What to do when your chain breaks?

You're nearing the end of your ride, 3 miles from home you start up a steep climb and all of sudden.... POP.... you're pedaling and not going anywhere. This happened to me on today's ride, a drizzly 35 degree affair. In my case the chain on my fixed gear broke at the universal link. I walked up the steep part of the hill, and thought about whether I should try and walk the last 3 miles to my house in my bike shoes or call someone for a ride. I thought about rolling back down the hill to Frenchtown, where I could probably borrow a chain tool from Cycle Corner, but my guess was that the shop was closed, being that it's the middle of January.

Then I remembered an article that said you could make temporary fixes that would get you home. A broken chain could be wired together and while you can't make a complete pedal stroke, you can "ratchet pedal" to get yourself rolling, which is still a lot faster than walking or waiting for a ride. OK, all I needed was a piece of wire or a heavy paper clip, right? Never mind that in a rural area of Frenchtown the side of the road is not exactly littered with paperclips or metal wire. It was then I noticed the house on the corner that had about 50 little flags around the perimeter of the property. The flags are used to train a dog to an electric fence and each flag is held by a nice piece of strong metal wire. I snatched up a flag, folded it appropriately and tied the 2 open ends of the chain together. Note, because I ride a flip-flop hub that was possible, I switched from the fixed gear to the freewheel sprocket (You can't ratched pedal a fixed gear).

Armed with my "repaired" chain, I was able to pedal a half stroke back and forth. Probably looked ridiculous, but this did get me the last 3 miles back to my garage.

Do you have a quick improvised fix? Email your stories to me and I will incorporate into my next post!

When progress fails

What is progress? You would think that progress is moving from some unwanted to state to an improved state or state of perfection. Is that really the case with mountain bikes? When the mountain bike first appeared in the late 1980s, it offered an alternative to a skinny tire road bike. With its upright position, smaller wheels and wide knobby tires a fun machine was created. Adults could feel like kids again, riding on grass, trails or dirt, jumping rocks or branches along the way. But as the years passed, something very strange happened. The basic design of the mountain bike changed to incorporate suspension and with that the bikes became heavier and more complicated. Bikes first appeared with front suspension, which did not change the look that much, but when rear suspension appeared, suddenly the bikes appeared in all kinds of configurations. You could hardly find these mutant bikes attractive.

The early mountain bikes are now sought after, especially the higher end machines. I put a GT Karokoram Elite on Craiglist and within an hour or two several people wanted to come buy it. I had no idea. Could an old mountain bike be better than a newer one?

I currently have two mountain bikes- the first is the GT from 1992 or so, it has a 7-speed freewheel and early shifters that have a single knob. It has uncomplicated cantilever brakes and a U-brake booster on the rear wheel. Lots of stopping power. My newer mountain bike is a specialized FSR XC, full suspension. I bought that one in 1999 or so. I cannot ride the Specialized because the rear shock won't hold gas any longer and I didn't want to spend $200 to replace the FOX vanilla shock. Additionally, the Specialized has rapid fire shifters, where each shifter has two buttons and up and a down. These shifters don't work any more, they only shift through half of the gear range. I am sure the shop will tell me that these can't be serviced. So maybe the newer mountain bike needs $350 of work. Meanwhile the older GT still rides!

It is interesting to go to Walmart, Costco or other mega stores where they sell bikes and see the cheaper mountain bikes... 24 or 27 speeds, full suspension and all junk. The average customer at Walmart, who does not know bikes, would think that more gears is better, and more suspension is better. But the bike industry is doing the value minded customer a disservice, by not offering a stripped down bike, much like my early 1990s GT- for a lower price. Now that would be progress.