Sat 25 March- A Chain Reaction

As I set off to meet the others at the Lodge I noticed that the chain on my SCR was jumping a bit. I put this down to me having made some adjustments to the dérailleur a few days before but when I mentioned this to Josef he immediately spotted a broken link. This meant having to ride back down the hill to where I live in the old town to pick up my Raleigh instead, everyone was getting cold so we all decided to ride down and back up together. We tried to ring Paul B who was meant to be waiting for us at the bottom of battery hill but he had switched his phone off. A couple of friendly riders came past us and they offered to give Paul the message to meet us at my house. We set off, picked up my bike and rode back up (half us us up Barley lane and Half of us up the main road in case Paul b was coming down the hill). Finally myself, Paul K, Josef, Doug were able to set off on the route. Also with us was Andy on his first early bird ride (Paul B was not to be found!) We were following one of Chris Parker's short routes which was a new one for the early birds but with my trusty garmin we only took two wrong turns which was easily corrected. On the way up the hill towards Doleham, Paul K had a puncture. He fixed the puncture only for the new tube to go down as well.The valve of the next spare tube was too short but luckily I had a spare one with a long tube so we fixed the puncture and set off back up the hill. On reaching the top we looked round only to see that there was no sign of Paul!!. On riding back down the hill we saw him walking up clutching a broken chain! fortunately I had a chainbreaker with me and Malcolm had a 'missing link' so Malcolm was able to fix the chain within 5 mins. At last we set off for Stonestile lane, I noticed that my chain was making a rubbing sound every now and again but put this down to grit in the front derailleur, however after 20 yards of Stonestile there was a 'crack' and I was left with freely spinning legs, my chain had snapped. We couldn't believe it as one chain breaking on a ride is very rare but three in one 30 mile ride is unheard of!!! Following a walk (much easier than cycling) up Stonestile, Malcolm again put his mechanist's skills into operation, the chain was fixed using our last 'missing link' and we finally completed the route with a great (if expensive) breakfast in the old town. Phew- what a relief to get back home!

S.C