Busted!

<===Not the "chainless ride" I was looking for!

I decided to roll the Raleigh XXIX+G yesterday with the excellent WTB Stout mounted up. Got some muddin' in on the ride in which the Stouts handled just peachy.

On the way home though I remembered why I hadn't ridden this rig in a while. The ISIS bottom bracket was going out. Crunch! Pop! Every once in awhile I'd feel it. Then a click started up. The chain started jumping gear and then wham!

The derailluer busted off the aluminum hanger just like it was designed to do, thankfully. Nothing wrong there, but it smacked the seat stay and took off a bunch of paint. Of course, I was left walking the last mile in to the house. Cool thing: A "regular joe" on a Huffy asked if he could lend a hand. Whelp, the damage had been done, so I just waved him on. But that was nice I thought.

So, now the questions started rising up in my head, what about doing this? I could try that. You know, scheming in my head thinking up what I could do now that I have the opportunity. One by nine it? Single speed, but how? Fix it back as is? What about paint?

I think 1 x 9 will win out and probably painting it is in it's future too. Stay tuned!

Trans Iowa final recon today. Certain situations have arisen that require it. At any rate, the folks freaking about last minute details will have something to add to the files. I'll be audio-posting some course descriptions later. Stay tuned for that.

I'll be driving The Dirty Blue Box and it'll get tested. Raining now and it looks to be doing so for a bit yet. Gritty gravely crapola should prove to be the demise of my faltering brake pads, but we'll see. I'll try to take it easy on 'em!

Late Update! I ran into Rich Kelly who blogs the Interbike Times blog at Sea Otter last week. He had the craziest idea: Put me on video. You can see it here if you dare!