First technical issues

I could feel the first serious signs of fatigue in Myanmar. As for my bike, it was in Thailand !

Maybe being left apart, while my mum and I were roadtripping and learning massage, did not please him ? Most probably : I should have checked its condition and "taken care" better about him before getting back on the road...

Anyway, it was complicated to reach the meditation center, 65 km north of Chiang Mai. It only started with a flat tire. A classic but since it was the first time it happened, I only then found out that my spare tubes were compatible neither with my pump nor with the wheel itself !! (shrader valve, while both my shitty tiny pump and my wheel could only fit presta valves !)

But as often in my hardships, I was lucky. A lady on a scooter stopped by and came back to me with a pump. At seeing that the tube would not fit in anyway, she gave me a ride to a little shop, while a friend of hers stayed to watch over my bike and luggage... Incredibly sweet of them.

The repairman also went for a ride to fetch a presta tube but could not find any. So, big difficulties, big solutions : we started piercing the rim, so that the shrader tube would fit in. I was so worried about breaking it that I ended the job myself. It was a radical solution but it worked. The two ladies were so kind as to insist on pumping up the new tube themselves.

The whole process lasted 2 hours. A shameful performance for my former fellow desert bike riders in Kuwait, where the Germans especially - obsessed with efficiency - were always competing for being the fastest to change a tube ! Their performance would have ranged from 2 to 3 minutes rather than 2 hours...
I arrived late at Pa Pae after riding a long time in the dark and in the hills... and missed the first introductory meditation session !

But the story was not over. 50 meters after leaving the meditation center a few days later, new flat tyre. I then noticed that the wheel was actually pierced with 4 or 5 holes, each the size of a finger nail ! Again fortunate in my harships, I found a bike shop across the road. A neat old man helped me fix this with several sticky patches to block the holes. The bike felt very unbalanced and I had to both pray and avoid any bumbs, holes or thorns on the road back to Chiang Mai... but I made it ! My first stop was a bicycle shop, where I bought a new tire. The so called flatless Schwalbe Marathon will have lasted for 2500 km. Not so bad.

This was also the day of other travelers : I met another cyclo-traveler - with luggage and everything- on the road to Pai. The first one in my entire trip ! The guy from the bicycle store also told me about a french family travelling around the world and about a french guy living in chiang mai but preparing his ride back home. The French cycling touch 😉

Last - but not least - the day was brightened by... very funny policemen. I met a few that day. Every time they would see me from afar, they started doing a little dance, miming a bicycle rider by moving their hips around and doing circles with their arms, while laughing a lot ! I wish policemen in France could resemble these guys a bit more...Read more