Chain Snake

Last Friday (5/1) I rode for two hours in the rain and had what was then my best ride of the year. Today, in spite of some setbacks, was even better!

This morning, I went out to get my bike ready for a good ride. Checked the tires ... OK! Filled the water bottles ... check! Got dressed and ready to roll ... check! One last check and I'm on my way. Opps! The computer isn't working! Not a good thing for someone who logs every ride. Now this new (to me) computer has worked very well; however, being in the rain last Friday may not have been in it's best interests! After about an hour of fiddling with it and calling the manufacturer it came to life! I'm off.

Right from the get go I felt an amazing amount of energy. With a pretty stiff headwind I was amazed at how fast I was traveling. My first time check on a typical American River bike trail ride is how many minutes from home to the Sac State Aquatic Center. Typically, I am trying to hit that in about 22-minutes. Today, it was a little under twenty-one minutes. Surprising and refreshing for sure.

Continuing down the trail to my next measuring point, William Pond Park, I was amazed to see that my time was only nine-seconds past one hour. Fantastic. After a short rest I began the trek back to Folsom. With the wind now largely at my back my pace quicken and I was absolutely sure that this was my best effort in quite some time.

Throughout this ride, there were some unusual sounds coming from the drive train. On several occasions, the drive train shifted without my pushing the lever to do so! After shifting to the big chain ring the problem seemed to fade away. It wasn't until shifting just prior to a long ramp up that the noise began again. As I got to the top of a short climb the sound got louder ... and then, the chain broke and my forward momentum came to a halt.

I called Dave L. and he was willing to come and rescue me. Once home, I took the bike to Bicycles Plus and had a new chain installed. The computer was another story. Looks like the old one will be reinstalled tomorrow so I can account for all my rides once again.

Oh, I did see about a three-foot rattlesnake today. In it's honor, I layed my decrepid chain on the bike trail so it resembled a snake.

Don't know if this is worse than the time when my seat post broke and I had to ride a five miles standing up.

I love riding my bicycle!