Neys

Suddenly realised mid-ride that I could no longer pedal backwards (not usually a great concern, I grant you); the chain just wouldn't run through, and every hill also felt more and more like a mountain. Weird, but maybe it'd fix itself, I thought optimistically.

It didn't. Next morning I realised my bottom jockey wheel would barely spin and that the road hadn't been more mountainous, or winds stronger, just that my bike was working against me, putting loads more strain on the chain.

Hello mech fail #2

I carry spare chain, cables, derailleur hangers, etc but jockey wheels last lifetimes....or they should... perhaps this was the results of the claggy mud episode. Bugger. I managed to remove the gunk at the expense of scratching something off which I guess was the water-tight seal. 🫤

Simple mech stuff I can do.... fiddling with the guts of single-point-of-failure parts when I haven't a spare makes me a little nervous.

Minor heart attack when, during cleaning, the bearings-cover popped off and I was milliseconds away from watching the little ball bearing blighters scatter down the plughole. They didn't - saved by the gunk. Good gunk.

Eventually I got it free-running but it was on borrowed time... 200miles till the next bike shop. 🤞

...

Added to that another tent pole has now broken... the joint has disappeared inside the pole. I'm running out of gaffa tape and splints to fix this piece of crap; MSR have some explaining and refunding to do, and I have a skeewiff tent (no wonky erection jokes necessary Cowboys).

...

To balance the woes...
I was in Neys Provincial Park when someone shouted "We think you guys are amazing!" - a couple wandering past my campsite. They'd seen a few similar cyclists en route and were impressed. We chatted, and they left but then the guy returned 10 minutes later saying "My wife can't help but mother people... she's said you'll definitely need some of our homemade rhubarb cake to get you over those hills." handing me a cling-wrapped wodge of cake and taking a quick picture of me.

Happiness equilibrium reestablished.Read more