Pacific Northwest - Ride 542 - Mount Baker Hill Climb

Thanks to all for the words of encouragement as I walking my bike five miles to the summit. I was the big guy in a Fat Cyclist jersey on a mountain bike. I wasn't cooked, just had a broken cable guide that couldn't be field-repaired. Hike-a-bike sucked, but not getting that sweet looking downhill was even worse. One of my buddies had an even worse day, bunch of loose spokes and bad wheel wobble around 11 miles in. He had to thumb a ride back to Glacier.

Great ride though! I'll be back next year!

Good on ya for hiking it to the top!

Was it a shifter cable guide that broke? (I'm going to guess "yes" since you hiked it to the top and rode down, and probably wouldn't do that with a bum brake!)

A front der. will naturally swing to the smallest ring without any tension, so you'd be OK there. The issue become the rear der. which unless you have one of those new "bottom normal" getups, a slack der. cable will natually swing to the smallest cog.
The rando solution is to get in there with your philips head screwdriver and fart around with your high-adjust screw, and force that puppy into the middle of your cassette so you can still ride. If it's not the chainstay cable stop which is broken, another option is to snip the cable at the top and pull it from the stops all the way to the chainstay stop. Lean the bike on the non-drive side, use your foot to hold the derailleur at the largest cog, pull the cable tight and tie a knot in that sucker close to the stop. You can then use the high/low-adjust screws to center everything up right. Snip the remainder of the cable and you're set; you can maybe even 2-speed it with the inner and middle rings up front.

This was the guide right under the bottom bracket. We tried to work on it up top to keep the cable out of the crank arms but didn't have much of anything to keep it in its place under the bottom bracket. Got to go downhill in a truck since I couldn't pedal the 14 miles of rollers after you get off the mountain. I think this was primarily the bike gods telling me to go get a new bike and take repair classes. Obviously they don't read bike forums and didn't get the memo that I'm going shopping in a week or so.

If you carry BIG zip ties, I've seen someone use them around the bb shell with the square "head" ends at the bottom as a cable guide.

Keep us informed of what you're checking out at the shops in the next couple weeks!

Check out Mark T.'s (from SiR) page on FB at his photos from the Last Chance 1200k last week. (I think it was) Ian S. busted his rear drive side hub flange/shell and they held it together with zip-ties for the last 100 miles!

I did remember seeing you as I was headed back down. Glad to hear at least you weren’t cooked and that you made it to the top. Can’t beat the view after a hard ride.

The ride was tough – I think after the mile 14 rest stop the route was uphill the entire time, no flats or downhills at all. Nice Category 2 climb.

The one complaint that I do have is that the email from the race organizers said that the rest stops would have Clif Shot Blocks and maybe some food but there was only water available. Because of that I only brought minimal amount of gel and with about 5 KM left I was starting to bonk due to lack of food.
Learned my lesson and will plan on carrying enough stuff next time around.

Great job making it to the top! think I saw you crossing the finish line, I can't imagine walking a bike up the last 5 miles would be much easier than riding(way to stick it out).

This was my first year doing this ride...I recommend it to everyone who likes to climb, a category 3 then a 2. What a blast!

Any one have pictures? A beautiful ride.