Thank You Mount Holly Bicycles

Every bicycle ride is an adventure and some more so than others. This past Saturday I headed to the pinelands with Herb and Mike M for a long but flat ride. I have been doing a lot of hills lately and wanted to do something flat to work on endurance.

For the most part I do my own maintenance on my bike and try to detect problems before they occur. During my normal quick check of my bike before loading it in the car I saw that the sidewall of my front tire had a small bubble in it. It might have been fine for the 60 mile ride that I had planned but I grabbed my spare tire and threw it in the car. When I got to Bordentown where the ride started I quickly changed the tire and we all went on our way.

Everything was going great until about 15 miles into the ride. I went to start pedaling after stopping for a light and the TOP of my speedplay pedal fell on the ground. Speedplay pedals are the ones that look like lollipops The bottom of the pedal was no where to be found and neither were the two screws that held it together. About a half mile before the light I remember hearing something bounce off my bike. I thought it was just a rock but it must have been the bottom of the pedal.

Mike and I go back and find the bottom half, the metal plate the cleat clicks into and 1 screw. We can't put the pedal back together because we are missing the other metal plate for the top of the pedal and the other screw. Although I have lost a pedal I still have a spindle so I can ride but not real fast and I don't want to ride that way for too long.

At this point we have two choices. We can find a way to fix the pedal or we head slowly back to the start. Mike pulls out his Blackberry, hits the web and looks for a bike shop (Sometimes it pays to have a smart phone). He finds one about 4 miles away. So we head out pass Smithville then ride along Rt 38 to Mount Holly Bicycles.

When I walk in the door the shop owner ask what I need and I point to the pedal. He doesn't have any speedplay pedals or replacement parts but goes in the back to grab a few screws to see if he can jury rig something. I'm figuring worst case I have to buy a pair of SPDs. As I'm walking around the shop a metal plate pops off my shoe. It was the missing plate from my pedal and was stuck in my cleat. With the times I was off walking around looking for the other pieces of the pedal I'm amazed that it managed to stay there until I in the bike shop.

It was a lucky break because now with both pieces of the pedal, both metal plates, and one screw Steve at the bike shop was able to put the pedal back together. He found another screw that fit but was long and stuck out of the pedal on one side but this was OK. Now at least I had a working pedal with the only problem being I could only use one side of it. No big deal.

The guys at the bike shop were really nice and friendly, they didn't even want anything for the repair so all I could do was to thank them and head out back to the ride. The rest of the ride was uneventful. We had a good stop at Nixon's down in Tabernacle and then made our way back to Bordentown.

The incident reminds me that bike shops aren't like a lot of other business. Yes bike shop owners want to run a successful business and make money but most of them love biking and are very knowledgeable and helpful. That's why it is always a good idea to get to know your local bike shop and if you are in the Mount Holly area may I recommend Mount Holly Bicycles.

One other thing I would like to point out is that being able to use Mike's Blackberry to find a bike shop was a great thing and saved the day but what if you don't have a web enabled phone or are not in an area where you can get a web connection. Well the answer is GOOG-411. It's a service that allows you to call an 800 number and do a google search. All you have to do is call 1-800-466-4411 or 1-877-466-4411 and then you will be asked for the city, state and type of business. After that you will get a listing of the closest businesses of the type you want and be able to connect to them or have a text message sent to your phone with their address and phone number. The service is free and is a good number to have in your phone in case you loose a pedal and need to find the nearest bike shop.