don't leave home without it

A chain tool. Saturday morning due to the Tiger's schedule, we decided to go for a ride at 7:30am. Baldy and I met up at the gates and leisurely headed out up Cote-des-Neiges to meet the Tiger in St. Laurent. Just as we crested the hill past the Boulevard, Baldy tries to go to the middle ring and the chain snags. Plays around with the front derailler but it doesn't go anywhere. We finally stop, he tries spinning it and then I notice it. The chain just barely hung on by probably a mm of one link holding one plate. ... sigh... Once again I recollected the brief "who needs a chaintool?" argument with a friend. Thankfully though, my tool has one; albeit as poor as it is. So we broke the chain, and fixed it. Unfortunately I had a lot of trouble bringing the two ends together when re-attaching it. As soon as Baldy started riding we could hear this slight grinding noise and I had no idea what it was. I tried playing with the chain tension a bit but didn't think it was really a cause. 30 minutes late, we met up with Tiger and he starts laughing. I missed one of the pulleys in the rear derailler cage! arg... anyway, thankfully all we had to do was loosen the cogs and re-wrap the chain. So after all this was said and done we did about 90km, into Senneville. I felt pretty good although I was starving when I got home - a good 4 hours or so later. (Two bottles of fruit punch gatorade(powder) and two 1.7 powerbars.) [I forgot I never finished the 2nd bar until we got home because just as I started eating it, I was at the back of the group and Baldy suddenly sped up to 37-38km/h - I couldn't really eat and hang on/catch up at the same time so I had cars whizzing by and me working hard while I had a powerbar hanging out of my mouth -damn you!] We also dropped by the bike shop to have the mech look over the chain (it was brand new and just installed) but as I figured, it was just one of those odd failures that happens - the chain didn't get broken in until the torque of climbing was put into it. I felt good on the ride though; I was able to do mini "attacks" and climb in a rhythm up hills. Tiger got me on the last one though...

I went to my parent's place in the evening and Aki had a blast playing with Linus. By 7pm they were both fast asleep and looked exhausted. Even now my little bugger is sleeping near my feet. Its funny how sometimes you look all over for something, can't find it - and the next time you do, it's there. I remember looking for my park chain tool a long time ago, but yesterday when I was there, I looked in the garage and found it in a couple of seconds. Pbbt. To my toolbag it'll go. Unfortunately I think neither of these will be compatible with 10 speed chains so 'becca better get one if she gets a new bike. (Time to try a SRAM?) Moral of the story? Hex keys and screw drivers are important, as well as tire levers (if you get a flat) but don't discount the chain tool. Aside from the immense danger of if your chain snaps under load (you're pushing hard, out of saddle and the chain snaps - your feet suddenly spin out under you, and you have nothing to hold the bike up with so you'll fall -hard) there's no real way to go home unless you want to scoot your way back... anyway, you should all learn sometime. I should also carry a master link just in case...