Well, yesterday was a cold ride. Sun was out when I got home from my morning walk with the dog, but the fog was starting to roll in. It has a brown, grey cast and is less dense looking than clouds. I knew there was a possibility of rain, but it didn’t show up on my local weather app. Rolling fog and wind gusts are another story.
A little time later, I met a friend for a ride and she was testing out a possible new bike. She had rented it for the day, so I assumed we would take it up in the hills to see how it rode. Sometimes riding in the hills will limit your exposure to weather.
As we were climbing a short and very steep section, I could hear an unusual sound. Turns out her rear derailleur sent the chain into the space between the rear sprocket (the spikey part of your rear wheel) and the rear hub (the center of the wheel. Fortunately my friend was able to safely jump off quickly on the hill.
Now I’m no bike mechanic or bike expert for that matter, but I have never seen a chain do that or a cyclist jump off so quickly, but it was quite a site! Needless to say we decided to return home and limit our losses.
Turns out it was a good thing, because as we’re riding on the flats along the hills, we could see the fog and rain slipping down the hills we were just climbing. Large fog water droplets were hitting us in the face. Meantime, my friend is only riding in one gear, uncomfortable using the rear derailleur to shift gears. As I pulled her home in the increasingly cold wind, I realized some days are not meant for a long ride. Yesterday was one of them.
Perhaps the faulty bike parts were the signal to go home early and miss riding up wet hills in the fog and rain. In retrospect, I think so.
