If you read my post on cherz’s blog, you would have seen that I had big plans to see the Reverend Horton Heat on Thursday night and skip class on Friday. Did I see the Reverend? No. It sold out. Did I skip class? Of course. I couldn’t possibly go to class when I had gotten it into my head to skip. Instead, I went mountain biking and the equipment gods sent their wrath upon me.

I’ve broken all kinds of bike parts on bike rides. If I haven’t broken it, I saw someone else break it. I’ve also seen people lose all kinds of parts while riding, including a crank bolt a few months go. But I could not have been prepared for what happened yesterday.

There I was, just riding along, and I notice that the drivetrain on my single-speed feels wobbly. Now this is especially odd because the whole point of a single-speed bike is that there are fewer parts to go wobbly and thus less headaches on the trail. There’s a crank, a chain, a chain tensioner, and a cog. That’s it.

So imagine my surprise when I stop and look down at my bike and see nothing wrong. What? Something was wobbling. I get off the bike and take a closer look and see that there is indeed a big problem. What’s wrong with this picture?

There should be four bolts around the perimeter of the chainring. Those bolts hold the chainring to the crankarm. One of the bolts managed to work itself loose and take a walk on the trail.

I tightened the three remaining chainring bolts, cursed, and headed back to the car. My epic three hour ride was cut short to one hour. But that’s ok because I don’t think I would have lasted for three hours.