Someone or something obviously doesn’t want me to leave this state – Am I forgetting something? Should I be going to a specific city or place? I don’t know – all I know whatever’s happening is causing all sorts of chaos in my world right now making it difficult to enjoy the journey at this stage. Problems are persisting, and this is going to be another post with a lot of negative aspects to it. I was always told to write whether good or bad, so that when you have the bad days you can look back and see that it really isn’t so bad and soon will pass, as everything does. In the midst of it however it tests your patience, the desire to keep going, and impacts your mind and body in ways one couldn’t imagine.
I knew I was in for a climb the next morning after the last post but certainly didn’t expect the steep grades that it through at me through windy roads with no services for 40 miles. Luckily I had enough water to get a coffee in me before the day had started at 6am and I moved forward. The hills though, something else – Obviously I’m out of shape from riding in fairly flat land for the past few months and I struggled for a whole 6 hours to get up the hills. Stopping regularly at the side of the road on my back with legs up listening to music trying to muster up the strength to make the summit of the hill hoping it would be the last until the next one came by. Amazingly enough I saw a few road cyclists coming the opposite direction, I guess if that’s your thing climbing hills then so be it – I don’t understand the roadies anyways. With no more than a passing look they whizzed past me not responding to my morning callouts, nods, or finger waves. The final hill just about nearly made me throw up as I reached the top and noticed a small store on the left hand side, with someone yelling at me.
I never caught this guys name, in tattered clothes, wide eyes and talking a mile a minute telling me that he was from Canada too, although really couldn’t tell me where, and kept on talking away in his monologue before asking for change or anything else. I made polite conversation and noticed another shop 200 ft. away that served coffee, and I headed over inside of it to get some charging and upload the last post. It was late in the day and their batch of coffee was out so they made me a double Americano at the same cost and I sat down to rest my aching legs and knees which have become quite the throbbing beasts as of late. My ass is starting to hurt regularly and I’ve moved to applying a cream onto the affected parts just to make sure that no cracking occurs, but still it creates quite the pain while riding – now solved by chomping down on 4 Ibuprofens every couple of hours.
Another cyclist showed up while I was in the coffee shop, again talking a mile a minute – not a roadie, not a mountain biker, just a cyclist who ended up in the area after living in Florida for a while. Nice fellow and I neglected to get his name while we chatted about basic cycling aspects and why cars just aren’t doing it for us. I felt a drop of rain while talking and figured that this might be the time to put a cover over my saddle and put some of my electronics away, not knowing what to expect at 7000ft elevation. Apparently this area had been under a drought for some time as well shutting down the National Forests in the area, although they had reopened just a few days earlier as the rain seem to come on cue at 1:30pm daily. At 2:00pm the skies were grey and the coffee shop owner flipped her sign to closed so I headed inside to pack up my gear and refill my water bottles. All the sudden a huge sound shook the walls of the building and the shop owner told me that maybe I should stay for a bit to let the rain pass. I said it would be no big deal, I haven’t seen rain in months and wouldn’t mind the soakage – that is until it came and started coming down in full on sheets soaking everything in site and causing a small flood on the ground outside. I proceeded to unpack my electronic gear and mucked around on the internet for a bit getting the last little bit of juice to charge my laptop when the owner told me that I should unplug my power outlet from the wall as she has regular power surges. Less than 30 seconds later she came out again from the back and asked me if I was alright as her electronics just shorted out in the back room and smoke was coming out of her TV – close! The rain lasted for about 30 minutes before turning into light sprinkles and I said my goodbyes and headed out to make my last 40km of the day – Hoping to go past Albuquerque after I took care of some errands at the Best Buy and deal with some shipping at the Post Office. Not knowing what to expect I headed out and went down the first hill – Barely making 20 pedal strokes before I was ripping down hairpin turns at 60km/h. At the 10km mark I had to pedal for another 50 strokes or so before hitting the next hill which I kid you not took me another 15km and dropping 400 metres. This was easy riding as I had a great shoulder on the road, beautiful rockwork to admire and the odd bicycle dressed up on the side of the road obviously to pay respect to someone who was involved in an accident. Sad – I heard that the road I was on was a popular route on the weekends for cyclists and the coffee shop being the turnaround point. In less than 45 minutes from when I left the shop I was in the city of Albuquerque still flying downhill where I took care of some returning of a faulty gadget at Best Buy. Riding through the city I passed a few hotels along the way advertising rates at $42 a night, and a KOA campsite, both of these luxuries going into my thought patterns that I should splurge for myself and just call it a day – the night before I had found an alternate route to Moab Utah that shaved 150km off of the initial route, with a few hills thrown in for good measure – Google Maps also told me another route that shaved 165km off the original route, yet while reading I was turned off by the fact it wanted me to turn onto another Pipeline road – No thanks!
Beside the Best Buy was a hotel that didn’t look flashy in the slightest and had fading signs advertising nightly stays of 27.95 – I was doing it. I walked into the facility where the staff were guarded by plate glass and many signs advertising no loitering were taped up in and out and asked them about the availability – True enough there was a room for $27.95, bottom floor to get my bike in, shower, TV with HBO (meh), a pool, and wireless internet! Also was free coffee and donuts in the morning so I slapped down my credit card and off we went. I made a comment about the glass panes and the attendant told me that “We’re in the Wild Wild West Bro!” and left it at that, giving me 15 minutes to get a refund on the room if it was a dump. It was spacious, had a huge bed, the water had good pressure, and there was air-conditioning – even though it was a balmy 85 degrees out. I unloaded my bicycle and headed up to the Post Office with only my food pannier and dealt with mailing out a package and stocking up on some dinner. With some creative purchasing I managed to pick up a 12 piece bucket of fried chicken, a huge bag of grapes, 4 peaches and a 2 litre of cream soda for under $7 and was quite content with the find while riding back to the hotel. I arrived to find the attendant standing outside, and while he made conversation about my bicycle he told me that after I was settled in I needed to come back to see him and bring my credit card – I asked why, and he said there is something I need to do. My credit card company is aware that I’m traveling and there is more than enough extra funds on it as I don’t use it for credit purposes, just an easier way to purchase and not have to carry bills and change with me around and I was wondering what was up.
I headed over with my card and he pulled out a photocopy of a bad ass looking man’s picture, scowl on his face with a big moustache and bald head. Oh shit, they must be thinking I’m a criminal I thought before reading the name a bit further. “We got this by fax machine just a few minutes ago” the attendant said, at precisely the moment I recognized the name and then finally the picture. I guess when I had arrived in my room I had posted on Twitter/Facebook that I finally caved and bought my first hotel of the trip. One of my readers, and actually the first and only person to come riding with me for a bit hunted down where I was staying and told them that all charges were to be taken care of by him. Flabbergasted I laughed loudly while the attendant smirked and told me that he had a great conversation with him and that I must have some good friends. In fact, I do! Looking forward to seeing them in September upon my return. I floated back to my room with a huge smile on my face and gorged on my dinner before heading into the shower washing off the 3 days of muck, dust, and grease from my body before throwing my clothes in the bathtub and giving them a wash. I stayed awake until about 10:30pm before zonking out in the comfortable bed although waking up multiple times throughout the night with a confusion of where I was and dreaming of being in Africa. I slept in until 8 and headed directly to the lobby to get at the coffee and donuts – Likely they may rethink this offer as I put away 3 big refills in my coffee cup and ate a dozen donuts before packing up and setting off on my newly discovered route to Moab.
I think I mentioned before that I was having problems while riding as of late, noticing a creaking/clicking sound to the tune of about 20 per revolution. The problem has only started since I had my first puncture in Bastrop, TX and I’ve been wondering how to deal with it ever since, stopping one day and fiddling with the grip shifter cables, changing the Rohloff Oil, and greasing the chain. The other day in the desert it was very loud after not giving any issues for 700km and I was worried a problem with the hub was about to occur in short order. I spent some time on the Thorn Cycles forum and noticed that a few other people were exhibiting problems while similar but not exact. From what I can understand – is that due to a straight line chain system like the one I have the chain can run for many more kilometres than a typical chain running with a derailleur based system. 10-15,000 kilometres is a common distance that a standard chain can last as it is always running in a straight line and contacting only two chain rings at one time. While wear occurs, the chain finds a comfortable spot between the cogs and simply wears away at the drivetrain. When it’s finally worn down to sharp spikes you can flip the chain rings around and go at it again with a new chain. Derailleur based systems force you to change your chain regularly or purchase a new cassette along with a chain as a new chain on an old cassette will cause slipping due to the wearing down of the teeth like mentioned above. I experienced this issue with my Surly Long Haul Trucker and based on the miles I was putting on it decided that it would be in my best interest financially to go with the more expensive Rohloff components. Some of the people on the forum mentioned that if the chain is out of phase from where it was before (let’s say you have a flat or take off the chain while doing some work and put it on again not in the exact location) one would suffer from loud noises until the chain finally found its groove (ha) and got used to the new position. They also mentioned that tightening of the bottom bracket would be a good idea (My bottom bracket is eccentric, meaning it rotates so that I can slack or tighten the chain against the rings for when the chain is new, or when it is stretched – a derailleur based system has extra pulleys and tensioners to avoid this issue, at a cost of replacing the pulleys regularly and one more thing to fail). I fiddled around with the chain and moved it 8 teeth from where it was (I have 16 teeth in my rear ring) and hoped for the best.
When I headed out to start this mornings ride the usual clicking and grinding sound was back, obviously I didn’t fix the problem. Regardless I decided that I was going to ride anyways and hope it quieted down, thinking I would give it 300km. I am prepared to buy a new chain ring, chain and front ring when I get to Vancouver, along with the required tool to remove the existing rings so that I have spares when I am in Africa, but certainly not ready at this time – it’s too soon for anything to fail on me. Pedaling through the hostile morning traffic I had my first honks from aggressive drivers that I’ve had in a few months and I made a point to wave at them sometimes with my whole hand, and since I didn’t have all the time to extend all of them – the middle finger. 3km I looked down and noticed that my rear wheel was flat – so I pulled into the first gas station I saw. Frustrated, but knowing that it was early in the day and maybe I could shift the chain a few more teeth to solve the clicking problem I set forth on tearing my bike apart in the middle of the parking lot, making conversation with a few of the people who were coming by to inflate their tires or get gas. It was a popular station as they offered free air – usually it’s $1.00 or something absurd like that. C’mon North America! I patched the tire and set off to clean my hands, coming back to find the rear wheel deflated yet again. I took it off one more time and looked for a puncture – I couldn’t find one the last time and surely this time I was going to find it. Mystery Flats are always a source of confusion – is it the valve? Is it a pinch of the tube and the tire? I found a small micro hole and put it back together and headed directly to the home improvement store and picked up a .99 cent air pressure gauge, knowing that the last time I had a flat on the road I had no idea how much air I was putting in, which turned out to be half of what I usually ride at (I ride at 60psi in the rear, and 50psi in the front). I also plucked many thorns out of my tire, even though they hadn’t gone through yet – frustrated as Schwalbe has come back to me after submitting a warranty claim and said everything is OK with my tires even though I am noticing premature wear and weird issues on the inside of the tire. As I passed a bicycle shop I popped in to check out what they had to offer and they were nice enough to sell me a Schwalbe Marathon 26×2.00” tire at dealer cost just in case I entered into some weird situations while riding, very nice of them. I rode off trying to get to where I needed to be backtracking a few times before finally ending up on Interstate 25 for 12km heading downhill most of the way before I stopped for a quick breather, had an orange and checked the time. It was already 1pm and I had made barely 20km for my day, hoping to make 130km. I kept moving and headed out onto route 550 – the same road I’ll be taking for the next 300 kilometres putting me into the state of Colorado. It was boring for the most part, but fairly easy even though there were some climbs and I moved slowly trying not to upset my ass or my knees until I felt my handling go all astray again knowing I had another flat. I stopped at a makeshift roadside cross and flipped my bike up side down after removing all the bags setting forth to deal with the puncture in the rear one more time. I couldn’t find anything on the outside and spotted a hole on the inner side of the tube against the rim, wondering if a spoke had poked through and caused the puncture yet I couldn’t find any problems. I patched it up and put the tire back on, this time after marking my chain and ring with some yellow paint so that I knew where the chain was and to try to solve the clicking issue. 2 minutes later while I was tightening up the rear wheel and putting the bags on it was flat again, so there I went again to solve the problem, peeling off the old patch, filing off the old glue with my Leatherman and applying a new one. Back together and good to go the it happened again, this time I was frustrated as I was losing valuable time in the day and it was starting to get hot out with the cloud cover moving away. Again, I put another patch on and put it back together – same thing. I’d eaten 2 hours dealing with this issue and I screamed pretty loudly and took the tire off, pulled out the tube and flung it 20 feet away like a Frisbee. I kept my old tube that I had been riding with knowing that I might need to use it one day and found out where the puncture was which was causing me problems – it turns out it was a bad patching job so I cleaned it up and put everything back together, finally getting the tire inflated properly (although only to 30psi, I was exhausted from pumping with the little crappy pump from Wal-Mart I picked up) and set off riding, hoping for the best. It took 25 kilometres until I found the next gas station which again was thankfully offering free gas and inflated the tires to their proper levels and washed up – so much for my shower the night before, my shirt is ruined covered in grease and my finger nails are black. The small town San Ysidro I was in offered little to nothing other than the gas station and I was advised the next town would be Cuba, 40 miles away up the road, with no hills they promised. I had 27km to go to meet my daily 100km target and off I went at 5:30pm with busy Route 550 traffic whizzing past me, mostly campers, trucks with bicycles in them and the odd semi trailer.
Rule #1 – when someone says there is no hills, it is because they are driving. I knew they were coming just didn’t know when, a steady climb from 4800 metres to 6200 metres, but I toughed it out while riding with little to no rolling resistance and my tire pressures holding properly. This is good, as I’ve only got one more patch left and a small amount of glue – I never figured I’d go through this many patches in such a short time, in fact the patch kit was purchased in 2009! Even though the climbs are taxing to the body, the scenery more than made up for it. I’ve entered into the areas that you see on all the postcards and hear about the South West of United states. Huge mountain faces smoothed by the winds creating unique formations along with various colours of brown and deep red were the only thing to see for miles. It’s also the area of a Navajo Indian reservation, so there is no stopping, camping, hunting, or trespassing. I passed many cars who were flashing their high beams at cars on my side and expected soon enough to see a speed trap before seeing a gruesome accident involving both sides of the highway, a few trailers, and four cars. I’m not sure what the full damage was, but certainly someone had perished due to the ambulances and support vehicles on scene. I didn’t ride for too much longer than that before realizing that there was only 20 minutes of sunlight left and found a little cubby hole beside the highway to spend the night. No way was I going to make Cuba tonight, and while it’s loud from the highway traffic (I can see their headlights and hear them passing less than 30 ft. away I should go undetected and will just wedge the earplugs in that much further.
I’m trying not to let the past few days events bother me to much going forward – This is the area I was looking forward to the most while traveling through the United States and these problems are starting to work on me bit by bit. I need a few good days of riding to clear my head, and be able to change the music that’s loaded up in the IPod, as I’ve now reverted to the emergency death metal and aggressive techno while riding just to keep my energy levels up and keep me moving. High hopes that tomorrow brings a perfect day.
