It was a beautifully sunny and crisp day that called me to the road today. Mindful of the clock, I had a couple of hours before my youngest daughter’s nap, so I decided to load `em up in my pigeon and move on down the road! I didn’t have any specific destination in mind, but I figured we’d likely end up at Sunnyside Park or Laurelhurst Park for a quick run through the swings and slides. Anything to get the girls out in the fresh open air.

After ensuring everyone was properly bundled, we loaded up Big Beef and hit the streets. On flat ground, I really can’t feel any difference in the weight of carrying one of my daughters versus both, and quite frankly I don’t get it. Whatever the case, the pigeon tracks beautifully and relatively easily with some 100 pounds of precious human cargo.

Meandering through the neighborhood, I started to build up the desire to hit some hills to see just how human I really am. Perhaps I’m a glutton for punishment… whatever the case, I decided to take the safest route to the park, knowing the inclines ahead. Specifically, I know that the most car-light route is one whereby you’ll encounter a brief but steep climb up Flanders from NE Floral Place to NE Davis. It’s a very short distance (not even one full block), but an abrupt incline. Regardless, the climb went great in first gear. The best part of getting up this short stretch is that it gives way to a beautiful descent just two blocks further down the road after you cross Burnside.

This beautiful descent down the ‘Laurelhurst Slope’ (SE 33rd Ave. between SE Ankeny and Pine) should be greatly respected, because you’re bound to view it in far less favorable light coming the other direction! Whatever the case, I made the decision to take on this challenge and headed down the hill. This is where a delightful ride with my girls turned into an unexpected adventure. Once I got to the bottom of the hill, I stopped at the stop sign (because it’s the law) and then proceeded to re-start and climb a short but steep incline towards SE Stark St.  Unfortunately, all it took was one turn of the crank under force and boom, my chain made a terrible noise and popped out onto the roadway.

Once I moved the pigeon to the side of the road, I walked over to the chain for a quick inspection. Mind you, this is a brand new SRAM PC1 single-speed chain that I installed for no other reason than I like SRAM chains and have had good experiences with them in the past, so this is no fault of the bike. Upon inspection, I discovered that the chain had busted at a manufacturer’s link, not a place where I had shortened it prior to adding in the master link. This was a bit disconcerting. I can’t entirely blame the chain as just before the holiday the chain came off once after plowing over a rough patch of road near my office. After this event I noticed that the tension wasn’t as tight as it should’ve been. I deduced that perhaps the chain was compromised during that pre-holiday event and once it had the opportunity to get out of line again (after bouncing down the slope), the pressure of my cranking pushed it past its limit.

After pushing the pigeon to Zupans on SE Belmont, I hauled the girls back home on the bus, then my eldest daughter and I headed back on the bus with a few tools and a new chain in hand (thank goodness I had another PC1 at home). This time I made darn sure to adjust the tension perfectly, to help prevent any future occurances. After my daughter and I shared some gelato at the Opposable Thumb Cafe (used to be Kaiju, before that Scooters), we piled onto the pigeon and headed home. And yes, the lovely Laurelhurst Slope showed the uglier side of its Jeckyll and Hyde personality, kicking my butt with every crank.

The real unfortunate consequence of this little side-step in plans is that my girls missed out on some time at the park, but gained a different adventure nevertheless. The lesson here is that if you encounter an issue once (like I did before the holiday break), make sure you inspect and adjust your equipment accordingly so you don’t encounter it again. Lesson learned!