Nobody said this would be easy

That’s the kind of headline you’d expect to read after the first week or so of this cross-country ride. But it works for the prelude, too. (By the way, we’ve built a website to document the ride. You can see it here.)

Less than two weeks ago, I suffered a mechanical failure when the left-side pedal (crank) mysteriously separated from the bike (though remained fastened to my foot, thanks to the toe clips).

The remnants of a well-traveled crankset. New one was awesome — and expensive.

That threw me for a loop. After a little finagling for a ride (see photo — thanks, Amidei!!), I was driven to a bike shop 25 miles from home (but, luckily, just a few miles from the breakdown and just around the corner from Amidei’s house).

If you’re in Lake Forest, Ill., please visit this guy. He’s a saint with a green thumb.

The fellas at the Trek shop were great. The original crank set was shot. I opted to “trade up” with a new crank at considerable expense. This came about 3-4 weeks after I replaced the rear wheel, which had suffered a fatal crack. That happened a couple of months before a complete tuneup, where I replaced the chain and had the bike in tip-top condition. Or so I thought. (This is kind of a reverse chronology. Sorry if it’s confusing.)

Anyway, back to today. A few rides after I got the new crankset, I noticed a “clicking” sound on the downstroke whenever I was peddling hard. It was more annoying than anything, but it seemed like something I should get “checked out” before we headed out to Oregon. Since we’re leaving Tuesday (June 7) to drive to San Francisco (for a film festival) and then up to Oregon on June 12/13, it seemed like NOW would be a good time to get it checked out.

Welllllll … let’s just say it’s a good thing I stopped by my friends at Trek Highland Park. They’re not Felt (my bike brand) dealers, but I figured they were good to me before so I would stop back in and see if they could troubleshoot for me. Turns out, that “clicking” sound was easy to diagnose. Broken frame. Total loss. Panic. Fear. Loathing. And a few moments of relief that I didn’t “learn” of the broken frame while racing downhill in the Cascades or something. Yikes.

It’s hard to see, but the frame broke right at the weld, just above that copper-colored thing-a-ma-bob here. Remarkably, it didn’t come apart during the past few outings, including Sunday’s 50-mile ride in Northern Wisconsin. Could have been ugly.

Where does that leave me? Well, bike-less for today. And tomorrow. But my Trek friends located a great Felt dealer, so I raced downtown and brought the bike in to Mox Multisport. Troy took a quick look and helped me sort through the options. He said as long as I had the original receipt, it’s possible Felt will come through with a new frame. Great bike manufacturers, both Troy and the fellas at the Trek dealership said, usually warranty for structural failures such as the one I experienced.

The receipt, though. That could be tricky. It had been a while since I bought the bike at Boehm’s in Saint Paul. I’ve had a great relationship with that bike shop for more than a decade and I was hopeful they hadn’t undergone any recent computer upgrades. I was in luck. Mike at Boehm’s located my receipt in minutes. He quickly emailed it to me and I got it into Troy’s hands, who in turn sent it on to Felt. Now we wait.

But, of course, there’s not much time to wait. I’ve got a few days before we leave. If Felt comes through, Troy said he’d piece the bike together with the many solid components off my old bike — including the $400-plus crank set and $300 rear wheel. I’ll add some new shoes and clips and a new aerobar. But at least I get to salvage something.

And, I guess, if it all turns out, I’ll be starting the ride with what will essentially be a new bike. I’ll be a little poorer, to be sure, but that’s a far sight better than hurtling off a broken bike in the mountains of Oregon.

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