Where it all came to an end

I think the Dude's secret admirer said it best best when he pronounced that, "Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well, he eats you." Well today, I was the all-you-can-eat buffy.

After my night in Bonchester Bridge, I awoke to find myself coming down with a cold. Not surprising considering the mileage I had been riding in the pouring rain dispicable rain. However, it looked like the sun was breaking and I was only 60 miles outside Edinburgh, then if I wanted whimp out I could jump on the train and get into St. Andrews for my first conference with time to spare.

Plan sounds feasible, right? After all what could go wrong?

As I would find out... pretty much everything.

Sun, glorious sun

Sun sweet sun: Sun washes over the road out of Bonchester Bridge, Scottland.

As the day got going the sun broke and I was awash in the warm glow of a long forgotten friend. After a few miles the heat started to clear my chest and for the first time in the last week I was sporting a smile as I rolled across the scenic Scottish countryside.

Dispite the horrendous weather I had experienced earlier, I was loving bike touring once again. There is nothing like having the miles roll effortlessly under you as the sun shines and there is not a car within what feels like a hundred miles. This is what makes Scotland ideal for cycling. Quiet, quiet rolling roads. The efficiency of the fixed gear bike just started to eat up the miles, as I flipped back to my tall gearing so I can make the most of the fast rolling roads.

My first stop was for coffee and a croissant in a small town that doesn't see many visitors. An older woman with a walker, tells me she figures I am Australian, I smile and agree. Perhaps this is one small part of the world where drunk Australians (god love em) haven't invaded. For the record I am Canadian and usually get mistaken for Americans (ack!).

Mishap #1: Melrose Chain Smash up

Just prior to entering the town of Melrose I ran across a father sun bike touring duo. We sat and chatted a while comparing our completely different approaches to touring. Myself with my self-admitted mad 10 lbs pack and these two cordial fellows who had taken the more traditional. As an aside, on of the bikes was an amazingly nice S&M coupled frame. Beautiful!

As most other cyclists they were particularly curious how I was faring with such a light load, especially considering I had brought items to camp with. I didn't lie, I told them it was great when the weather is nice, toucher otherwise, but you can slam back the miles.

As I talked with them I didn't think much of taking the opportunity to swap my wheel to a taller gearing. I mean perfect right? because the ride into Melrose involves a very very steep hill. This would be my undoing because I apparently didn't tighten the wheel enough. As I descended into Melrose I was spinning like a mad man (perhaps a cadence of 180) to keep ahead of an uncouth car that was trying to drive directly down my ass.

Then just as I was spinning at my maximum out of no where the chain gave way, stuck in my spokes and threw me into a massive skid. While I was caught a bit off guard I did not crash and instead surfed the skid for about 50 feet, coming to rest at the entrance of the town. When I looked back and assessed what had just happened I realized that the skid was so long it actual melted a large portion of my tire!

Next I had to assess the damage on the chain. A quick look and I realize my situation didn't look good. The chain was not only wrapped into the spokes but around the hub. I tried in vain to remove the rear wheel, so that I could untangle the chain but it was a frickin' quagmire, if I had ever seen one

Chain mayhem: I carefully tried to pry this disaster loss, only to realize it was a lost cause without breaking the chain.

I knew there was only one thing I could do, break the chain. But here is the rub, I didn't have any extra links or extra pins (it was a Shimano chain). If I am lucky I might be able to reuse a pin to get me moving, but my chain tension was set so bang on that if any links were damaged I would not be able to shorten the chain.

As I took a deep breath and broke the chain, so I could untangle this mess, my worst fears were confirmed. I wasn't going anywhere unless I could get some spare links or a new chain.

Quest for the elusive chain

Melrose was a small tourist town with no cycle shop, and little interest in cycling. I asked around for quite a while until I finally learned there was a bike shop in the next town over, Galashiels.

Great, so does that mean I can throw my bike on the bus and head on over? Nope!

You see in the UK's vision of the future, bikes and buses do not mix! Can you believe it! Even in environmentally backwards North America, we can throw bikes on must public transport buses. In the UK, this is forbidden.

So that left me with one remaining option, it was looking like I was going to have to walk the distance.

With that I grabbed a drink, a bakery bun, threw my bike over my shoulder and headed west for Galashiels.

Head west young man

While walking my bike a few kilometers was never on the agenda for the day, I found a quiet walking path between the two towns and made the best of it, especially since the sun was out.

When I made it to Galashiels I quickly found the bike shop got a chain and did the swap in the town square, since the bike shop owner gave me a look of horror when I asked if I could use his stand (so much for being nice to a traveler).

By the time I finished I was really starting to feel the effects of being sick. No bother though I should still be able to make Edinburgh I told myself, that is until I looked up and saw the ominous grey clouds starting to close in.

Screw the UK and its damn rain!

Ceased Wheel Rant

With the wheel ceased and an hour or so into my hike a bike, I took this enlightening video:

With a title like "The Disaster" Thank you Surly for making a fine fuckin' product in the Steamroller complete.

Day 4 Map

View Larger Map