| Broke A Chain!
Riding in to work this morning I seemed to be getting a
break from the weather. Although quite cold (around 0F
I think, with a brisk wind allegedly putting wind chills
down into the -teensF), the wind was from astern and I
had virtually no wind chill effect.
With the sun out, I was starting to sweat a bit as I
headed up the hill towards Amherst center. Nearing the
top, I down shifted and immediately had no gears at all!
Looked down thinking the chain had come off the rings
and noticed no chain at all! Walked back 15 feet and
picked it up, hoping the masterlink was in place.
It was (sort of).
It's a SRAM PC48 chain of perhaps four years vintage.
One half of the master link was still in the chain but
the other half had only half of itself still in the chain.
It had broken!
I think this is the first time I've ever had a chain
break on me.
Walked into downtown Amherst to the local bike shop there
only to find them closed. Must be shut down on Mondays
during the winter, darn!
Coasted down the other side of the hill and then walked
the final half mile to my office.
Bike stays in my nice warm office tonight instead of its
normal frigid barn. Already ordered a new SRAM PC48 for
it and will get a ride home via a coworker tonight.
Will bring the bike back home via my "Global Warmer" later
this week. Fortunately, I've got a reserve ice bike (with
a PC48 chain that I guess I'd better look over closely!)
to pedal until the new chain comes in from Performance.
Wondered if a broken chain was anything the group found to
be a common or rare event? Can you buy just replacement
masterlinks from SRAM? Didn't see any on the Performance
or Nashbar web pages.
SMH
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