[Yesterday I got a email from Clarence Whetten with a great tip for cyclists that I wanted to pass along. Clarence is a BikeE owner I met in Orem, UT on my ride across Nevada last year. He was at the bike shop, where my bike was being boxed up for the trip home. We got to talking and he offered to give me a ride to the train station in Salt Lake City. On the way he took me and my gear over to his house where he loaned me his other BikeE so we could take a ride up a nearby canyon. It'd been a great trip and he put the perfect finish on it. But back to the tip, he writes:
I know this is a little late but here is a tire tip. The best tire boot that I have found to carry is a piece of Tyvec. This is the material that most 5 1/4 inch floppy disk envelopes were made of. Stop by anyplace that does FedEx shipping and grab one of the FedEx overnight envelopes and you have the makings of a great tire boot. When you have a weak sidewall put a piece of Tyvec in the area and it will likely save your tube and help the tire last long enough to find a new one. I carry a 4 inch by 8 inch piece in my touring tool kit all the time.]
We did a bit of coin fliping to decide who'd go into town, I won or lost depending on how you look at it. Brad wouldn't have to do much but sit in a hot tent and eat peanut butter out of the jar while he read The Lord Of The Rings. On the other hand I'd get to get a restauraunt lunch if I ever made it into town. I put on a clean shirt, packed up some water, applied some sunscreen and got started walking with my thumb out.
After walking about 1/2 mile I got picked up by a trucker named Vic. He was in the business of moving houses and mobile homes. I told him about our trip and the string of bad luck we'd had with the tires and he said that he'd take me all the way into town to a bike shop.
At Dr. Spokes they ordered two new tires for me that should be in Friday (7/13/01). I got one cheap tire and four tubes to get us riding and still have some backups. Vic gave me a ride back out of town to the mobile home dealer he was working for.
I walked the mile or two up to the truck stop I'd seen in the morning. After enjoyinq lunch, I started asking around trying to find some one who'd give me a ride back out to the tent some 40 miles out of town. After giving up on asking and just making a sign, Josh and Lee, two climbers going to a climbing festival in Landers, WY, offered to give me a ride back out.
They were a blast, talking with them reminded me how much I've missed climbing durring this trip. I entertained fantasies of going to the festival with them and taking part in the week long climbing and drinking binge.
After they dropped me off at the tent Brad and I got our bikes fixed and gear packed up and were rolling by15:00. It was about 40 miles into Casper, WY and we really didn't want to spend another night to the west of it.
We rode into town in front of storms that never caught us. Everything was closed by the time we rolled through down town Casper. Dinner seemed like somethinq we'd earned so we worked across town with an eye open for a restaurant. When we came across the Chinese buffet we didn't even have to discuss it, we just stopped, went in and completely stuffed ourselves. It was definitely not the middle path of the Buddha. Riding out of town to camp was painful.
andrew
Posted by drewish at July 11, 2001 12:00 PMThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)