We don't need no stinkin' derailleur! (long)
Here's the ride plan: we all meet in Enumclaw, have breakfast and then start up the mountain. It's about 15 miles to Greenwater, and from there another 3 miles
before we get to the "Startline" for the Menage a Trois race that we have planned for October. I've never raced, and I have never ridden any of these hills, so this practice ride is very important to me even though I am totally intimidated.
OCtober 1 I will be in this race on the back of the tandem of one of the strongest bicyclists in the state... But today, it's my DH on the front and me on the back of our 40 lbs+ burley rock and roll tandem (sort of like a double mountain bike)
We ate breakfast with everyone else, and were ready to ride when they were but as i mounted the saddle, the DH is saying "give me a pedal, give me a pedal" but i couldn't because the pedals were just spinning. the chain was off... which was odd since it was ON the last time we rode.
My DH always carries rubber gloves so his hands won't get dirty while handling chains, but of course, he just figured he'd just shove the chain back on and it would be fine.
It took several expletives and by the time he got the chain on...he had VERY VERY dirty hands.
So we got probably 500 feet up the road (yes, uphill immediately) when the chain came off. (one of our team waited for us, but at this point, we shooed her away because we could tell that we were never going to catch up with the rest of the guys). He got the chain on again, at this point observing that the derailleur was not quite acting right, so he fussed with it...
We rode for another mile, hearing all sorts of weird noises and clicks, before DH decided we weren't going anywhere fast, and turned around. We coasted back down the hill and put the tandem back onto the car and drove to Greenwater, where everyone would be stopping for a potty break..
At Greenwater, where I watched caramel corn being made for the first time in my life, DH took the bike down and discovered that a pin or a bolt that normally holds two parts of the derailleur together was missing on ours.
He asked me to scout out something to fix it with and i did, moments later.. i found a perfect cotter pin.. He jammed it in there and took the bike for a test ride... nope, he said, it doesn't shift right. So as he was getting the bike back onto the car, our friends all rolled up. (Did i say that all but two of the 10 of us on that ride are Randoneurs?) They swarmed the bike and before I knew it, they had decided that DH was right, the Derailleur was toast, but couldn't we ride without it? DH said it would be pretty tough, we'd only have 6 speeds.. and besides, how would we get it off? he showed the most mechanical of the bunch the little chain tool we owned, which did not work with the older type chain on our bike which did not have a master link either.. well, did anyone else have a chain tool? Certainly, our ride leader, known for carrying all sorts of tools whipped one out faster than you can say "derailleur" Before we knew it, they had the derailleur off and the chain back on... on the lowest chain ring, because in front of us was some hill climbing. DH is shaking his head, this is going to be a nightmare he says...
So we got on the bike and watched them all leave us in the dust. The bike was so much quieter without that derailleur.. I marveled at the birds singing and even the sproing of the tires when we hit a small stone... Then we were there... at the start line of the race... Okay, it's 10 miles of mountain road... 2100 feet of elevation, 3 hills in all but there's one hill, it's called heart attack hill, you might have to walk it (GULP!) it's a 12% grade and it's about 1 mile long.
We stayed in that low chain ring for the next 10 miles. When everyone else was able to take advantage of their 27-30 gears, we just had those 6... so we couldnt go very fast unless we were coasting .. We got to that 12% grade and my heart sunk, i was so sure we were going to have to walk. DH said "I'm not blowing my knees out... if it's too much, we walk" of course i agree, i dearly love his knees... And we pedalled right up that hill.
That's the good news. The bad news? the downhill was 12% grade too!!
so we had a big hill to face coming back too.
In all, instead of riding 60 miles, we only rode 28. but we got the toughest 28 miles in at least. When we turned around, DH put the chain onto the top chain ring so we could get some speed.. but the bike didn't like that and what we ended up with was middle chain ring.. (it kept falling back to that) and when we got back to the biggest hill, it magically fell back to the lower chainring!
So we managed to do the 28 miles without a derailleur! and got lots of attaboys for managing to do it.
and the 50% chance of rain apparently stayed in the north, because we never saw a drop.
We all met up in a Mexican restaurant in Enumclaw and ate a dynamite dinner...
