[Bent] Round Valley ride of doom

[Rich Sadler]

The best thing I can say about the ride was, it could have been worse. 
Six of us met for the ride-John Tetz, Don Jacobus with his new moving 
bottom bracket FWD homebuilt, Steve Friedlander, Dick Ludwig, Andy 
Milstein & me (Rich Sadler) All went well until we came to a closed 
bridge over the Raritan. We decided to cross anyway even though the 
footing wasn't so great. While passing the bikes across, Andy slipped & 
fell about 10 feet off the bridge abutment. He looked pretty bad- bloody 
nose & groaning so I called 911. Andy is tougher than I thought, though 
& got up eventually. The ride left just before the cops pulled up, 
leaving me to deal with them without spilling the beans that we crossed 
illegally.
    I caught up with Andy & the rest of the ride in Flemington, where 
Andy's wife collected him. She was understandably horrified & took him 
to the hospital to get checked out. He called me later that evening- no 
broken bones, they stitched up a cut on his ankle, & he's pretty sore- 
what a relief!
    So now we were five. On the first hill out of Flemington, Steve's 
chain broke, & in the process, ripped his rear Derailer apart. We 
weren't able to pry his chain out of the rear sprocket, so we  cut the 
chain, leaving a piece jammed there, which prevented the freewheel from 
working. We took the rest of the chain & turned his bike into a single 
speed. Steve gamely rode the next 12 miles in one gear, taking his feet 
off the pedals on the downhills as they flailed away in front of him. In 
fact he made it up all the hills but the very last, steepest one on 
Allerton without dismounting. John, Dick & Don rode ahead with Steve's 
car keys so that he could come back along the route & pick him up. 
Either they underestimated Steve's fortitude or they stopped in a bar on 
the way back, because John pulled up when we had the worst hills behind 
us & only a mile to go.
    So, not a great MARS ride. While it doesn't rank up with Andy's 
catastrophe, on the way home the clutch in my car started slipping! It 
was just one of those days you'd like to skip.
Rich