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10-15-06, 07:08 PM
I was out biking on Saturday with some friends. They wanted to do dirt, so I brought my old beater mountain bike instead of the shiny new road bike. It was painful, but I thought everything would be OK. After all, the mtb had just come out of a tune-up!
The plan was to ride the roads up to Vollmer peak, then take the dirt trails back down. After ~2000 feet of climbing, about 50 feet from the summit at Vollmer Peak (Tilden Park, Berkeley, CA) I'm mashing like crazy going slower than walking up the insane incline... on one pedal stroke I hear a slight crunching noise... this can't be good, next stroke the chain lets go. I managed not to go over the bars (even though I was leaning way out in front of them), but I was too stretched out and couldn't get my foot out. Speed dropped to 0 instantly and I just kinda plopped over on my side. A buddy was following a little close and got tangled up in my wheel as I went down, but he was able to put a foot out. After laughing like crazy we did the 30 second walk to the top.
Between the 3 of us we had zero chain tools. Couldn't improvise a way to get the chain on again. We won't make that mistake again. Rode back to Berkeley with no chain. Luckily it was almost all down hill. Never did get to the dirt :(
Clyde life: You WILL break chains. It's just a matter of time. Bought a higher end chain this time.
-Adam
The plan was to ride the roads up to Vollmer peak, then take the dirt trails back down. After ~2000 feet of climbing, about 50 feet from the summit at Vollmer Peak (Tilden Park, Berkeley, CA) I'm mashing like crazy going slower than walking up the insane incline... on one pedal stroke I hear a slight crunching noise... this can't be good, next stroke the chain lets go. I managed not to go over the bars (even though I was leaning way out in front of them), but I was too stretched out and couldn't get my foot out. Speed dropped to 0 instantly and I just kinda plopped over on my side. A buddy was following a little close and got tangled up in my wheel as I went down, but he was able to put a foot out. After laughing like crazy we did the 30 second walk to the top.
Between the 3 of us we had zero chain tools. Couldn't improvise a way to get the chain on again. We won't make that mistake again. Rode back to Berkeley with no chain. Luckily it was almost all down hill. Never did get to the dirt :(
Clyde life: You WILL break chains. It's just a matter of time. Bought a higher end chain this time.
-Adam