This group hadn’t cycled together in a long time. I was excited to join them on a ride to Kundang.
A few kilometres into the ride my left foot started wobbling. It felt like either the Speedplay cleat was loose on my shoe or a float adjustment screw had unwound.
At 6 km my left crank arm, attached to my shoe by the pedal, came off the axle. I spent a minute trying to reattach the crank arm, to no avail. Not having the tool I needed, a 10mm hex key, didn’t help.
Later I realised that having the right-sized hex key would not have helped. The self-extracting bolt on my SRAM crankset had snapped.
I had a single-leg workout to get back to the car park. Left crank arm in hand. With the additional need to apply an inward force to stop the chainring from moving outward and disengaging from the chain.
Fortunately, the 6 km back to the start was mostly downhill. ML was with me and provided a very helpful push on the inclines. I did have to walk up the hill at the 9 km point.
It was lucky we were only 6 km from the start when the crank arm came off.
Over to my LBS to get a replacement self-extracting crank bolt.
Old Roots, New Routes 