Big M

My 2008 Big M race??? I finished!! Race was going great until a branch hopped up into my drivetrain and tore my rear deraillure off at about mile 4.5 of 30.0... In an instant I knew just finishing would be the days challenge... Back very early in this hobby of mt biking I learned to stop pedaling and stop the bike, asap, when you hear the sound of something in the drivetrain, but this was one of those that it was all over by the time the sound reached my ears... When I looked to see the carnage there was a piece of a branch in my spokes and the rear deraillure was half way between the cassette and cranks... Hmmm... I have this "thing" about never quiting a race... I have only DNFed once in my life and that was with a broken collarbone at mile 42 during the 2005 lumberjack 100... So, I removed the chain, deraillure, the remaining chunk of the hanger, cable and housings... And decided to "scooter/push/coast" the bike back to the start area where I'd try and make the bike a singlespeed... I didn't even consider at the time, but making a singlespeed out of my full suspension bike makes the chain carry the load instead of the rear shock... Yikes!! That and I kinda goofed on the gear.. I thought without a deraillure the chain would want to fall to the smallest cog so that is how I tried to set it up.. I now know that the chain will find the straightest chainline... Anyway the rest of my ride.. 24 miles worth, I rode just to finish, walking lots of the hills not to bust the chain, and easy on the descents as I was also concerned with the rear wheel holding in the frame after removing the hanger... It was kinda cool, as people realized my struggle to finish, each time I rolled through the start finish area I'd get some nice cheers of support!!! :-)

..and if you look close I also lost a chainring bolt along the way..