I made referance to the fact that I narrowly escaped disaster yesterday, but fell asleep that night before I could write about it. So here it is.
I was riding along mostly back country roads the whole morning, and had just recently turned onto a more major road (RT 17A). Things are going fine when all of a sudden I hear a “Ka-Kling!” sound. It could have been something as simple as me running over a coat hanger or somthing else but when I looked back, I didn’t see anything. So I look at where the trailer attaches to my bike and see that on of the retention clips had fallen out!
I get off my bike and turn it around so I can go back and look for the clip, since I don’t have much of the wire left to make new ones (have enough to make about four). When I started to turn the bike, the one side of the trailer popped off! This caused the other side to torque, which looks like it bent the already bent axle even more. I was horrified. If this axle goes, I don’t have another spare, and its unlikely the closest bike shop would stock it.
I put the trailer back on propperly and continued looking for the lost clip without any luck. I rode a about a mile to a library, where I took a break. I was there for about two hours for no real good reason other than procrastinating riding my bike in fear of it breaking.
All ended up working out fine. I rode another 40 – 50 miles on it that day, and another 50 – 60 miles on it today so I think I’m in the clear. I’m even more reluctant to take off the rear tire now though, so I hope I don’t get another flat. Its really too bad that this is the case because my tires could really be rotated, and being stuck in this rain would have been the perfect time to do it, but c’est la vie.