SBP, you need to start getting out again, real soon!

I have no idea where the bearings went. I happened to see one of them. Didn't have a magnet, nor the tools to reassemble it. Didn't have any gum either. Nor Gumby.

I did my commute again yesterday (Did I mention yesterday yesterday? I think so.) and today. This morning I stopped just after entering the MM in Arlington to take off my balaclava, and just as I was getting started a voice over my shoulder called out "On your left" and a group of seven cyclist went by. I fell in behind, we crossed one road immediately, and they took off. There were four guys in front decked out in full kits and riding head-down in a tight quad formation, two more guys not so stylish, and one girl, I mean woman, spinning a cadence much faster but trailing.

A quarter of a mile later I caught up with her and kept hearing her coughing. She was slowing, obviously having difficulty. As I went by I asked if she was with them and was she okay. She answered yes and she'd be fine. I wasn't sure what "them" meant, all six or just the two. The four guys in front were moving, the next two guys seemingly not so fast. I caught up to them and asked if all seven of them were together, they said yes. I told them they were losing one rider, that she'd dropped back. By now she was 200 yards back. They looked back, realized what was up, and slowed or stopped. But the four in front were oblivious, head-down, cranking.

So I took off after them. It took me maybe a quarter of a mile with me pushing my 42 year old UO-8 with its bottle generator engaged and them riding new CF, but I finally caught them. (He!) I called out that they'd lost a rider. One guy asked "What?" I said the girl back there was having some trouble and they'd lost her. Ah, they figured it out, slowed and I think turned around. I took off, figured I'd done her, and all of them as a society of seven, a nice service. I never saw them again.