training ride Jan 18 (not)

:(

on my ride out to my favorite training ground, I ride and warm up. Seems to be fine but I dropped my chain AGAIN. It happened twice yesterday. And today it should not have happened. Like it's in the middle of the rear cluster not at the lowest gear and I shift down from my 53 chain ring back to the 39 chainring. PLOP it fell off. whhattt??? even if it was out of adjustment, this shouldn't happen.

dirty my fingers cause I can't get the small chain ring to "bite" coasted to a stop. and MANUALLY put the chain back on grrr....

I'm riding up the hill and I could swear it's skipping?? or was I imagining it? I wasn't pushing all that hard up a small mole hill. short 6% grade. Then I'm riding along a roller-coaster terrain. Again I dropped my chain. I really can't believe it happened again. I get the chain back on and now my fingers are getting dirty. blach!!!

Then I notice that even on the flat, I realize I'm not imagining things. Chain is REALLY SKIPPING!!! :mad:

Forget about the hill climbing sets for today. Ain't happening. I take it really easy comnig home managed to drop the chain for the third time and about 5 miles from home its skipping pretty bad.

About 3 miles from home, there is a set of two lights close to each other and I like to sprint ahead of the cars. Nothing new but today, I almost sucked up the rear deraillure, made loud hideous sound. went through the second light before it turned red and ahead of cars, slammed on my brake pulled to the side to inspect the damage. I think the chain fell off again it got hung up on the rear deraillure. The end of shift cable was nearly sheared off and surprisingly not much scratch on the deraillure body. Tells self. TAKE IT VERY GENTLY HOME!! Last time I pretzeled my rear deraillure was between deadmans pass on highway 395 and Mammouth mtn during a training ride (20 plus years ago).

So if I want to train, I can take my 1980 vintage steel bike with rusted front fork or take my Specialized Transition Pro TT bike. Aluminum frame have a limited life so maybe I'll take my old bike out. shifters on the down tube. rusted head set, rusted gooseneck. cables are okay. Tange #1 Chrome moly frame. Great stuff!!

anyway:

Chain has only 1900 miles. Cie La Vie. New chain. I wanna go back to 9 speed cassetts with fatter and more durable chain. This narrow 10 speed chain is not to my taste :mad::mad:

My chains used to last me 3000 to 5000 miles. but these new narrow chains. Nada!

took my bike in to my favorite LBS. He found and showed me a link with a pin more than 1/2way out (I missed it). So one of the plates on the link was loose, attached only on one end. :eek::eek: no wonder it didn't shift. No wonder, it kept on dropping.

Replaced the SRAM chain with Shimano.

smilingcat

:oAhh!! The SRAM chains are on the weaker side I feel. I ride all SRAM except my chain and cassette. I ride a Shimano chain because I feel they are stronger! I also ride a Shimano rear cassette but only because SRAM does not make an 11-21:-(

That must of been frustrating! I am always so frustrated when a training ride turns into a ride of mechanicals and nothing gets done, I always feel dissapointed for some reason.

Glad you got home safely and figured out the problem

Last summer I had a new SRAM chain with a missing side plate.