August 3, 2018
On my way via the canal. Or not.
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Or so I thought. Just after the bridge I ran into construction work, which had me scrambling up an embankment to get to street level. I zig zagged through city trafic to get back on the canal path and followed it Jc til the signs for Eurovelo 1 ended in the suburbs. Lost, I decided to navigate by dead-reckoning, which might just save me some kilometers. I went northward on fairly quiet roads until my rear derailleur started acting funny. Stopping in some random village I determined that the problem was a slipping shifter. I tightened that up, but as I rode on I noticed a distinct clicking coming from the mechanism and I pulled into the shade behind a grocery store to investigate. Oh, damn. Two problems presented themselves. First, the chain was not routed correctly through the derailleur so it rubbed when I was in low gears, something I didn't notice when I changed it the night before leaving. And the master pin that Shimano provides was loose. I put on my latex gloves that I always carry for such occasions and set about repairing the problems as best I could. Rerouting the chain was easy, but the pin was now effectively loose, and would only hold for a while before protruding from the side of the chain causing it to hang up. I pushed it back in several times during the ride, but eventually it dropped out forever to be lost. Now what? I didn't have a spare pin, or even a master link. I did have a chain tool on my compact tool kit, so I removed a complete link by driving out one pin. I was able to reattach the broken chain to itself, but the cheap chain tool bent trying to drive home the pin. It held good enough though to get to a shack on the re-found canal path that had the sign "reparations des vélos " salvation! The guy at the shack got out a big pliers and was able to drive home the pin.
With all the excitement, it was getting late and it was hot, so at the very first turning I left the canal and got into a campground. I drank down a lot of water and some orange juice, set up the tent and took a shower. The heat had sapped my appetite so I only had a burger for supper, supplemented with some fruit before calling it a night.
Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 78 km (48 miles)
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