Something Went Wrong...

Something seems to have gone terribly wrong. A bunch of us headed out to ride Yankee Springs last night after work for a ride. I arrived as one of the others took off for a pre-spin through the 2 mile warm-up loop. I didn't hurry as I needed to add some air to my tires. I finished getting ready, adding air to my shocks... but I didn't bring my tire pump so I just held off. A few minutes later, the first rider returned and decided to ride a loop before the rest arrive. Swooping through there, I knew I needed to add air. When we returned, the rest of the bunch had arrived and we cooled our jets and gabbed it up a little.

We were off and riding in a few minutes. After a few minutes, the two strongest riders darted off and faded in the distance. Leaving the rest of us chugging along at our own pace. I am still grinding up the slopes only in the big ring as stated in an earlier entry. So our little group goes along pretty much uneventful. A nice, peaceful ride through the woods... oh, and an eerie feeling that was present on the early part of the trail from the DNR's controlled burning a few weeks earlier. The smell of charcoal was still evident in some spots.

When we pop out, we sit there for a little bit and yap it up. I get a "your sandbagging" consensus from a couple of the guys. Hrumph?! They believe I'm at the same level as the fast two... Hrumph?! I mention I believe I'm more in the middle... but now I'm a little offed... so I lead into the 2 mile warm-up loop... for a cool down. I turned on the jets and fling the bike between the trees... scrub speed into the turn, down-shift, accelerate... repeat. I can hear the guys commenting behind me about my bike handling skills. OK... Repeat. Next thing I know, knee into the ground... plant bar ends into the ground. Bump, bump, on my back. Guys are quiet as I am facing backwards at them... arms work, fingers OK, legs move, wiggle toes. Check. Stand up. Helmet visor is in my face. Bike check. D'oh. Severe chain suckage... and the cranks are locked in place. Bad. Check carbon. Check again... seems OK. I ask if anyone has a crank puller since the suck is so bad. Nope (of course not! No one in their right mind carries a crank puller...). So I decide to hike/run back to the lot. I could see the road, but elect to just follow the trail back. Actually a good thing, since I would have meandered the wrong way and ended up at the ranger station instead. We all get back and I try to piece together what happened. The two fast guys also took good spills and drew blood... so I wasn't alone.

From what I've been able to piece together is this: I got some air on a tree root. When I landed, the chain popped off of the big ring and got pulled up and sucked into the inner part of the chainrings. When I landed and my right knee hit, my left leg must have slammed the crank back down which grabbed the chain snaking out of the front dérailleur and pulled it down and essentially locking the cranks in place. Since the frame is mostly carbon, I decided not to "force" the chain out in fear of damage. I plan on tearing the drivetrain down this week and fix the tangled mess as well as take it to the local Trek stealership to let them give the frame a good once over.