2021 mileage: 1823.4
Today is a day that leaves me with decidedly mixed feelings. It is a beautifully sunshiny day (and now, at 3:30 p.m., 54°), so I had hoped to do my long (30+ miles) round trip to the Matthei Botanical Gardens, on the far northeast side of Ann Arbor. For good stretches of 2020, that was my usual ride ... but I haven't done it since November 20.
After my ride yesterday concluded smoothly and without incident, I rolled the trike into the garage as always and left it undisturbed overnight.
However, when I went out at noon today to ride, I could not pedal it, and quickly saw that the chain was twisted/tangled onto itself in front. I spent about 10 minutes trying patiently to straighten it out, but it was clear I was only making things worse. So I contacted my dear friend Dan Cogan, who, though he was a lawyer professionally, is not as mechanically challenged as this poor musician.
Dan came over immediately, but after trying for a while, saw that he could not do it, either, and suggested a trip to the bike shop was in order (Jack's, where I bought it, in Dearborn). So I loaded the rack onto our car, and the trike onto the rack, and set out for Dearborn.
Upon my arrival at Jack's, one of the technicians was outside the back door, taking a break in the sunshine, and upon seeing my trike he asked if he could help me with it. I showed him a note I had written on my phone explaining the situation, and he knelt down and quickly said, "Hmmm ... I've never seen THIS before! But this should be a quick fix—just need to take the crank arm off. I'll be right back with the tool I need."
With that he disappeared into the building, and when he came back, he set in to work. At first I thought his promise of a quick fix was going to happen, but then eventually it became clear he was not able to get it, so we took it into the building, where Kevin, another technician (with whom I have worked several times previously) greeted us. Upon learning of the problem, Kevin explained the tool we really needed to remove the crank arm, and within 5 minutes he had it all fixed ... and when I asked what I owed, he waved it off and said, "Nothing this time!" (I'm there so much that I think they've come to regard me sort of as the shop mascot.)
At any rate, since we have late afternoon and evening plans, I now will not be riding today. But I'm OK with that, and am just extremely grateful to have the situation addressed properly, so that I'm all ready to go tomorrow.
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