April 4, 2024
To Titusville: Bike rehab
It's another luggage free day. I'm going to miss having the car to tote around our bags when we turn it in tomorrow. Barry's new fork is waiting for him in Titusville. We'll do one last relay ride on my bike so he can get a few miles in before he drives to the bike shop to get the repair going. The guys leave while I hang out a little longer at Claire and David's place and work on the journal.
I catch up with them on Merritt Island for the second 20 miles. Mike reports a notable wildlife sighting - a dead coral snake. Is that wildlife, or wilddeath? I sure hope we don't see any live ones.
We detour off the main road hunting for gators, then cross back west over the Hubert Humphrey Causeway to the mainland. No gators appear in the shallow waters of the bay either. I read that alligators can handle salt water but are usually found in freshwater ponds and swamps.
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Barry has the tent set up by the time we turn in to Manatee Hammock Campground. It's right on the bay across from Cape Canaveral so you can see the rockets launch from here. People have spotted manatees nearby; it may be late in the season for that now.
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The bike shop in Titusville had their hands full today with other work so Barry will swap in the new fork himself. It's a relatively simple job he can do with an Allen wrench, and as mentioned earlier he's done this before, just two months ago.
Now he just has the non-functioning Di2 electronic shifter to deal with. It's essentially a single-speed bike now, no fun. He considers scrapping the electric setup and putting regular shifters on there. That would also mean new derailleurs and cabling. Seems like a drastic step. None of the bike shops we call have that stuff in stock, but Bob's Bicycles has a diagnostic tool that can analyze the problem.
The bike goes back in the car and he drives to Indian Harbour Beach - 30 miles back south. The guy at the Bob's is fairly sure he can fix the problem by tomorrow morning. Barry leaves the bike and and circles back to camp.
Meanwhile I'm trading messages with David back in Melbourne about another fitting for my bike. I have piece of grey pipe wrap taped to the steering tube behind my handlebar bag to keep it from hitting my leg when I pedal. The pipe wrap has compressed and the cables behind the bag push it towards my leg.
Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 424 miles (682 km)
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