Instant Karma Gets Me

Either someone is looking out for me or I'm cursed. I don't know which.

Instant karmas gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head

I mentioned the car issues and the dog bite that happened on vacation. Well, today I was using DH's car because he needed my car for something and my beloved bike almost had a tragedy.

My car has a trailer hitch that we use to attach the bike rack. DH's car has a bike rack on the roof. I spent a long time putting the bike on the car. I removed it several times to be sure that I got it on there just right. Still, I was very nervous about the situation. I had plans to attend a Bike MS team event about 30 miles from home. The whole drive to Sanford I kept on leaning forward to look at front wheel and confirm that it was still safely attached to the car but apparently, I someone did not secure my bike properly. I was literally two houses away from my destination when The Incident occurred. I turned the corner and my bike became dislodged and was hanging on the roof of my car at a 90 degree angle, attached by only it's rear wheel. That is bad. Very bad. I flagged down a teammate and with his help I was able to get the bike off the car. In the process, we saw that the wheel rim had some fairly major damage.

Fortunately, the team mechanic (how cool is it that our team has a mechanic?!) was on site and he said that a wheel from 9-speed Trek, like, say, the Trek 2200 that DH has been using, could used on My 10-speed Madone while the damaged wheel was replaced. The ride that I had planned on joining was leaving at this point but someone said that a group doing a shorter route was leaving in an hour. I went home, got the Trek 2200 and went back to Sanford. The mechanic and the group had waited for me. Our awesome mechanic, Fred, took the wheel from the 2200 and and put it the Madone and he moved the bike cassette to the replacement as well.

At this all but one member of the group left. Bob stayed with me with the plan that we would do a pursuit of the other team members when my bike was ready. Bob and I left and all was well for about a block at which time I realized that I could not change from the little ring to the big ring. We went back and Fred was still there. He did a temporary fix on the derailleur, which was bent when the incident occurred.

Bob and I left and were able to catch the other group. I had a nice ride. I must have looked just the tiniest bit stressed during all of the pre-ride chaos because when we got back, someone said to me, "Did the ride help?" I said, "Yes!"

After getting some recommendations on local bike shops that are good with wheels (wheels are kind of a speciality thing and not all shops are good with them), I hauled the broken wheel to a shop in Cary.

How can I help you?

My wheel has had a bad day (hands wheel)

Oh! It did have a bad day, didn't it. What happened? (examines wheel)

It was all my fault. The bike was on top of the car -- until it wasn't.

We've have had a lot of problems with these rims cracking. I see other cracks. (points out cracks in several places where the spokes and rim meet). You may have caused the final issue with it but it was coming. Let's try a warranty repair on this.

I am now crossing my fingers that the repair is completed before Bike MS and Cycle North Carolina.

Was it good karma that this happened near my final destination at a time when a bike mechanic was on site or bad karma that it happened at all? Blessed or cursed?