Another Rose night ride.

Well first off.
My 29" frame is going to be replaced under warranty. Which is good.
The bad. Its going to be January until a new one comes in. So I’m back on the 26 for a while.
The last the mechanic left me with was that he would see if their local rep could do any better on getting a replacement frame sooner. I don’t hold much faith in that.
I’ve learned that this is a chronic problem with the Fisher 29" frames. I wish I would have heard about that before I bought it. The mechanic told me the new frame WILL also break in the same spot eventually. Trek is supposed to address the design problem in the next production year. So they’ll just keep replacing them until I get a frame thats been fixed.
To refresh your memories, I originally got the bike Feb. 2005, but I was off of it for a good 2 months due to injury. And another 2 months of riding were easy ones with me nursing the knee.

I’ve got no idea how long a new frame will hold up under normal riding conditions.

I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it to the Rose last night. I had to switch parts on it to make it rideable on the trails and get it cleaned up. I managed to get her trail worthy in time for the ride.

A shit load of people showed up to ride. I’m pretty sure we were over the 20 people limit that we were supposed to stick to. I could be wrong, I didn’t take an exact count but the parking lot was packed.

So the initial plan was to divide into 3 groups. Faster, moderate, and casual. After my last ride I decided to stop sandbagging and go moderate…atleast at the Rose. And I wanted to ride with my old buddies Jason, Wayne, and Mr. Kegley. A lot of people took off with the fast group, being there were only 3 casual riders left they decided to merge with the moderate.

I held on easily. Running mid pack. As of matter of fact there was one rider in front of me who was slowing me down. I didn’t mind one bit. At least I know I could hang with the moderates. Our group split off from the casuals after about 4 miles. It was good for all of us. We were getting cold waiting for them and they probaly weren’t enjoying the ride trying to keep our pace. Thats how I feel anyways when I’m constantly trying to keep a pace thats too fast for me.

The plan originally was to stick to the old parts of the trails and stay off of the newer parts. It had rained the day before and they were a little soft. I was the only one who realized when we started onto the new trails. I informed the group and a "group" decision to ride them was made.

I should have forcibly made them turn around.

Because I didn’t, thats when the Karma shit latched onto my ass.

I hit a log hard trying to jump it. I made it over without going down and continued on ( while giving myself a pat on the back). The cranks wouldn’t go round. Bad chainsuck?

I’m staring at it trying to figure out whats going on. Then I see it. The large ring is bent at a 90 angle to the inside. I try to figure how I’m going to fix it. Find a rock and try to bang it straight?

Than I remember. I have a cheap swiss army knife with pliers in the saddle bag. Hah, pliers will fix it!
Yank it out. Start bending the ring back. Its working!
Get it to about a 30 degree angle and the pliers break.
SONOFABITCH!!!!1

Right then, the rest of the group has returned to see what happened to me.
Its official, I’m now THAT guy.

Wayne had an idea to use the rest of the destroyed multi-tool that worked to get me going again.

With about 2 miles to go Scudd must have gotten close enough to me while riding that some of my karma rubbed off on him. His lights went out. He made it out though riding between some of the guys with HID’s.

A great ride ride overall.

I can’t wait till the next one.

SEEya.