At the worst possible point in a ride....down at the bottom of a hill at the river's edge with help a few miles away, my chain came off.
With a new bike and no knowledge (yet) of how things work I bent over the bike and pondered the situation. It seems a very small bump from the rear pannier did the dirty deed. The chain was off the front.
Harkening back to the 1960's bikes that I knew something about, I thought I was sunk and would have to push the bike for a few miles. I seem to remember there being no way to re-hook up a chain without major surgery on my old (new at the time) "English Racing Bike" as my father called it.
However, I was astonished to notice on this bike (Trek 7.6 FX) that if I turned the pedals backwards slowly I could restring the chain and suddenly it was all together again and worked perfectly.
Doesn't this mean that my chain is too loose for it to be so easily re-strung? It's a brand new bike (2 weeks ago with 45 miles on it so far) so maybe things loosened up?
Fortunately my LBS is open tomorrow and I can get it checked out but I'd like your opinions for this novice who can take her car apart but who is still mystified by my bike chain.
Also fortunately there are a couple of local groups offering training on bike maintenance which I'm taking as soon as possible.
Thanks for your comments.