July 20--Day six of riding

July 20—Day six of riding (98 mile ride) 42.7 miles

Up early to cook breakfast for the crew. We need to leave early to cover our 98 miles before it gets dark. Breakfast was great! Everyone got enough to eat and they enjoyed the potatoes.

I volunteered to one of the sweeps today. Tom T is the other sweep. The sweeps responsibility is to ride at the back of the group to make sure no one falls behind and also to be available to assist riders who need help. Part of the reason I volunteered was to ensure a slower pace for myself after only riding 20 miles yesterday. The good news my friction issue is much better. I applied some diaper rash paste and took additional precautions.

Tom and I stayed around the church a little longer to give everyone a chance to get out ahead of us. The ride began in a heavy midst, which turned into rain. The fist 25 miles were in the rain and it was cold. There was a good headwind as well. Not fun. Tom and I rode very slow. We came across the fist members of our group at a little over mile 14. One rider Jim had a flat. His second one of the day. There were two other riders helping him. They headed out when we arrived and we stayed to help him get rolling again.

Back on the road. Stopping even for a few minutes caused one to get cold. Tom and I reached the first rest stop at mile 25. My front derailleur is not functioning at 100% due to the rain and road scum. I cleaned my derailleur off and that seemed to help a bit, but not completely. The first rest stop had a special treat, a little bakery that made fresh baked muffins, scones, and cookies. It also had hot chocolate, tea, and coffee. I purchased a Marionberry muffin and a hot chocolate. Tom and I stayed inside the bakery to warm up while we ate our muffins and drank our hot chocolates.

Quick trip to the restroom to check on things. Looking good. Time to hit the road for the next 20 miles. The rain has stopped, which is a blessing. Now, if it warm up. Lots of beautiful coastline riding with majestic views of the rocky coast and the lush green hillsides. At mile 36 or so, there was a long climb right along the coast. I ran the handlebar camera all the way up and all the way down. There were sweeping vistas of the Oregon coast on the descent.

I controlled my speed for two reasons: no shoulder to speak of and my brakes were still wet from the first 25 miles. The long descent led to a flat straight and then a shortish climb. Going up the hill Tom was in front of me. I was pedaling when I heard a loud snapping noise and then my pedals stopped. I looked down to see my chain off the front chainring. I thought I had simply thrown my chain. I quickly unclipped my feet before falling over and then I looked back to see if there was a problem at the rear of my bike. When I looked back I did not see my rear derailleur, which is never good. I looked straight down and to my horror I saw my derailleur lodged in my rear wheel. Neither Tom nor I had cell coverage, so when flagged down a motorist. It turned out the motorist we flagged down had been at the bakery earlier in the morning and had spoken with Sher, one of the riders.

The motorist took off to let the van driver know my bike was inoperable and that I would need a ride. While Tom and I were waiting for the van, we took the derailleur out of my rear wheel. It took us 4 or 5 minutes to get the derailleur untangled. The derailleur was completely destroyed, a couple of spokes were bent and my chain was bent. I took some pictures of my trashed derailleur and rear wheel. I took the photos with the warranty in mind, assuming Giant would want photo proof of the major bike failure. The van arrived. I loaded my bike into the trailer and we had to the rest stop, which was about 2 ½ miles away. Each person that came into the rest stop had to look at my bike, hear the story about what happened and a few took photos.

On the way to the next rest stop, I called Scott at River City Cycles where I purchased the bike. I told him what had happened and asked him about the warranty. He said the manufacture warranty does not cover mechanical failure, although this failure appeared more structural than mechanical. Next, I turned my attention to a local bike shop that sells Giant bikes. I found one in Newport, the town were are staying in for the night.

I called Moe's bike shop. I spoke to Moe's son. He was not sure if his dad had the parts to repair my bike. Arrived at Moe's bike shop at 5 PM. Moe took one look at my bike the part that broke, the derailleur hanger, and informed me that he did not have the part. He said there are 150 derailleur hangers. He called his Giant in-house distributor. Giant would not be able to get the necessary parts to him until Monday, which did not work for me. Moe gave me the phone number to a couple of bike shops in northern California where I'll be on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I called a bike shop in Eureka. The employee I spoke with is going to check to see if he can get all the parts necessary to repair my bike.