March 1, 2015
Sorting out my puncture problems: I figured that was nothing some creative use of chewing gum couldn't fix
I'd skirted disaster before so far as spare tubes and patches were concerned but nothing quite like this as I emerged from my tent and began to reassess my options. I had two very much defunct tubes and only one good patch left. I had a few cheap Chinese patches as well, but frankly I thought a plaster would be more use than those, and so I really had to make this one good patch count. So far as I could tell I had two options, the first being to cut it up into little pieces and try and use those to fix all of the holes on the holey tube, the second being to hope it would hold on the torn seam of the other tube. Without thinking too much about it I opted for the second option and prayed.
Funnily enough I'd seen a lot of cyclists the previous evening, a lot of road cyclists and even some families out cycling together. It was the most popular area for cycling that I'd seen in ages and that gave me some reason to believe that there would be a bicycle shop back in Prachuap Khiri Khan. The only problem being that to get to it I would have to backtrack fifteen kilometres, something that's never fun to do. But if I forged on ahead it was 200 kilometres to the next sizable town of Chumphon and if the patch gave up on me halfway I'd be in for a very long walk. The sensible side of me knew that my five dollar shoes would never survive a 100 kilometre walk, and so reluctantly I started heading back the way I'd come.
It wasn't long before I encountered another cyclist, this one a man out on a mountain bike who was on his way back towards Prachuap Khiri Khan himself. I asked him if he knew where I could find a bicycle shop and he told me that there was one 'in town', without being more specific, although he did offer to show me where it was. So I followed on behind, doing my best to keep up with him and being quite impressed that my patched tube didn't seem to be losing any air. Then I saw two touring cyclists coming the other way, and recognised them as the speedy Polish couple that had invited me to sleep with them a few days earlier. Not so speedy after all, seeing as even slow coach me had got further south than they had. The man who had offered to take me to the bike shop was too far ahead to call back and I had a quick decision to make about whether to stop or not, but stop I did, figuring I could always find the bike shop by myself as I watched him slip away into the distance. As for the Polish couple they turned out to be no use to me at all, using as they did larger wheels. Another two tourers that the Poles had met along the way and were sort of riding with now came along too but they didn't even stop to say hello.
So I was back where I started and continued alone the rest of the way back to town, where I stumbled upon three nice bicycles parked outside a shop. I stopped and found the man to whom one of them belonged, a kind old fellow out cycling with his wife and son. Upon my enquiries he also offered to escort me to the bicycle shop and that is just what he did. Here's a picture of him:
The bike shop was well stocked but what I wanted was quite specific. Schraeder tubes with long valve stems are generally quite rare and sure enough the guy only had spare tubes with standard valves, too short for my deep rim. Oddly enough a lot of the bikes for sale in the shop had the long valves that I needed, even though the rims were shallow enough for a standard valve. But my request for the shop owner to swap the tubes was met with bewilderment. I was in the odd position of being in a shop filled with what I needed and not being able to buy it without purchasing a whole new bike. "Don't even think about it" my jealous talking bicycle said. So it was on to plan B, which involved me buying a couple of tubes with presta valves, which were long enough to fit through the deep rims. The downside of this was that they had a narrower valve stem that would not fit snugly in my rim which was cut for Schraeder valves, but I figured that was nothing some creative use of chewing gum couldn't fix.
By the time I went back past the place where I'd camped it was already after midday, and then I was forced back onto the boring main highway for 35 kilometres, and so I have very little to report of the rest of this day. Near to the end of it I was able to get back onto some lovely little small roads and just before sunset I made my way back to the coast and saw the sea for the first time all day. I had a private beach mostly to myself and so I had a great place to camp at the end of it all, the patch I'd put on the torn seam still holding.
Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 38,115 km (23,669 miles)
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