monday night after having to work late I was running late
late for my mountain bike team meeting
it is a casual affair
but I still do not want to be late
if I push it I will only be minutes late
only a few minutes late
so I get out of the saddle and start to work the pedals
mashing the pedals like a sororiety sister burning calories on the stair master
only with lets a little more scarred and a little more bruised
just a few strokes forward
still accelerating
not yet back in the saddle
not yet spinning in a groove
I hear it
I feel it
with a strong metalic thud and a smack something popped on my back end
not sure what it was
did not feel like I hit something
was alert enough to know that I had not hit an urban obstacle
no pothole
no random trash left on the street intentionally or unintentionally
nothing
I continue with a few strokes through the intersection
the light was not quite green
but the opening was there
so I went on through before I stopped
without much thought or without much concern
I lifted the back end of my several year old Jamis Nova cyclocross bike
spun the well worn now knobbieless ritchey cyclocross tire
that old cross classic mavic open pro with a standard 105 hub
the wheel spun clean
not even coming close to the Spooky cross brakes
there was no hop
there was no visible broken spoke
I grabbed at the crisscross of the spokes as I moved the wheel in incremental rotations
nothing
the wheel seemed solid
then I played the sound back in my head
as I pictured the sound in my head I knew it was metal cracking
with the riddle revealed I smiled
no I did not smile because I broke my frame
I smiled because I solved the problem in my head
being closer to home then to the meeting I changed my course and headed for home
I rolled slowly
examining the break
watching to see how much flex occured as I coasted down the road
keep it easy fearing that a little flex could bring the now imcomplete drive side of the rear triangle into my rear wheel
got home
grabbed my pedal wrench
pulled the time pedals off the Nova and put them onto the Karate Monkey single speed
and over spun my way into Columbia Heights
arriving at the meeting a little later than planned
hope nobody was offended
will try not to break my frame next month
and
will try to be on time to the meeting
I race with DCMTB a civic minded mountain bike team based out of Washington, DC that is sponsored by City Bikes and Metro Gutter
we just got some new jerseys and new shorts
moving away slightly away from the design of the last many years
got away from orange and red
moved to black and red
it is a good group of guys
some of which happen to be pretty fast
but it not so much about results as it is about riding your bike
the DCMTB Blog
some blogs of some of the other folks on the DCMTB team
http://fatboydeluxe.com/blog/
http://joefoley.blogspot.com/
http://citybikesmike.blogspot.com/
http://bikecentric.blogspot.com/