I had the following bike problems this evening, in order:
- Riding up the sidewalk to Stony Creek with the group, a spoke breaks near the J bend. I stop and twist it around an adjacent spoke and decide to ride with it.
- Once I get into The Pines I notice the broken spoke nub is binding the freehub and keeping me from coasting. I leave the group and walk the bike out to the two track.
- Deciding that I can ride without coasting, I poke around Stony Creek two track for a while in a very tall gear constantly keeping the freehub engaged.
- After riding to the group’s meeting point at the end of the route I remove the wheel to get the spoke nub out; it’d already fallen out. Upon reinserting the rear wheel I find that the brake is now binding significantly.
- Looking in my bag I don’t have a multi-tool (nor spare tube) as I removed them for Sunday’s dirt road ride.
After the group arrived I was able to borrow a multi tool and get the wheel spinning freely again. I then rode an easy lap of The Pines and back to the car. Now I need to find a 295mm black DT Swiss Competition spoke and get everything back in order… Hopefully I can find one tomorrow, as I was really hoping to ride this bike over the weekend.
(I strongly suspect this spoke broke after being damaged during the chain dropping at Lumberjack. It then lasted for a while, but today after riding Bloomer and while applying torque up a paved path it decided to go. Better there than somewhere remote, at least…)
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