Saturday - Part 1 - Humiliation on Bainbridge Island
Right now I'm sitting in front of Island Ice Cream and Coffee just up the hill from the Winslow Ferry docks eating a chocolate Chip and Cranberry cookie (don't laugh its REALLY good) recounting the events of the day.
I woke up late today and made my way down to Coleman Docks to catch the Ferry to Bainbridge Island (Seattle/Winslow Ferry) and wasn't sure really what to expect. I've always taken this ferry to points beyond Winslow or Bainbridge Island through the years and I've always heard about the many and varided rides just beyond the ferry docks.
As soon as I got off the ferry docks I made my way to the "Bike Barn" which looks like shack that was designed for commuters who take the ferry to and from Seattle every day. I picked up a map of the Bainbridge Island area and decided to make my way out to Fort Ward State Park.
Here's a copy of the map:
The map made it look like it would be an nice and leisurely ride. Little did I know at the time I bit off a bit more than I could chew with my decision. So I made my way west down Winslow way through a part of Winslow riding through a really cool section of town with some very ecletic shops. It wasn't your usual 'run of the mill' tourist trap crap stores that you usually find in small towns in Washington (from my experiences).
Anyways, I made my way out of town and started up Grow Ave. which was a moderate slow rising hill. I then shifted to a lower gear that gave me less resistance for my peddling and then it happened. My chain was drooping down lower than a sixty year old woman's tits. This isn't a good thing for biking as there should always be some resistance on the chain, no matter what gear you're riding in. Well fortunaltely, before I left my cramped but humble abode, I brought my trusty bike tool which has a chain link repair option on it. I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity to repair a bike chain but it's a great test of patience and grace under pressure. You place the portion of the chain that you want to break apart in this tool and the tool pushes the pin of the chain out. Now that was the easy part.
The hard part was taking a portion of the chain off that would make the chain less 'saggy tit-like' and putting the chain back together. Now putting a bike chain back together requires at least five arms but you only have two. You have one chain going one way and the other end of the chain going the other way and you're trying to hold them both together while you put a chain link bit, which is the size of a large splinter, into a hole that is smaller than the diameter of the bit. Now throw in 75+++ degree heat and you have a proverbial party in a box.
This took me about...oh God...about 45 minutes to do. I got everything back together and continued on my trek to Fort Ward. I made my way down a three quarter of a mile hill that was steep and was going pretty darned fast. This author then stopped to get his bearings with his trusty map of the area and kept moving. I came upon another steep downward hill, this time with a hairpin turn that loops around to the left. Basically, it's speed city with a wipeout degree og 9.5. It's times when you're blazing down a hill and not sure you're going to make the hairpin turn, you think, for just a brief moment, in your mind about crashing or wiping out but then with the breeze in your face and the fleeting moment of invincibility charging your adrenalin takes any doubt I may have had. It's a rush unlike any other. Other than riding in with traffic in downtown Seattle at rush hour, of course.
After making the turn I found out why this island has lots of riders, there are more hills on this Island than downtown Seattle has but much much steeper. This author needed a challenge like this as the riding in Seattle was getting too easy. What once was a 45 minute ride around town is now around 20-30. Let's face it, I was humbled by the size and amounts of hills in Bainbridge Island. Anyways I started to head up a VERY steep Blakely Ave and then it happened at the summit. The fucking chain broke again! This time it split completely apart, no sagging this time (sorry tit lovers).
As I groaned at what just occurred, I began the Octopus like task of repairing the chain....yet again. Then out of nowhere, a fellow rider came by and decided to lend a hand. As we both began talking he was telling me about the rides on this island and the race that Bainbridge Island is famous for The 'Chilly Hilly' (I made a mental note to myself to look this up on the internet when I arrived home). After 20 minutes of trying to fix the chain this rider, Tristan, pulled out his phone and called up a Repair shop he used to work for back in Winslow (talk about luck). Tristan, through his kindness and generosity and officially called my now deceased chain 'a piece of crap. Must be a technical term for the bike repair world. Before too long the a truck arrived with the Owners wife driving picked me up and took me back to town to B.I. Cycle (Bainbridge Island Cycle - This is a well deserved plug for this repair shop. Here's the link: http://www.b-i-cycle.com/).
It was determined that not only I needed a new chain but the front derailer (the mechanism that moves the chain up and down the cranks. While they fixed it, I explored Winslow a bit more and did some mental window shopping, Mental window shopping is making a mental note of the stores and what, if any, items caught my eye.
Before too long, my bike was better than before (duhh) and I began to plot my next course of action. Since I expended a lot of energy riding and making attempts to repair this chain I didn't have much more energy to take on the hills of Bainbridge island. Not only that but I reminded myself that I still needed to ride back home after the ferry ride. I decided, before catching the ferry back to Seattle to explore Winslow a bit more to see what else this town has to offer. I then saw that it was getting late and I needed to move on to the next part of my day (outdoor cinema!!). Which brings me back to 'Island Ice Cream and Coffee' and eventually to the ferry.
(to be continued)
I woke up late today and made my way down to Coleman Docks to catch the Ferry to Bainbridge Island (Seattle/Winslow Ferry) and wasn't sure really what to expect. I've always taken this ferry to points beyond Winslow or Bainbridge Island through the years and I've always heard about the many and varided rides just beyond the ferry docks.
As soon as I got off the ferry docks I made my way to the "Bike Barn" which looks like shack that was designed for commuters who take the ferry to and from Seattle every day. I picked up a map of the Bainbridge Island area and decided to make my way out to Fort Ward State Park.
Here's a copy of the map:
The map made it look like it would be an nice and leisurely ride. Little did I know at the time I bit off a bit more than I could chew with my decision. So I made my way west down Winslow way through a part of Winslow riding through a really cool section of town with some very ecletic shops. It wasn't your usual 'run of the mill' tourist trap crap stores that you usually find in small towns in Washington (from my experiences).
Anyways, I made my way out of town and started up Grow Ave. which was a moderate slow rising hill. I then shifted to a lower gear that gave me less resistance for my peddling and then it happened. My chain was drooping down lower than a sixty year old woman's tits. This isn't a good thing for biking as there should always be some resistance on the chain, no matter what gear you're riding in. Well fortunaltely, before I left my cramped but humble abode, I brought my trusty bike tool which has a chain link repair option on it. I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity to repair a bike chain but it's a great test of patience and grace under pressure. You place the portion of the chain that you want to break apart in this tool and the tool pushes the pin of the chain out. Now that was the easy part.
The hard part was taking a portion of the chain off that would make the chain less 'saggy tit-like' and putting the chain back together. Now putting a bike chain back together requires at least five arms but you only have two. You have one chain going one way and the other end of the chain going the other way and you're trying to hold them both together while you put a chain link bit, which is the size of a large splinter, into a hole that is smaller than the diameter of the bit. Now throw in 75+++ degree heat and you have a proverbial party in a box.
This took me about...oh God...about 45 minutes to do. I got everything back together and continued on my trek to Fort Ward. I made my way down a three quarter of a mile hill that was steep and was going pretty darned fast. This author then stopped to get his bearings with his trusty map of the area and kept moving. I came upon another steep downward hill, this time with a hairpin turn that loops around to the left. Basically, it's speed city with a wipeout degree og 9.5. It's times when you're blazing down a hill and not sure you're going to make the hairpin turn, you think, for just a brief moment, in your mind about crashing or wiping out but then with the breeze in your face and the fleeting moment of invincibility charging your adrenalin takes any doubt I may have had. It's a rush unlike any other. Other than riding in with traffic in downtown Seattle at rush hour, of course.
After making the turn I found out why this island has lots of riders, there are more hills on this Island than downtown Seattle has but much much steeper. This author needed a challenge like this as the riding in Seattle was getting too easy. What once was a 45 minute ride around town is now around 20-30. Let's face it, I was humbled by the size and amounts of hills in Bainbridge Island. Anyways I started to head up a VERY steep Blakely Ave and then it happened at the summit. The fucking chain broke again! This time it split completely apart, no sagging this time (sorry tit lovers).
As I groaned at what just occurred, I began the Octopus like task of repairing the chain....yet again. Then out of nowhere, a fellow rider came by and decided to lend a hand. As we both began talking he was telling me about the rides on this island and the race that Bainbridge Island is famous for The 'Chilly Hilly' (I made a mental note to myself to look this up on the internet when I arrived home). After 20 minutes of trying to fix the chain this rider, Tristan, pulled out his phone and called up a Repair shop he used to work for back in Winslow (talk about luck). Tristan, through his kindness and generosity and officially called my now deceased chain 'a piece of crap. Must be a technical term for the bike repair world. Before too long the a truck arrived with the Owners wife driving picked me up and took me back to town to B.I. Cycle (Bainbridge Island Cycle - This is a well deserved plug for this repair shop. Here's the link: http://www.b-i-cycle.com/).
It was determined that not only I needed a new chain but the front derailer (the mechanism that moves the chain up and down the cranks. While they fixed it, I explored Winslow a bit more and did some mental window shopping, Mental window shopping is making a mental note of the stores and what, if any, items caught my eye.
Before too long, my bike was better than before (duhh) and I began to plot my next course of action. Since I expended a lot of energy riding and making attempts to repair this chain I didn't have much more energy to take on the hills of Bainbridge island. Not only that but I reminded myself that I still needed to ride back home after the ferry ride. I decided, before catching the ferry back to Seattle to explore Winslow a bit more to see what else this town has to offer. I then saw that it was getting late and I needed to move on to the next part of my day (outdoor cinema!!). Which brings me back to 'Island Ice Cream and Coffee' and eventually to the ferry.
(to be continued)
posted by Dolemite da Wizard at 7:30 PM
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