The Second Half

BLOWN OPPORTUNITY

I left work at 3pm yesterday with my Scalpel, and met a buddy along the way for a nice 2-hour shred through the Sedona slickrock. His front tire was flat, so we stopped at the shop on the way to the trailhead for a quick burst of compressed air. My old pal Dave Cichan was there, and we caught up for a bit, but we were soon OFF so we could get in plenty of ride time. At the trailhead, the bikes came down off the rack, and Aaron's is rattling when it hits the ground. Turns out - all four of his crankarm bolts are gone - completely gone with the exception of one threaded nut that was holding the two outer chainrings on. Someone had been messing with his bike. So back we go to the shop, and Dave finds four replacement bolts to hold Aaron over for the ride. 30 minutes later we're back at the trailhead - quick change, and off. Not 100 yards down the trail, I hear a massive "CRUNCH" behind me. Aaron says "Dude....I'm done". I turn around, and his derailleur is snapped in half, and his has a broken chain.

Aaron has a handbuilt $3,000 Titus Racer X, and someone, SOMEONE was messing with his bike either when it was on his roof rack, or parked outside a coffeeshop. These types of things don't even happen when you have a horrific crash - especially the missing crankbolts.

So - bottom line....We both fanagled the hard-to-come-by time off from work, drove down to Sedona, rode for 100 yards, walked 100 yards, and ended up HERE to finish the epic adventure. After the Oak Creek Amber went down, the bike ride didn't seem like such a wasted effort. We're headed to the Wasatch Range outside of Park City, UT next week - so this will be a distant memory in about a week. 3 days of snowboarding in the 3000 vertical foot canyons of Park City is just what I need.

C-B