Thursday, July 26, 2012

Disaster Undisastered

The highlight of our rest day in Cuba other than doing very little was having Steven join us for dinner at El Bruno's. Margaritas, and New Mexican style Mexican food was whites by all. Being the awesome person that he is Steve also picked up a new crank bolt that Joshua had found at a shop in Albuquerque. Unfortunately as with most bike parts there are apparently as many standards of crank bolt sizes as there are Mosquitos trying to bite us as we write this, so despite the bolt's brand matching the cranks the inner bolt was about 1mm to small. The solution, naturally, was duct tape. A couple wraps and the bolt stayed in place with barely a wobble!

The next morning we split a pack of 8 cinnamon rolls, bought supplies for the next day and hit the rode choosing to take the dirt main route instead of the paved alternate that avoids the possibly very muddy New Mexican soil. The first mud puddle we rolled through should have been a good clue that this was a bad idea as us an our bikes came out looking like the mud monsters of our childhood nightmare's. But we pressed on into the desert. A stop at an artesian well provided some deliciously refreshing water. And then it started to sprinkle. It wasn't raining too badly and the mud was only sticking a but so we pressed on. Then disaster struck. Joshua's bike stopped rolling. After a few quick fixes were unsuccessful we stopped to investigate further and found to our horror the drive side rear dropout and derailleur hanger were not just bent sideways but had bent open so the quick release would no longer stay an the wheel would fall out. This was bad news 50ish miles into the deserted desert. But for your favorite divide riders being within spitting distance of the border giving up was not an option. The first part of the solution was to make the bike into a single speed as the derailleur would bend into the wheel on every pedal stroke. That was enough to ride another few miles stopping every few minutes to reset the wheel that had slipped through the super-wide dropout.

The next morning a number of solutions were tried including duct tape but to no avail. After 10 miles of wishing they had some sort of shim or washer they realized right under their noses was the solution. Pulling his headset topcap Was the perfect makeshift washer. So for 50 more flawless miles into Grants the duo rode without problem or hesitation. In town Sonic provided the most refreshing drinks in human history! After a large stockup to make it the few hundred miles to Silver City and Pizza Hut for dindin the duo found a park full of Mosquitos and passed out after a very stressful few days.

2 comments:

  1. So you couldn't fix it with duct tape. Maybe ... http://static.fjcdn.com/picture/Duct+tape_0930a8_3926013.jpg

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  2. All the best for the remainder of your trip. Great endeavor.

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