Well that was weird. Cascade should be able to relate to this.
Got 7.5 miles out on my ride. Did the first long climb no problems. At 7.5 I turn onto Butler aka the road of doom, haha. The gateway to Butler is a "wall" about 400 yards long that is as steep as you'll find. Full on granny gear and I have a climbing cassette (low gearing).
Hit the wall, start pedaling in granny, and suddenly all hell breaks loose with my gears... won't stay in gear.... I almost do the slo-mo faceplant because I'm clipped to my pedals and going like 3 mph but I got unclipped.
Long story short my bike has internal cable routing and the rear derailleur cable broke or otherwise failed. Cable tension pulls the derailleur towards the frame (bigger cogs, lower gears) while spring pressure pulls it away from the frame. Sans cable tension the derailleur defaulted to its highest gear/smallest cog.
Problem was, big-ass climb between me and home and no cell service. So I climbed that damn thing in my highest gear. Pedals barely moving it seemed, but going 6-7 mph. Like a stair stepper on high resistance. I've never done a climb like that. I might again. It pounded my quads I think in a good way.
