It took a whole minute...

I jumped on the bike and headed towards the trail entrance. Since last week's ride was so incredible I decided to tackle a trail I haven't done in many many years. I climbed the first hill of Strangler Fig. I rolled over the roots and down the hill. I then attempted to climb the second hill when I heard it and I knew it wasn't good.

There is a noise that no one really wants to hear when you are riding anything with gears. If you have a car, especially a stick shift car, you know exactly the noise I am referring to. It's that sound of metal on metal, grinding. You hear that noise and you think to yourself, "Oh that can't be good." It means your gears skipped, the teeth jumped off, the chain slipped. It's especially bad when you continue to hear the noise as you pedal. And yes, I kept hearing it.

I changed gears, up and down. Nothing. All I heard was the cranking and the grinding. It took all of one minute for my bike to break. Yes I was frustrated. Yes I was pissed. Yes I had managed to bend 3rd gear. And yes I plan on riding tomorrow. I took the bike to the shop and they were able to fix the rear cassette (that's the set of cogs or gears on the back wheel). It probably took you a minute to read this post. In this time, I had already bent the 3rd gear and knew I had to head back to the car.