up & down

saturday's road ride from art museam was a bit more laid back than the first couple of times that i'd done it, but still a good ride. this saturday was one of the first road races of the year in the area so that probably took some of the faster guys out of the ride and accounts for change in pace. whether or not that was true, i felt good and rode at the front for almost the entire ride. saturday night we went out to see the closing night of the lady in the van at mum and then went out for a few beers at race street.

sunday i met up with patrick to go ride the trails in wissahickon. we met up at the art museam and rode up the paved trail along the schuylkill to manayunk and then onto a paved trail into the park. neither of us knew the trails well, and this could be a recipe for disaster, but from looking at the map it seemed like most of the trails were blazed and branched on and off forbidden drive, so the plan was just to try and explore some of these trails.

unfortunately, soon after we got on the trails it was obvious that patrick's bike (a borrowed, coverted singlespeed) was having some difficulties: the spring in the singleator didn't have enough tension to stop the chain from jumping. i've had the same problem with mine and thanks to ricky's trailside field fix on mine i knew the solution, but during the adjustment disaster struck and the singleator lost all tension.

after trying all kinds of bodging to get it working again, we found the source of the problem: the hook on the end of the spring, that holds the spring in place and inside the arm had bent and wouldn't stay in the hole in the arm. patrick broke out his leatherman and we tried bending the spring back into shape, but it just wouldn't hold. eventually we gave up, patrick started walking out, and i rode back home to pick up my car and give him a ride home from the trailhead to his place in west philly...

we may not have seen much of the trails, but i'll get back there to explore them some more, since i liked what i was able to see.