I should start off this report by admitting that this breakdown was entirely my own fault and not due to any design problem with the Rhoades Car. It was even an after-market part that I had installed myself that broke.
We got up nice and early today and the forecast looked good - no rain and a warm day of 25C predicted. We set off just after 0830 and made it onto the Colonel By Drive just after it closed to motor vehicles. Just at the north end of Carleton University we decided to take a break and pulled up a curb cut-down and onto the grass. Some guy with an off-leash dog stopped to talk to us. He wasn't making a lot of sense, but then the NCC enforcement officer stopped his truck and asked him to get the dog on a leash. The guy objected, decided to start a fight and we decided that we had better give the officer some space to write the ticket out.
So we backed up to the curb cut-out and entered the roadway again. Something wasn't working right, my side drive train was making a lot of noise. So we stopped. Everything looked okay, but it wasn't working. We pulled the quadracycle up onto the grass and into the shade. Things still looked okay on a closer visual inspection, but the rear driver's side derailleur was not running correctly.
Since I had all the tools I needed in our bin I decided to remove the derailleur and have a closer look at it. Sure enough it was bent, quite a lot, too. The top idler sprocket was badly gouged and the shims were torn up. This was one of the Shimano derailleurs that I had installed to replace the (twice) cracked SunRace ones last year. Obviously we had had a chain jam when moving the quadracycle backwards, didn't hear it happen and damaged things. My fault.
The owner's manual clearly says:
Caution: Pushing the Bike Backwards Can Cause Damage
Like on any multi-speed bike; never force the bike backwards, if there is a binding or tightening of the chain or derailleur. If the chain, derailleur, and shifter are not fully in gear forcing the bike backwards can cause damage. Always pedal the bike forward, shifting fully into the proper gear (when the chain and sprockets are lined up), before pushing the bike backwards. If the gear is properly engaged, then the bike should push backwards, freely.
Yup it is right, completely right. We were 12.5 km from home.
I tried straightening out the bent frame, but it was not possible to do so. We looked at the possible plans:
1. Put it back together, swap seats and have me pedal the whole way home again, just like last week.
2. Push the bike 12.5 km home.
3. See if I could replace the part.
I had had enough uphill pedalling on my own last weekend, so I opted for 3, although I was not at all sure I could find a short-frame Shimano derailleur on a Sunday.
So I took the old derailleur, some water and set off on foot, leaving Ruth to sit with the quadracycle. I cut through the university and onto Sunnyside, hiked up to Bank Street and there was a cycle shop, right near the corner! Of course it is closed on Sundays. So I caught a bus southbound. I was heading for our local cycle shop, Rebec and Kroes, which I was fairly sure was open on Sundays. I got off the bus at Bank and Alta Vista and walked over to Rebec and Kroes. The sign confirmed that they are open Sundays, but not until noon. It was 1052. I decided to walk back north a few blocks and try Kunstadt Sports. Yes, they sell bikes and yes, they sell bike parts. I went upstairs and the young man working in the fix-it shop had a brand new short-frame Shimano Tiaga derailleur, still in the box for $59.99. So I bought it, picked up lunch from Subway to make it up to Ruth for having to sit and wait, and headed back to the Colonel By Drive.
Ruth was in good spirits and had even managed to attract the attention of some friends of ours who were biking by. We had some lunch, installed the new derailleur, made a few adjustments to it and headed off north. It didn't take long as this is the fifth rear derailleur I have installed, but it was too late to complete the run before the Colonel By Drive reopened to car traffic, so we turned around south of the 417 bridge and headed home. We made it home fine, at nearly 1345 hrs, so it was a good thing I picked up lunch.
So lessons learned: the manual is right - if you are going to move the quadracycle backwards, make sure the chains are absolutely free and don't bind. Penalty for ignoring this edict: $59.99 plus tax and two hours.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 140 km
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