blood & blackberry juice

You know you're having a bad day when.....you fall in the BlackBerry bramble and figure its not such a bad place to hide out the rest of the day...

This was day 5 of 5 days in a row cycling to/from work. I had bad cramps and didn't really want to ride but I didn't want to ruin my streak of riding 5 days in a row. Turns out my streak is only 4.5 days.

As I'm riding up a hill 3/4 of the way to work, my pedal pops off and I land in the blackberry bushes. As I'm laying there thinking it’s not such a bad place to hide-out for the rest of the day, a nice lady came to help me and untangle me from the wreck.

I've got some serious road rash on the one leg and multiple bruising but no serious damage as the blackberry bramble seemed to break my fall. After gathering my composure and my busted-off pedal I started on the rest of the way to work. On foot. Did you know you cannot pedal a bike with only one pedal? I could only ride the downhill spots. I'm covered in a mixture of blood & blackberry juice when I arrive at work.

Turns out the pedal didn't actually break off, it unscrewed! The bike shop had put the pedal on backwards. Apparently the one pedal is supposed to be a reverse screw so that it doesn't unscrew as you're pedalling the bike. Nice. I am not going back to that bike shop, not only for this reason but also for something they did to a friend of mine. And to think I've been faithful to them for over almost two decades.

Ironically, I would have figured this pedal problem out myself next week when I'm scheduled to take a bike maintenance course. Thank you, Murphy, for your impeccable timing. I wonder, too, if I had of looked down at my pedal before mounting the bike that morning if I would have noticed it was sticking out more than usual or something? oh well, live and learn.

This was one of the worst days in recent memory which had started out with losing my keys, temporarily, thanks to some honest soul. Reminds me that there are things to be thankful for after such a rotten day.

Two more things I realized I'm thankful for: that it was my right pedal and that it fell off while I was on a trail, not in traffic. That would have been disastrous!

Update: got the bike back - cost $98 to replace the pedals, shaft, bearings (whole new casing).... These ones better last! I'm also going to take the old set to the old bike shop to see if they take any responsibility. Most likely a waste of my time...