Broken Bike

Monday - June 4 - Biking 37 km

Rode to work in the pouring rain. About 4 km on my way my rear shift cable snapped. Why do I only break things when it is raining? Stopped to replace it on the shore of the Ottawa river. Fought a bit to get the old cable out. Then tried to install a new one. The housing loop to the derailler had started to disintegrate thanks to the top tube cable routing creating a water trap in this piece. I tried to feed a cable through it for 20 minutes, finally giving up as I could not get past a blockage somewhere inside. Decided to simply continue in a single gear. Re-installed the broken cable in the derailler, pulled it tight so I was up on the fifth cog, then tied it off. Rode on. Shortly thereafter, the cable slipped down to 6th gear. Another few 100 m, and I was slipped down to 7th. This was no good, so I stopped, pulled out a screwdriver and adjusted the limit screw to lock it into fifth. The rest of the ride was uneventful. I had three gears by shifting the front. On the way home I discovered I could strap two big rubbermaid containers onto my back rack. This is good because I have a total of 9 of these things to get home. It was still pouring rain. About half way home something felt really weird in the drive system. I thought my chain was about to break, but upon closer inspection I discovered that I had broken a tooth on my middle chain ring. Ignored the problem and finished the ride home where I finally replaced the cable and then decided to leave the chain ring for now until a few more teeth are gone or I get some slippage.