Saturday, May 23, 2009

notes from Hill Hell Week

Well chickies, I am officially dead today, climbed so many hills this week that I hit the wall on today's ride which also proved hilly.

I was just about pushing my bike and would of accepted a ride with the most spooky character had I been offered a ride. I would have gladly climbed into a stranger's car. He could have had a mask on and I would of gotten in.

Nonetheless we all made it home. We did manage to have a broken chain on Charlene's new bike. We looked back and there was Charlene standing with her chain in her hand. She moved up to us and I looked at her chain and saw that the quick release link had come undone. So I am thinking, oh joy, just get the chain back on and we are set. Well there we are, 4 chicks staring at the derailleur and the chain. Lo and behold, a nice gentleman stops, (he was also on a Spectrum bike as I am) and he helped weave the chain through the derailleur and we snapped the link closed and off we went.

We soon discovered that I had made a mistake in the chain placement in the front derailleur but we chicks managed to quickly fix that ourselves and get Charlene back on the road.

Video below shows the two types of quick release links bike chains have. Type 2 is what I have and Charlene had as well. I know one thing now, I HAVE to learn how to repair a chain on the road. Watch both videos below. I am buying a chain tool and getting a spare quick release link as well. Gonna email Vik and Frank and get some advice.

http://bicycletutor.com/quick-release-chain-link/

http://bicycletutor.com/chain-tool/

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