The Tuesday Nighter

I've got five bikes, each with its own purpose. There's my the first bike that I bought as an adult, which I've turned into a time trial bike, the Black Bike, which replaced the older bike as my regular ride, a mountain bike, a fixed gear bike, and the Delta Bike.

The Delta Bike is the "classic sports car" of my bicycle stable. I'd always liked the Campagnolo Delta brakes, and when I bought a set of them on EBay, I built a bike around it, using a classic steel Colnago frame, and all parts were from the same early '90s era.


Since the 1970's, there has been a Tuesday night training race in Austin, called the Tuesday Nighter. It's a non-sanctioned race, with no entry fee, no prize money, and no organization. Everyone just shows up, the 'A' group goes off for their three laps, and the slower 'B' group starts a few minutes later for their two laps.

I'd never done this race, mostly because I'd heard that it could get a bit crazy (i.e. non-sanctioned, no organization) and because it wouldn't be easy to get down to South Austin after work for the 6pm start.

Last night, my friend Greg and asked me if I'd be interested in doing this week's Tuesday Nighter, because he was going to try it out. It sounded good to me, but since my Black Bike is in pieces (I'm rebuilding the shifters), I'd have to use the Delta Bike. I've been riding the Delta Bike for the past week or so, so that wasn't a big issue. I told Greg that I didn't want to crash the Delta Bike, so I'd just hang in the back of the peloton.

I drove over to Hammerhead Bikes to meet up with Greg, Cody, and a few others, and we rode down to Mellow Johnny's, where we picked up another 20 or so folks, then rode to the start of the Tuesday Nighter. It was a pretty mellow ride, and I had 20 miles in by the time we arrived at the race. I was having some problems with the shifting of the rear derailleur, but I just put that off to a tuning issue.

We waited for a few minutes, then the 'A' group rolled out. We followed shortly thereafter. At the bottom of the first hill, we hit a rough spot, and my chain got hung up in my rear derailleur. It's done this before, and I was able to get it straightened out while still being able to stay with the pack. A minute later, the chain was hanging again. This time, however, as I was trying to get it straightened out, it got much louder, and the rear wheel locked up and started skidding.

This couldn't be good.

I was able to keep the bike up, and bring it safely to a stop. When I looked, I saw that the piece of the frame to which the rear derailleur is attached (called, coincidentally enough, the derailleur hanger) had broken, and the derailleur was dangling on the cable.


This was not good. The two pieces pointed to in the following picture should be one piece (See? They're the same color!)


The bike was now not rideable, and I had to walk back to the start. I didn't want the derailleur to drag on the ground, so I walked the bike, leaning over it to hold the derailleur, which was a pain. I tried a couple of different ways to push the bike, including holding the rear wheel off the ground, and just rolling it on the front wheel, but this was hard to control. I carried the bike for a while, too, but it wasn't fun.

Several cars drove past me, but none stopped to help. One car did stop, and the driver asked me how I was doing. When I told him, "I've been better," he proceeded to ask me if I knew where the nearby car junkyard was. He went on to tell me how he'd driven all around, but couldn't find it.

Thank you for your concern, sir. Yes, I know where is the place for which you search, but I'm going to let you find it yourowndamnself.

Finally, a woman in a minivan, going in the other direction, stopped and asked me if I needed a ride. She then went down the road to turn around, came back, loaded me up, and took me to the start of the race, where I thanked her profusely.

Luckily, a Violet Crown rider, Robert, had driven to the race, and agreed to take me and my bike back to Hammerhead.

I'm hoping that Cody and the good folks at True Fabrications can replace the rear dropout on my bike.