Convenient Accident

Had a minor scare on Saturday... Four of us were out west of London doing a ~110km loop. We were heading home and getting to within 20km of the end. My left shin was again complaining, which was not nice.

I crossed a double set of train tracks, and they were on the bumpy side. Suddenly there was a snap, and a clatter, and my bike seat fell out from under me. Visions of jagged metal under my ... uh seat sprang into my thoughts and I quickly took my weight on my pedals and stood up as I braked. My bike seat was on my rackpack, and the pieces that held it to the seat post were rolling around on the ground. It turns out that the bolt that holds it all in place had snapped completely in two.

But this is what cell phones were invented for, after all, so I called home to tell Heather to come and get me ..... and got our voicemail. No one there.

But hey, we know some folks from church who only live a couple km away ..... but my fellow rider Albert told me they were on vacation.

Not knowing exactly what to do, I gathered up the pieces and the four of us started cycling along slowly, as I pedaled standing up. Then came a providential surprise, as not even 200 meters down the road we passed a Honda Equipment dealer/garage that was open. We showed the guy our snapped bolt and and he quickly produced a bolt with a matching thread, and loaned me a wrench to snug it down tightly (It was just a regular bolt, not one designed for a bike, or for bike tools.)

No charge, just a smile. We are in the hands of providence! We had rolled through many, many, km of open countryside where we would have had real fun trying to solve this, but instead the breakdown happened in exactly the right place.