Friday night bike adventure

I've been biking a lot more in the evenings. Especially after I found some great lights for the bike so that I'll be seen by motorists in late dusk and early darkness.

One night last week I got home at 8:30 and then looked at the temperature: 106! At 8:30PM! Anyway... I digress.

So on Friday night I decided to ride a new route. The off-road trails are about 5 miles from my home; I could ride up there, do 1 or 2 of the 6 loops on the trail and then head back home.

All was going fine... the trail was fun, I did the 2 loops and it was about 8:20 by the time I headed home. Then I tried to change gears. This is when something broke. DAMN!

A few weeks ago I ran over a twig in the road and it got lodged in the chain and derailed me. I turned the bike over and and got everything working again. Well, that must have loosened something on the back gears to now cause this breakdown.

Why is it that something breaks like this when I'm the farthest point from home? There was no fixing it this time either.

After walking the bike up to the top of a slight rise in the terrain I decided it would probably be faster to use the wheels and broken bike as some sort of scooter to get home faster. Walking 5 miles would take me much longer.

One does not notice slight hills in a road until you're on a bike that doesn't work. I just had to keep on foot on the pedal and push with my other foot. I'd trade off legs every now and again to not tire one leg out too much. This was a workout!

I was home a few minutes after 9 exhausted and tired. I'll take it up to a shop today.

Fun, fun...!