Most way home then disaster

Stayed overnight in Hereford with a plan to cycle home - so stuffed the bike in its bag and shoved it in the car boot on Saturday.

Pulled it out on Sunday after a country walk - but immediately realised something was wrong.  When I changed up to the biggest cog on the back wheel the hanger and jockey wheels were hitting the spokes.  It looked like all my stuffing and shoving had led to the rear hanger becoming bent.  It now went too far over in top gear and hit the spokes, whilst no longer being able to get into the smallest gear, despite my tinkering.

I continued on anyway - resolving not to use the biggest cog for fear that the whole thing would get caught up in the spokes.


Food stop on bridge over A49
Cold day.  And hilly, with dirty muddy lanes.  Outside Ludlow stopped to eat a biscuit, and then went up a 14% grade hill - good distance too.  This made me think about hills for the first time this year - and resolve to look into those Sram Apex 32 teeth rear cogs.  Currently on 27 and its not enough.


Ooops, jocky wheels into spokes
means whole rear changer
comes away
Later, going up a much shorter hill but perhaps being a bit tired I put it in the biggest cog I have, heard a clunk and then a tearing/grinding - and knew without looking down that the rear hanger had gone into the spokes - and that I was in a world of trouble:

Didn't know where I was, cold even before I stopped and with a bike that was completely broken.  40km from home.

I called my partner to get her to come and pick me up - having discovered my location from a handy planning permission notice on a gate.

Binder twine to the rescue
And then set about trying to mend the bike.  Pretty clear I was going to have to convert it to single speed so shortened the chain and then found some binder twine to tether the snapped off gear changer and hanger to the frame.

My new single speed...
So now set off amongst the rolling South Shropshire hills on my new single speed - always wanted to try a single speed.

A few more miles and I managed to hook up with the rescue service, and home to a log fire!

Aside from taking the opportunity to fit better gears, I will also need to have a think about how to deal with this sort of disaster another time - when rescue isn't likely.

Most way home at Garmin Connect - Details