[Bent] Round Valley ride of doom

[Bob Kaplan]

Hi Rich- I was bummed that I couldn't make it last week. Sorry that you had
so many problems; but glad that no one was seriously injured. I've been
riding for over 50 years; and unfortunately have had rides like yours- with
worse outcomes. But, while broken chains and slipping clutches are nothing
new to me, falling off of bridges is a first! Hope that I can meet you soon,
and  join you on your next outing.
Cheers- Bob

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 8:33 PM, Rich Sadler <richsadler at comcast.net> wrote:

> 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
>
>
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