Today I says to myself "Self, lets go for a ride." I grab my 1984 Focus and as I'm loading it up I remember - The BB was clicking last time I rode it. Okay, easy to forget, I had a blowout on the last ride and the clicking moved to the bottom of my list. Sigh. Okay, pull the pedal, back out the adj cup...hmm still well greased. Might as well add some more. Maybe it's the 1980s Mavic look style pedals...I'll swap them too. (Cardinal sin #1 - changing TWO variables). Put everything back together, and off we go. Stop at the store, grab some fig newtons, some water, my total is $6.66. I'm not superstitious about stuff like that, so I laugh it off and get to the trail.

Mile 3. - CLICK CLICK CLICK

Mile 9 - Wobble wobble - oh that's new. Crank arm fixing bolt decided to back itself off. I tightened it not 2 hours ago. tighten it as best I can with multi tool. Better turn back.

Mile 11 - Okay, I'm stopping every .25 mile to finger tighten the bolt. This will not fly.

Mile 13 - I stop at a water station, and a group of guys in various stages of kit (some in full gear on cervelos, others on bikes direct bikes and t shirts and shorts) that were riding as a group. One had a flat. They were out of water. the water station was out of water. They had 10 more miles to go, and it was ~100 degrees. Self "your bike may be cursed. You need to stop"

I patch the flat, inflate with my co2 inflater, give the guys two of my spare waters to split, hand the fig newtons to the guy who is talking about not having any energy, and share a power bar with one other guy. Bs'ing with the guys, the talk turns to my bike, and I explain the whole thing, and finish with the crank arm. Nobody has a 15 mm socket

Mile 14 - Forget this, I'm going mono pedal. Take the crank arm off, and finish the ride with my right leg only.





Mile 19 - THANK GOD I'M DONE. My right leg is on fire. However, I'm getting much better at "spinning" instead of "mashing".

Okay bike - You've won this round. Hopefully I did enough good with that ride to get a problem free ride out of her again. A fun story - I figured ya'll are the only ones who would appreciate it.

Crank is toast. Toss the left arm, at least.

I lost a crank arm - the nut flew into the weeds on the trail. I've also lost a pedal. It kept slipping off the spindle and I had to concentrate to keep it on for the last few miles.

Good job helping the others out.

Man, that's the craziest ride I've heard of in a while.

My 60mi was tough today, flatted at mile 11. Forget good times on that ride. Thanx for the grin, I needed that one.

You probably saved the left crank by pedaling with your right leg. Good job.
Next time, blue loctite and a torque wrench.

Sucks. At least you made the best of it and helped out some fellow bikers.

I'm jealous that you are even getting to ride. I haven't touched a bike in weeks. Maybe tomorrow.

Tough ride. At least you made it home still riding, I suppose. It really sucks when you end up walking it.
How exactly does that happen? What happens that causes it to be toast? I have a MTB crank that seems to work itself slightly loose somewhat often.

Is the blue better then red?