Evil Spirits

Before my next ride I plan to perform a blessing of the bikes ceremony. I'm not superstitious but after two major mechanical failures on rides I lead, this month, I want to do everything I can to get rid of the evil spirits.  

Today I lead a ride out of Frenchtown to Washington Township NJ. There are actually five townships named Washington in NJ. The one I went to was the one in Warren county. This was instead of going to Bloomsbury which no longer has a good rest stop. This gave me a chance to explore new roads.We did this route.

After doing flatter rides the last couple of weeks I wanted to do something hilly. Like my last group ride I only had a couple other people join me Laura, and Blake. For once there was no chance of rain and the temperature was warm enough to not have to think about needing a jacket or tights. In fact it felt more like a hot August morning than a late spring weekend.

As we headed up hill from Frenchtown we felt the fact that we weren't acclimated to hot weather yet. Although we had climbed up from the Frenchtown and across Rt 78 to Spruce run we really hadn't had any steep climbs yet until we went up Henderson Hill. It was a short climb but at just over 10% it hurt a little. Once at the top we road along some easier rolling hills on some new roads that were nice enough to explore again.

By the Musconetcong river there was a steep downhill. I was the first one down followed by Blake who took it slower. Then we waited for Laura who had stopped because she thought she had a flat. When she came down the hill she was walking next to the bike. She didn't have a flat but had somehow realized that the tire was coming off the rim. I suspect that hard breaking on a hot rim caused the tire to slip or flex enough to unseat the bead. When she took her front tire off it was easy to see the bulge where the tire was not seated correctly. Luckily the tube had not popped out the side.

We deflated the tire which reset it on the rim then pumped back up and continued on. A few miles later Laura was dragging behind and then stopped because the front tire had gone flat. I guess the tube got pinched when the tire got unseated. A quick change later we were on our way the rest stop.

I had decided to go to Washington township because it had a Duncan Donuts and a Deli/Bagel shop. We stopped at the Bagel shop to see if this could be good stop or not. However a block before we got to Bagel shop Blake stopped because he dropped a chain. Even after he put the chain back on the front derailleur was making a lot of noise. When we got to the Bagel shop we took a closer look at the the front derailleur which was behind the big ring and not at the correct angle. We tried to adjust it but could not get it aligned enough to get it to work. That meant we had to leave Blake at the Bagel shop and come back for him. There was a bike shop directly across the street but is was closed. Not closed for the weekend but out of business closed.

After getting something to eat and drink at the Bagel shop (which was average at best so we probably won't come back here) Laura and I set off back to Frenchtown. The way I design the ride was that most of the climbing was before the stop. The only real climb was getting out of Bloomsbury on Tunnel Rd. This is a two mile climb of about 600 feet. It a constant grade so although it is long its just a matter of finding a gear and grinding away. I was really feeling the heat at this point as it was over 90 degrees.

At the top of the hill we meet people from Michael H's ride and gave Blake a call. He was able to get in touch with his wife which meant that we didn't have to go back to get him.

The best part of climbing Tunnel Rd is that you have a three mile down hill on Sweet Hollow. Then mostly more downhill to get back to Milford before a straight run to Frenchtown. We got back to Frenchtown around 1:40 pm and spent some time talking to Michael and a few others before heading home.

I don't like rides when we all the people and bikes I start with don't come back in good shape. Luckily this time is was just a mechanical failure with no injuries. Logically I know these failures are caused by random chance but it still feels like I have some bad mojo going on.