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My Knight in Riding Armor

If you pay $2,500 for a bike wouldn't you think you shouldn't be on the side of the road pulling metal chunks off of it? So did I.
Yesterday Chris and I were having an AWESOME ride. It was warm (for Boston standards), minimal wind (for Boston standards) and people on the roads were being polite (again...for Boston standards) it wasn't perfect but for the first long ride out of the year, I was taking it.
I even hit 37 mph on a down hill - each time I ride I hit a new record!

It all came to a screeching, literally, stop when my chain falls off, gets jammed between my chain stay and sprocket, and won't move. The best part was I was on an uphill going about 5 mph. Hmmm...sounds familiar...like maybe the exact same thing that happened at Buckman, Quakerman, AND Mightyman. So I get off and realize there is literally a CHUNK of metal, aluminum to be exact, that is bent and it's hitting my sprocket, not letting it move without becoming jammed.
Ok I didn't realize this, Chris did. But that's not the point.
Specialized decided that it's a GREAT idea to rubber cement glue a piece of aluminum to the chain stay to "protect it from getting scratched" if your chain falls off. Forgive me, Specialized, but how about you craft a bike well enough so the the chain never falls off? WHOA. DREAM BIG. How about you align the derailer right so I can shift without worrying about my chain being frozen in place, twisted between my big ring and my sprocket?
Hmm...food for thought.

So we called Int'l Bikes, those life savers, and they said our best bet was to try to pull off because it honestly served no purpose. So we sat for half an hour on the side of the road freezing our asses off using a tire lever, Chris' room key, and my credit card trying to pull this chunk of metal off so I could ride home. The hard part was it was behind my rings so we had about a half an inch of space to work with and try to get leverage. Chris was COVERED in grease by the end and suffered a pretty nasty cut. I have no idea what I would have done if he hadn't been on the ride with me, probably called a cab had to spend $50 to get back to the city, or just sat and cried. But he was all "welp, no problem," flipped my bike upside down and go to work pulling the chunk off while I sat there staring being, well, a girl.
You can always judge a person's character how they act in spontaneous unfortunate situations, and Chris has never snapped, gotten crabby, become short, or even complained. Last year about this time the same thing happened when I got my first flat on our ride - and he didn't even know how to change a tire at the time. He just looks at it, figures it out, and does what needs to be done without a word. Meanwhile I'm the one usually throwing a small fit in the background, screaming at my bike and pouting. I'm a believer that a relationship needs to be balanced in all respects - and once again Chris' laid back, "take things as they come", get-it-done personality balanced out my high strung, "everybody panic" tendency.
Oh and here's the kicker, when he finally pried the stupid piece of cheap scrap metal off we looked at it and it said "innovate or die" on it. Ironic, the damn chunk almost killed me.
So now Mister Mac is going to be brought to the Doctor, finally, to be fixed. I've been putting it off for a while but this is put me over the edge. How dare this hunk of aluminum almost ruin my ride. I'm just lucky to have my knight in riding armor to take care of me when I have bike malfunctions.

love love love
me

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