling off the same commando operation.

Now that my commuting slump has been officially busted, let the riding begin. My body says it's February, the calendar says it's May - time to get moving. Ramping up from zero to 170 miles per week (my full commute schedule) takes time. With my lame winter, late start, and Commute Challenge now in full swing - I'll be rushing that pace a bit. It'll be fun and painful at the same time. Let the commuting wheels start rolling.