A Trail Too Far

I saw this war movie called A Bridge Too Far many years ago. It's about a covert unit sent to blow up a bridge. Straight forward operation except that the journey towards fulfilling the goal was full of obstacles and challenges.

Last Sunday ride was suppose to be straight forward. The plan was simple, Group A consisting fast and fit riders will ride the whole trail, Group B will try to complete as much of the Jamboree trail, Group C consisting of newbies will ride till they can't and then turn back.
Not that easy.

The obstacles came in the form of heavy rain and muddy path.
Nav showing off her brand new rims complete with fat tires.

Just as we were getting into the mood and warmed up, the red mud started to stick on the tires like super glue. It made our 2.20 tires look like down hill tires after a while and the worst was yet to come.

Wee YC with his brand new "single speed" Merida

The mud started to eat into the chain and went into the rear derailleur. First bike casualty was me when I felt a hard jam in the crank and saw the hanger twisted upwards. I knew that was the end of the ride for me and was prepared to push back. As group 3 was catching up, Susan said there's something wrong with her bike. The hanger snap and the rear derailleur was dangling. As we were assessing the damage, a shout was heard coming from the front. Group A came back and said Wee's hanger had broken off. Exactly the same angle as Susan's bike.

Susan showing the dangling rear derailleur

My precious with a bent hanger. She is now at Keong's bike shop and I was told this is a special size and hard to find a replacement. By hook or by crook, I will search the ends of the world for this hanger.

Keong cutting Susan's chain to convert the bike to single speed.

With 3 bikes having the same problem, we had to cut short the ride. If only I had read Ying How's article on KLMBH website a day earlier on "The Perfect Mountain Bike For Muddy Conditions", it would have saved the day and money as we now need to replace the spoilt parts.

It was coincidence that I came across this article that describe our experience, quoting from Gary Fisher in an interview about the future of bikes

....The problem is that derailleurs were never intended to be used in the muck and mud of mountain biking, and even today, they are little more than adapted road components.
“The derailleur systems we have work great on the road,” says Fisher, “but off road especially when you get into filthy, muddy conditions, man, it’s expensive to keep that going. A lot of [mountain bike transmission design] has been based on having a race team and a full time mechanic.”...