Broke Crank Mountain

The Fall of the Taint Hammer

I spent this week in Kansas City, enjoying their barbecue and beer while sequestered in a hotel with no gym, so on my first morning home I took my bike out to my favorite trail and rode. I would have rode until the wheels fell off, but my left pedal fell off first.

I’d only made it three and a quarter miles of my usual five when I noticed a cant to the pedal that was not right. It had rained all week while I was gone, but my bike has mud guards, and I wore a raincoat and long pants, so more morning rain was no worry. I’d taken care to avoid the trails that might be dangerously slippery with early autumn leaves. The pedal was wobbly, and when I checked to see if a bolt was loose, the pedal came off in my hand.

Right before my favorite loop of the trail, with humps and downhills and occasional encounters with deer, songbirds, feral cats, or a blue heron. The pedal wouldn’t stay on no matter how slowly I pedaled, so I turned back and started pushing. On a few downhills and flats I could sit on the bike and pedal by pushing the left crank arm with my soggy trail shoe, but it was a mile hike in the rain back to the car. It could have been much worse if the pedal had come off on a tough uphill climb or a bouncy downhill where braking and balancing on the pedals was the only way to stay upright. So I won’t complain.

At the bike shop they told me I stripped the left crank arm where the pedal bolts itself in, so a new Sram crankset is on the way. The Fuji Wendigo has been good to me, and this is the first time I need to replace a part outside of warranty. But I found myself eyeballing a skinny tire mountain bike, a Trek Marlin that was on sale. It’s sold as a hybrid mountain bike and commuter, with hydraulic brakes, aluminum frame, lockable front suspension fork, and a 2x8 gearset, more gears than the 1x10 I’ve got on my Wendigo. And the price is right.

We’ll see how long the part takes to come in. I am supposed to ride in a local Pride parade with the Ride With Pride group, and the parade was postponed from this summer thanks to the Canadian wildfires; I’d hate to miss it because the Taint Hammer’s in the shop! And I’ve wanted a more road-friendly bike for longer pavement rides. And they’ve got one in Miami Green, like this one:

So, we shall see. I’ll have to make room in the garage for a second bike, but maybe the Wendigo will last longer if I’m not using it three times a week…

I have a few good reads for you this week. Bookwise, I read Worst. Person. Ever. by Douglas Coupland on the plane, and while I enjoyed it, it felt like he banged it out in a week or two. It has its moments, but it is very much a product of the world that gave it the title, the social media landscape. His novel All Families Are Psychotic is a much better read, if you want a bunch of grotesques in bizarre circumstances.

Desert Oracle by Ken Layne, which collects stories of the Mojave, is another fast read, but more rewarding. I’m not done with it yet, but it’s got me wanting to read Desert Solitaire and visit the West. He’s got a podcast that I love listening to while driving at night, as well. One of his longer pieces was on Western Swing music, and I’m listening to Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins. I know many of these songs, like his big hit “El Paso,” but what made me laugh was finally hearing “Cool Water,” which my Grandma Antoinette and great-aunt Mary used to parody when they were together, singing, “Otter… otter…” and making each other crack up. I’d never heard the original until tonight:

The Philly Inquirer had a nice profile of a man who carves conductor’s batons, and whose father made Leonard Bernstein’s batons. He made the batons used in the upcoming biopic of the famous conductor as well. It’s a side gig, not a living. Though I bet he could sell custom batons on Etsy and make serious bank.

I continue to drift from social media. The post below hit home, with all the photos and videos I take with my phone for Instagram, never to be seen again. I’ve been thinking about getting a good digital camera, but for what? I have had a digital camera since one megapixel was considered good quality, and I never look at the damn things. I have terabytes of them in storage, for no reason.

Our Wire Mothers

I might do what

Hannah, the WanderFinder

did, and buy one of the new instant cameras that print photos. Polaroid is back in the business…