"My chain's messed up, dad..."

Thursday, September 29, 2011

I’m no bike mechanic, but I can usually handle the simple repairs and tweaks on a bike so when Jack said his chain had come off on his bike, I figured 2 minutes and good as new. How wrong I was. It was inexplicably twisted into a knot around the pedals axle. It seemed humanly impossible, but we’re talking about a very talented lad here. I took the derailleur off to loosen tension on the chain an then went to remove the chain rings…which can’t be done on this model. After 30 minutes of some beautifully phrased expletives, I packed it in the car for a ride to Performance Bikes.

Geoff at Performance removed the pedal and was able to get things back in order. I don’t have the tools he used and so didn’t feel too badly that I hadn’t succeeded. “Your son has a gift for making a mess of bike chains. Has he ever considered cleaning up the bike?” Clearly he doesn’t know Jack. “I’ve discussed the value of keeping it in the garage when it’s raining, but sometimes the door is down when he arrives home and it would be really tough to punch in the four-digit number while holding his bike up for the six seconds it would take…so he leaves it out front under the overhang…which will keep it dry if it’s not raining,” I reply, knowing I’m going to have another conversation with Jack on the subject. I’ve gotten him out of bed on a couple of occasions to go out and put the bike away figuring he’d hate it so much he’d just put it away when he gets off. I suppose I expect him to be the perfect kid I was…and really…that’s asking a little too much of any child.

I talked to Geoff about his deals on light-weight carbon-fiber framed bikes. He’s got some good ones, but the price tag is still too high for someone riding a perfectly functional aluminum bike. We did discuss building one using the Dura Ace components from the cracked frame of my Trek 2000. He suggested bringing it in this winter once things quiet down and maybe they can work something out. The components on that bike went for $1,500 and I hate to think I’ll never use them again.

I went to the park for a short run. It had actually stopped raining for a few hours and I considered riding, but thought I’d better try something else for a couple of days to be sure the dizzy spells were gone. The run went smoothly and I again ran fast and strong with little effort. The knee felt fine ins spite of all the climbing from last week and I may try putting some runs together to see how it fares. The water in the creeks was high and if the forecast holds true, I may have trouble getting in here tomorrow for a Survival Workout.

Run workout: 32 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 150 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 500.