When I say emergency ride I mean Emergency Ride. Christy had organized the Third Annual October-Emergency "Burr-cold/Break-bone" Bike-fest. This is a gathering of her work-mates from the Emergency Department and it us usually always filled with adventure (Two years ago Christy mangled the bones of her right foot). They let me tag along, in the plurality of mascot/photographer/Mr-fix-it.
For us, this ride is usually one of the seasonal end-caps for getting the high altidude trails. With snow in the forecast, this ride would be no exception to this rule. Below we have the intrepid bikers after the 2700 foot climb up Spiro trail to the top of Peyuke Hill, which is named for the rather involuntary reflex that originates in the gut after such a grueling climb.
All of my trip attributes were in full showing this trip. Two of us qualified as mascots this trip, as the rest were ED associated persons. The photo above is courtesy of moi. And yes, Mr-fix-it came in handy. One of the bikes at about 10 miles into our 30 mile ride decided to eat its own derailer. As any biker knows, this cannibalistic condition is the catastrophic conclusion of a chain-suck calamity.
With the tension adjust delimiter sheared off, the derailer became "a code," in the ER vernacular. Because none of us had a spare derailer in their back pockets (I did have a spare drop out, though), it was time to amputate the part and make the ride a "Fix-ey." Took us a while to find the right gear cog combination that would allow strait chaining with the right tension. The best seemed to be the small ring up front and a middle ring in rear. Thinking our fix-it work accomplished, the rider jumped on the ride and proceeded down the trail. But 20 feet later, the anaerobic futile cycling started happening with his legs because a damaged chain-link gave out.
Link replacement therapy was instituted and bike elicited a positive response. But full remission was illusion. A few miles later, bouts of episodic gear jumping caused schizophrenic under-empowerment to the complete annoyance of the rider. To cap it off, the small ring decapitated its bolts and fell rattling to the inside. More gear-to-chain matching was attempted and a less than adequate gear combo was made using the crank arm's center ring. Near the top of the downhill, the chain broke again. Since the rider was so close to top and then it would be nearly downhill all the way to the car, the drive train was declared D.O.A. It would be one big 2000 ft coaster, all the way to the bottom.
Baring the occasional (or not so occasional), uncooperative bike, the ride was fantastic. Beautiful fall colors and a perfect mild temperature. A great end to rides high in the Wasatch.
Because it was during the middle of the week, we had daycare for Alexi.
Picking him up from daycare can be quite interesting. Here we have him in a bee costume, which at first glance, appears to be a large afro hair-do.
From the apprehensive expression on boogers face, I am not sure he knows what to think of this new look.
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