Single Speed Tom

After five weeks of cold and crappy weather it was finally nice enough, (sort of). to ride on the road again. The road was still wet from rain when I got up to put the dog out but it was sunny and 40 so I made a last minute decision to go to Larry's ride.

There were five of us there including Laura and Ron. It has been a while since I have been on a group ride so it was nice to see everybody again. Larry took out towards Freehold. As we road we talked about some of the rides we were planning for the spring. The roads were still a little wet but we weren't really kicking up any spray so it wasn't too bad.

After a stop in the Battleground orchid head back up through Millstone on our way home. As I was coming down Perrineville road I up shifted and immediately knew something was wrong with my rear derailleur. A quick look back and I saw that I was stuck in my top gear. I coasted down the rest of the hill and stopped in a driveway.

It became clear pretty quickly that the cable snapped. With a little help I was able to wrap the cable around the water bottle cage and lock the derailleur in one of the middle gears. A piece of duct table from Laura helped make sure the cable won't be come undone. This is similar to what we did when Mike M broke his cable in Califon. Luckily I only have 5 miles to go and no real hills.

It was a little strange riding with out the being able to shift. I did reach for the shifter a few times out of habit but really did have a problem muscling the bike up the few small hill I encountered. Having only one gear did make me concentrate on pedaling a little more and helped me remember to pull through the upstroke when I needed some extra power getting up a hill.

After riding home on a single gear I have a better appreciation of people who ride single speeds and understand the attraction but I prefer shifting.