Monday, April 11, 2011

400K Brevet Adventures

The CampyOnlyGuy and our Campy-equipped bike survived the San Francisco Randonneurs' 400-kilometer brevet this past weekend ... mostly. One of the non-Campy parts on our bike (a Crank Brothers "eggbeater" pedal) decided to separate from the bike at about midnight as we pedaled up a long hill in the middle of nowhere.

It was about midnight, and a friend and I were starting the climb out of Petaluma. A few miles out, I felt something wrong with my right pedal. I pulled over to uncleat, and ... my pedal came off. The body, anyway, which ended up laying on the ground next to the bike. The spindle was still fastened to the crank. About this time, my friend pulled up and asked what was wrong, and I answered, "My pedal came off!" "Oh," she replied, "That's not good."

So ... I'm sitting there with the pedal in my hand, thinking about having to abandon after riding for 17 hours already, and the logistics of getting back to town. Lacking any other feasible options, I shoved and twisted the pedal body back on, and it somehow worked. Not perfect, and a lot of side play, but it was rideable. In fact, it lasted all the way to the finish, although I played it safe and soft-pedaled up the rest of the hills. I felt like a true randonneur! (In fact, I was ready to ride the damn thing home with my foot on the spindle, although I'm glad it didn't come to that.)

Video (not including the pedal incident) coming soon.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad2

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