May 10 - Bad Breaks and Bottom Brackets

Today was going to be a signature day in my ride, 145 miles across Missouri from St Josephs to Kirksville. The route was hilly with large rollers all the way. Someone said that if they flattened all the hills in Missouri it would be our biggest state. I’m not convinced but after today’s ride I understand what they mean. Last year the route was 8 miles longer. I wonder if plate tectonics has pushed Missouri together and made the hills higher than last year. If this is true it would be a very serious problem. Why at this rate in 400 years the Atlantic and Pacific coasts would be joined together and it would be no big deal to bike across the country. I have a route profile and a picture of the road to show any doubters what I mean about the route.

While the flooding has made some small streams raging rivers and has flooded some road and many fields and houses it has also made for a very vibrant spring. There are flowers on the fruit trees and lush, albeit, wet pastures. There was a beautiful fog hanging over some of the lower fields this morning as we rode on some lovely little county roads. While state and federal highways have numbers, county roads in Missouri have letters today we rode on roads W, O, V, Z and UU. I guess if they have more than 26 roads they start giving them double letters designations. Highways in Missouri could be more bicycle friendly; they could have wider shoulders. This would also please the motorists who sometimes have to slow down while a cyclist climbs a long hill at 8 miles an hour, or worse blindly pass the cyclists without being able to see oncoming traffic. The one area with a good shoulder was an area with a large Mennonite population. There, there were wide shoulders for the horse drawn buggies. However the state put a large rumble strip down the center of the shoulder. It doesn’t bother the Mennonites as their buggies easily straddle the rumble strip, but it was not bicycle friendly.

Unfortunately, today’s big event was a fall taken by yours truly. I am fine with only a few small scrapes on my left side. Really I am OK. At the time I was riding with Karen a ride leader and Pam a registered nurse from Missouri. Once we determined that I was OK, Pam was calling a local friend to see if there was a local bike shop. I would have gotten up and finished the ride, were it not for the problem with my bike. You see my fall occurred because I snapped a crank arm while powering up a hill. After my fall I had half a crank arm attached to my left shoe. You think walking with cycling cleats is hard, try walking with a pedal and half a crank arm on your shoe. In Berkeley the solution would be to go to the nearest bicycle shop and buy a new crank set. Riding on rural roads in Missouri is very pleasant until you need to find a bicycle shop. The ride leaders had the names of two cycle shops in Kirksville but they turned out to specialize in motorcycles. There were also a lot more John Deere dealers out here than in Berkeley. I also suspect that the Mennonites might have been able to make me a crank arm out of steel, But I didn’t pursue this option.

When we got to Kirksville the tour’s mechanic thought he might be able to fix me up with another crank set from an unused bike. Unfortunately there was a small problem with differences between Italian and English bottom brackets. Mine was Italian and the other was English. For all non-techie cyclists don’t worry about this difference; I don’t understand the difference either. We are now hoping to get something that will work from a bike shop in Quincy IL, our destination tomorrow night. However, we are not out of the woods yet. Bottom bracket technology is I am finding not all that standardized and it has evolved greatly in the last 24 years since my bicycle was built. A small bike store in a small town like Quincy may have on their back shelves exactly what I need and it may have been there for 20 years just waiting for me to come by. (I was not able to compatible components at the bigger mail order bike on-line bike stores.) As a last resort Karen is sending me a left crank arm from an old crank set that I have at home. I may finish the ride with a TA chain ring and right crank arm and a Shimano left crank arm. We shall see.