No Chain!
 

I was riding north on Fair Oaks in Sunnyvale today, and around Tasman avenue I noticed another bike rider ahead of me. Cool. So, as I get closer, I notice the guy's "paddling" on the curb with his right foot to go, that's kinda weird. As I get closer, the guy gets off of the bike, runs with it to get up speed, then jumps on, and falls down on the road! He's over on his side, on the asphalt, then gets up, back to paddling, as I pass the guy I take a quick look, and ... no chain on his mtb!

It's a kind of "skateboarder" looking chubby-ish caucasian teenager, I kind of went smoothly by prepared for a very smooth all-out sprint if the dude tried to catch me for some reason, the guy was acting like he was either one something, or crazy with rage for some reason. I get to the onramp for 237 and wait for the light to change, the guy's made it up the hill and is almost up to me, shows no sign of aggression toward me and no sign of wanting my help either, so I smoothly got my 48x16 outta there.

I know no brakes is hardcore, but this guy was going back to the "draisine" proto-bike days with no drive system!

Haven't you heard of the new style around town?

http://members.aol.com/bicyclemus/bi...s/Draisine.gif

You got it, imagine a backwards black ball cap, sk8er shoes and black t-shirt and pants, and you get the idea. Only acting fackin' crazy.

Bah! I thought this would be a story about a commute ride feeling so good and going so fast that it felt like you had "no chain" (a Lance-ism for such situations). :D

Dude, you are SO out of the loop. All the rad messengers and hipsters are riding "Flintstone" (or "Flintsie" for short) now. Pedals, cranks, chainwheels, chains, and cogs are for wimps and consumerist sheep who don't dare to dream. Flintsie is where it's at.

Lol, is that a new term? I haven't had many moments where I could turn around and say, no chain to the guy next to me and have him understand what I meant. Or many situations where I actually had the breath to.

Hey, when I broke my chain a few months ago, I was doing the same thing on my way home. Riding a chainless bike down the hills is far better than walking.

Sure, riding down hills flintsie is one thing. But flintsie on the flats? Wouldn't it have made more sense for the kid to have walked the bike at that point?

A teenager passed me while I was walking yesterday, he was riding a MBT that had the rustiest drive train I've ever seen (rustier than bikes I've seen at the dump) and two completely flat tires. Maybe there is some new movement we're not aware of.

I wish I had video of this nutso, his falling down and lying on his side for a moment on the road was priceless.

If you were riding that bike you'd probably be frustrated too. He probably had 15 miles to go.
:D

I rode my mountain bike around town with no cranks for 2 months. Good times.

My old MTB has been on my workbench for two weeks while I've struggled and failed to remove the old cup style bottom bracket.

Why bother now? I'll just throw the wheels back on and tell people that all the cool kids are going chainless these days, grampa.

I had this problem. I ended up putting a bolt through the hang-on-the-tool-rack hole on my park BB tool, and through a spider hole on an old 3-pin steel cottered crank. placed the steel arm in the table vice, grabbed the headtube and gave a little twist. I was worried I was going to brake the BB tool, but it worked perfectly.

On-topic:

If you got good at skitching perhaps you could just do that to get around. JB Weld your BB in place in place so you don't accidently pedal while resting your feet, and grab a whole of a nearby cage, and fly away with it. Lassos would help too.