The noise a bike makes when the chain goes off the inside of
the block and jams, bringing the mech into rapid and
catastrophic contact with the spokes. Result: one snapped
spoke, one bent rim, one siezed mess of chain, mech and
wheel, one bent hanger and M5 screw, a comprehensively
nurdled rear mech and one thoroughly twisted dropout.
It took about 15 minutes of hard graft with chain tool,
spoke key and a handy discarded rail key[1] before the
bike was rendered rideable, albeit with the back brake
left unhooked.
I can afford to be sanguine about this incident, plainly the
result of woeful maintenance and ignoring the warning signs,
because (a) it was a nice day and [mainly] (b) it was not
one of our bikes, but that of some random bloke we passed on
the Phoenix Trail[2]. Last seen proceeding at a stately pace
on the third sprocket, from which I had advised him not to
try changing under any circumstances due to the
comprehensively nurdled mech.
In other news, Pete is getting along really well with gears
now, he's taken to them much quicker than Michael did. He
can make it up most modest hills even with poor surfaces. He
rode the full 15 miles from Thame to Princes Risborough and
back, and his little legs did not give out once, although
mild bribery was required at one point.
We particularly enjoyed the signal seats - seats which flip
up and are linked to a stylised signal at the top of a pair
of steel posts. Seat down, signal at Danger, seat up,
signal at Clear. And the animal sculptures on poles were
pretty good, too. Lunch at Mia Capri Italian restaurant in
Thame, highly recommended (but not cheap; there is a pizza
place next door which looked cheaper but I fancied the
fresh pasta).
I also missed my opportunity to tell the bloke from Sustrans
that the loose gravelly [censored] with which they have taken to
covering their tracks is a work of Stan, very offputting to
novice cyclists and a [censored] on road tyres.
[1] One of these: <url:http://www.trainweb.org/railwaytechn-
ical/Bullhead%20Track%20closeup.jpg>
[2]ustrans.org.uk/webcode/Mappage.asp?bResList=1&xMapCoord=-
0.971641&yMapCoord=51.745717>
- click the letters along the route for pics of the Sustrans
sculptures and things.
Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
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88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University