I got the bike running, and went on a really fun long ride yesterday. It was supposed to be a quick test ride to see if everything was working after I put on the new tire and everything, but it turned into an hour long ride, that ended in another disaster.
It was a warm beautiful night, and I went exploring through parts of the city I never visited. I rode up to cliffs that overlook the salt water and watched ferries go by, and I went to another part of the city where I saw overlooks of the downtown skyline. It was very cool, on this bike I go exploring and visit places, and talk to people that I never would in my car.
But as I was on my way home, several miles and several hills away, the chain started popping off the rear sprocket. I initially was able to put the chain back on but the master link eventually broke off. I was stuck again! I tried peddling but that was terrible, because I had knee surgery last year and I'm not quite recovered from that and also I'm temporarily anemic from a medical treatment I had to go through recently.
I eventually just put my bike on the front of a city bus, they have bike racks that are really convenient.
So the chain must have stretched or something, because I didn't have the tensioner on and the chain was tight when I left, but by the end of the trip it was very loose. How fast do these chains stretch? And do they stop stretching?