A Shoe String and a Prayer

When Casey Gordon touched down after a brief flight through the air on his mountain bike, he found out his screams of joy while air borne might be put to better use. On the trail behind where he was about to land were scattered all the parts that mattered from his rear disc brake. He managed to bring the bike to a stop without incident, then went back to look for the rest of his bike.

As the group following him gathered to assess the damage we realized he had one big problem. Casey had found the brake pads, but no spring, and no pin to hold them in place. Although the floor of Palo Duro Canyon is largely flat, there are enough down hills and whooptedoos to make biking without a rear brake a little too exciting.

Most of us were envisioning Casey’s long trek back to camp and an even longer weekend without being able to ride. While most of us grieved for him, Beverley Anderson put her mind to work looking for a substitute for the missing pin. As she scoured the desert floor she found nothing sturdier than a prickly pear cactus needle. She continued looking until she noticed what was right at her feet, or should I say on her feet: her shoe laces. Her idea was to use the sturdy end of the shoelace that is plastic coated to replace the pin. Most of us wrote off the idea, but her engineer husband, Scott Whittet, came at her with a knife. He wasn’t mad, he just wanted the shoelace.

Scott had decided the pin didn’t need to be rigid, it just needed to keep the brake pads in place so they could put pressure on the disc. He threaded the shoelace through the brake where the pin should go, and tied it off in a cute bow. It was a rather dubious looking setup.

The test of course was whether it would stop the bike – more than once would be preferable. It did stop the bike all morning for a nineteen mile ride. It also stopped the bike all the next morning when Casey went out in the desert for a solo 40 mile ride.

A good bike ride is more than getting down the path as quickly as you can. It’s all about the journey, the comradery, and dealing with adversity. Of course sometimes it’s fun to just ride.