Cycling mishaps and buying another bike. The Charriot 2.0 An Ozark Trail Ridge.

 

I knew that it was only a matter of time before my Mongoose Deception I bought sometime in 2010 or 2011 was going to fail. I never put any parts on it parts on it over those years and had put quite a few miles on it over time. I bought it before I knew if I liked mountain biking so it was mostly a see if  I like the sport type bike. My main worries at the time of buying it were it had to have disk brakes, it needed quick release, and it needed to be able to ride a trail. I was living in a condo at the time and had a very small car so these things were needed to get the bike stored in a small storage shed and put into a trunk of a car. I am saying all of this because for a few years it was just not taken care of all that well and bought it just to see if I liked mountain biking. Not that I abused it but I just did not care much about it. I ended up moving and having more space and I liked mountain biking so I bought a Specialized mountain bike. After years of not riding bikes at all I started this blog and I got back into it but I was going solo and riding either my Specialized or the new Ozark Trail G1 Explorer I bought. The Mongoose Deception seemed like it had no purpose to me any more other than a friend bike or a bike that I did not care if it was stolen from the grocery store. Though to reframe that a bit I would be very upset if any bike of mine was stolen from anywhere just more that it was the oldest cheapest and most broken down bike I had so it would be the least impact to me. Anyway I mentioned to my spouse that we should take the kids on ride as my daughter likes bikes and my son just old enough to sit in the kid cart with not issues. I was not about to put the cart on the gravel bike or the mountian bike as well I did not want them ruined or used only for pulling kids I had uses for them but the Mongoose Deception was just sitting around collecting dust. It became the perfect bike to pull the cart. 

When I first set up the Mongoose Deception to pull the cart with the kids I knew it needed some work so I started to work on it and see what it needed and make sure it was a safe bike to ride. The brakes needed to be tightened and cleaned, the twist shifters needed to be fixed, the rear derailleur needed adjustments, and then the worst parts I saw some fraying on most of the shifting cables and housing. These problems were mostly resolvable and the fraying was not too bad but it was an issue that I would have to solve next season as I did not think the cables would last next season. I knew that one thing was safe and it was the biggest thing. I make sure the brakes stopped the bike and the cables on those were safe so it was mostly shifting that would have to be solved. I had a number of things I was going to have to replace on the bike shifters, derailleurs, brakes, and the front fork as it lost some of its travel. Overall though bike was rideable and safe as I could stop it and all the parts did work...

Yesterday is where the problems happened with this bike. I was on our normal morming ride and I was noticing some extra noise but nothing too crazy its an old bike with a cart it could have been the kids it could have been just what ever with the bike it was riding okay so no issues I thought. I got 10 miles into the ride and then it happened I shifted up a gear and insead of going into the correct chain ring the chain just fell in between the cogs and lodged itself in there. With out the chain being on a cog there is no spinning which means the bike is not going to move anymore. I stopped the bike got off on the side of the trail and took a look the whole cassette or freehub ( I don't know which one this bike has the part that holds the all the chain rings.) was able to move aroun and the smalled cog was wedged into the frame of the bike. I did not know how bad the damage of things would be but I figured I would take the wheel off and try and get something together to limp back home with. As I took the wheel off the whole thing started to fall apart with chain rings falling on the ground... I got them back in order with their spacers but they did not fit anymore. The smallest cog did not fit and the securing screw cog did not screw in if I had it on there. I am still not sure how exactly these things broke the way they did but they were not going to go back together and even if I tried the bumps that hold them into place were worn down so it might just spin around on the wheel and not move it anyway so I took two of the smallest cogs off the bike and got the securing cog to screw back into place enough that it was going to keep things in order but the order and the shifting was going to be VERY off. I adjusted the rear derailleur to the middle cog and made sure if would shift up one and down one and then attached the cart back up and and slowly rode back home. Where I made it home safe with out any other mishaps, I glad the one thing I cared the most about were the brakes as they might have been old but they still stop the bike and did so perfectly. 

This left me upset not able to ride the weekend with my kids or have a bike for errends that I did not care much about. Thats when I remembered there was a bike swap happening a few town away from me so I figured we should go take a look there and see if I can find a replacement for the Mongoose... I have mentioned this before and I will say it again.. You can get a good deal at a bike swap, local bike shop, or what ever clasified ads place you use but the only bikes that were halfway decent for my needs were way over bike for me and too much money. I saw a very nice Pinarello road bike I could have used instead of my gravel bike or the Specialized Stumpjumper with added parts but Pinarello was a 10 year old model and 1,000 dollars and the Specialized Stumpjumper was 800 but beaten to pulp. Both bikes would have worked for getting a deal on a bike sure but I was looking for something cheaper that I cared less about. I did see plenty of bikes in the 100 dollar range but I would rather just spend the repair money and fix my Mongoose at that price. All the 100 dollar bikes had rim brakes and nothing fully agent rim brakes but I had them years ago as a kid on my BMX bike and I vastly prefer disk brakes over rim. Yes even cheap machanical disk brakes as I can replace the rotors and pads cheaper and easier than replacing a whole rim or fiddling with the stupid v braking lever thing that never seems to attach right and fails at the wrong time. Anyway I just prefer disk brakes over rim is the point there. I really do wish that the bike swap had a bit more like somehting I could use for what I wanted it for but alas nothing was found. The bike swap was near a local bike shop and near a Walmart. 

I was going to go to the bike shop and look at what they had but this bike shop was rude to me in the past and made me feel like I should not be in there because I wanted to save some money and buy something on sale or used and they just did not like me asking any questions so I went to Walmart. I liked my Ozark Trail G1 gravel bike so I might just buy another or just a cheap replacement for the Mongoose and get back to riding with the kids. I looked around and saw a few things that were cheap but they were Walmart cheap bikes. They were the kind of bikes where I start pulling the kid cart around and or doing anything other than just riding myself about the bikes would fall apart. Cut corners on things and very cheap parts that just looked wrong. I should not want a quick release on a bike with disk brakes that I am pulling the kid with but I am also not going to get stuck with a nut getting loose on a trail and having to try to use a multi tool to fix it. I did not see any Ozark Trail bikes at all at first so I thought I was out of luck and just going to go home and get something online. Then I saw an Ozark Trail Ridge off to the side. It was size small which is perfect for me and looked to be set up at least okay enough to give a check over at home and be happy with it. I have seen some bikes at Walmart that I would not bother checking over like stripped crank arms so the peddels are about to fall off and the only fix is new crank arms. Anyway bought it took it home and we it up.

This bike was a little more than I wanted to spend on a bike at the moment but it has all the features of a good bike and has more modern gearing than my Specialized which is 10 years old at this point anyay so its due for some work but that is another day. After an hour of set up and swapping things around I was ready for a round two bike ride for the day. I put the kids in the cart and off we went for another ride. The Ozark Trail Ridge rides so much nicer than the old Mongoose and it rides fairly close to my Specialized. The Ridge being a 1x9 was new to me and I was worried that there would not be enough low end to pull the cart up hills but I had the opposite problem. I was able to get moving around quicker than I thought and was looking for more top end as I was spinning out even with the trailer attached. I was not expecting that to happen as I don't go super fast with the kids on the back. It was not every time and it was not all the time just on a few of the flats and some of the downhill sections. The up hill sections were very easy to ride I had much less isues than on the Mongoose which again made me see how bad that bike really was. After this first ride I can not wait to go back out and ride again with the kids. 

If you are wondering why I bought a bike like the Ozark Trail Ridge instead of like a cruiser bike or something less mountain bike well the anser there is very simple the kids are only going to be young for so long and just a few years the whole kid cart thing will be a thing of the past so I wanted a bike that I could take the attachment off of and have a bike that I enjoy riding and something that I can use by myself as well. I would not ride something with a cruiser geometry by myself I like to either go fast or go on trails and things so that kind of just flat riding does not suit me the best. Also I still have the Mongoose and I am going to take a try at repairing the hub mostly just to see if I can and to still have my I really don't care bike around. I am not holding out hope though and I wont spend a cent on it as things look beyond repair with out putting money into it. 

I am off to continue the journey! Have a wonderful day and thank you very much for reading!