"Ting"

Flickr seems to be having problems serving China. For now photos can be viewed on http://www.flickr.com/photos/israelholby/

So I was on the last switchback of a 650 meter climb about 40km into a 140 km ride in the Si Ming Mountains northwest of Fenghua this Sunday when I heard this "ting" noise and immediately I knew something was very wrong. I stopped, twice before I stopped looking at the components and noticed the huge break in the frame. There I was, stuck in taxi less China (quite a rarity), looking down rows of switchbacks with an unstable bike frame. At this point it occurred to me that I know two people here with cars, and I couldn't call either for a ride.

Saturday I and three others had ridden 155km of my new favorite weekend getaway. It is like night and day from riding in the cities, or small towns. Just winding concrete roads, a couple of cars an hour and endless mountain climbs. It's not all that high, topping out around 750meters, but when you start at seal level, and then go back down again a few times, that's really allot of work, and allot of white knuckled switchback descents.

So early Sunday morning I set out with Rock, a Chinese cyclist from Ningbo who didn't come out the day before and headed for a road that neither of us were sure where it would end up. No one has been able to find a good map of the area, though I'm working on piecing together one using my GPS. We met a large group of mountain bikers at a river crossing just before the climb so as I sat on the phone, yes, talking to my mom, I eventually had a huge crowd of cyclist studying my problem with my authentic Specialized S-Works M4 frame. It had broken where the seat stay and chain stay meet just above the derailleur hanger. I got plenty of recommendations on how I should have bought a cheaper (fake) local Specialized bike before Rock and I decided to try to make it back down the hill.

A few switchbacks and allot of burned rubber, the tire was rubbing against the chain stay, we heard a truck coming down the hill. We quickly dismounted, as to appear completely helpless, and waved the truck. We were able to talk them into giving us a ride to the nearest town where I paid a van 100RMB for the 25km ride back to the apartment.

Since then I've been trying to figure out if I can warrantee the frame. I found that China's first Specialized dealership is opening in Shanghai June 16th so hopefully I can get trade-in. High-end bike parts are generally much more expensive here than the U.S. and there's no eBay.

So yes, it is just a little break but it's basically like totaling my car here, only there's no insurance and no car dealerships around. For now I'm just glad it broke then and not 50 km further down the road. You can mail your sympathy cards to my work address attn me.