What could be better, brilliant weather forecast, sunny day with not much wind and all day to enjoy cycling the 100km Dorset Coastlet cycle event.
Set off promptly and took it steady up the first serious climb to the top of Creech Hill only to find that the road was closed because the military had decided to close the coast road for a bit of unscheduled weekend gunnery practice.
A bit of a blow, but manageable, we (and all the other riders) would just have to go back down again and around a longer way to reach Lulworth Cove, the next Control Point.
Zipping down the hill, shifted into the big ring and because of the bounce on uneven road managed to drop the chain off the ring. Stop, put it back on and set off again (couple of minutes at most) you would think.
Not today – the short version of what happened, ’cause long one is too painful to remember.
Chain bounced off road under rear wheel, where it was grabbed by the tyre and wrapped to the nearside chainstay – result:
Rear derailleur wrecked
Nearside disc bent
Front shifter pulled out of alignment (not terminally broken)
Paintwork not improved
Chain under locked up rear wheel ploughed a 20m groove in road tarmac
Two skid marks from front wheels in desperate attempt to bring it all to a stop.
Needless to say the chain was destroyed too
Very expensive, end of ride, needed chain-splitter to carve out bits of chain before even starting to remove damaged components.
Sheila hitched a lift from a passing car into Wareham and took a taxi from there to where our car was parked, while John sat on the roadside taking Greta to pieces.
Several days later we took bits of Greta to friendly bike shop (Chase Cycles) near to Portsmouth to discuss repair and replacement parts. After a painful big hit on the credit card we now await various new components coming from various parts of the world (thank goodness for the internet for sourcing hard to find bits of kit).
Set off promptly and took it steady up the first serious climb to the top of Creech Hill only to find that the road was closed because the military had decided to close the coast road for a bit of unscheduled weekend gunnery practice.
A bit of a blow, but manageable, we (and all the other riders) would just have to go back down again and around a longer way to reach Lulworth Cove, the next Control Point.
Zipping down the hill, shifted into the big ring and because of the bounce on uneven road managed to drop the chain off the ring. Stop, put it back on and set off again (couple of minutes at most) you would think.
Not today – the short version of what happened, ’cause long one is too painful to remember.
Chain bounced off road under rear wheel, where it was grabbed by the tyre and wrapped to the nearside chainstay – result:
Rear derailleur wrecked
Nearside disc bent
Front shifter pulled out of alignment (not terminally broken)
Paintwork not improved
Chain under locked up rear wheel ploughed a 20m groove in road tarmac
Two skid marks from front wheels in desperate attempt to bring it all to a stop.
Needless to say the chain was destroyed too
Very expensive, end of ride, needed chain-splitter to carve out bits of chain before even starting to remove damaged components.
Sheila hitched a lift from a passing car into Wareham and took a taxi from there to where our car was parked, while John sat on the roadside taking Greta to pieces.
Several days later we took bits of Greta to friendly bike shop (Chase Cycles) near to Portsmouth to discuss repair and replacement parts. After a painful big hit on the credit card we now await various new components coming from various parts of the world (thank goodness for the internet for sourcing hard to find bits of kit).
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