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This previous post about what I carry while riding got some interesting comments with people surprised that I carry so much, with one of the more commented on items being nitrile gloves. This evening while riding back home from Metro Beach I’d just passed a guy roller blading and when I stood to take off there was a POINK sound and my cranks just spun, dispensing the chain on to the ground. I’d been having a weird feeling when pedaling that almost felt like the freehub not cleanly engaging, but this answered what it was.
This was a simple break where an outer plate separated from a pin, tearing the chain open, and thus easily mended with a SRAM PowerLink. However, twenty minutes later when stopping at Metro Beach I’d relubed my chain because it was making a slight squeaking sound and I thought that maybe the odd feeling could be a slightly stuck link. Being out and about I wasn’t able to wipe the excess off and thus the chain was wet with lube and grit. This exact situation is why I carry nitrile gloves.
After putting them on I was able to fix the chain and get the bike back to working so I could finish my ride, all without ending up with dirty hands. With the chain parts then tucked away in inside out gloves and everything put away I set off and had a great rest of the ride.
End result today was a smidge over 52 miles in 3:22:59 of moving time. I got no heart rate data because the sensor’s battery appears to be failing, as it was reporting ~190 BPM while pedaling out of my driveway. I took it off and shut off the sensor monitoring, which did weird things to the Garmin data itself (such as reporting 87 kcal consumed).
Here is a photo of the actual broken chain hanging off the derailleur, if you’re interested.
Do you think Tronex brand vinyl gloves would be as effective as these nitrile gloves?
Buzz: Probably, I’d guess just not as comfortable. I think that any glove is better than no glove when it comes to keeping your hands clean.