'Mechanicals' in Turkey
As anyone who has ever ridden mountain bike with me can attest, I get a lot of flats. I've continued the trend in Turkey. I'll lay the blame with the rough back roads and cobblestone streets in towns but I'll have to shoulder some of the blame for poor planning, lack of attention to detail and rushing under pressure (self imposed).
Without going into detail of all the flats, tubes falling apart and poor decision making, we ended up today at a very low point. I had just had my second flat of the day (same tube) as we pulled into the ruins of Magnesia. Thirty minutes earlier we had been invited into a school by a local teacher and I had flatted coming into the school. As part of the repair process, she had given me an aerosol can for 'instant' flat repair (for cars) which ended up injecting some strange liquid into my tube that, I finally figured out, resulted in an inability for a tube patch to hold.......anyway, after multiple failed attempts and then finding out that my last tube (bought 2 days earlier) was Shraeder and wouldn't fit my rim AND discovering that my rim was falling apart (splitting at the spoke holes and the cause of many of the flats) – I can see my biking buddies snickering at my total incompetence...you really had to have been there! Anyway, we were totally hooped....three weeks into the trip and we're stopped dead in our tracks!
And then, out of the blue, just as we were about to stick out our thumbs a group of Turkish bikers came to our rescue – a bunch (10 guys) of technicians and engineers from a manufacturing firm near Ankara. They immediately lept into solving our dilemma (with me helplessly looking over their shoulders). An hour and a half later, after a few setbacks, much good humour and incredible patience they had my wheel back together and another rim located in a town two days ride away. After some group photos they rode off into the sunset and we continued on our way.
We are now camped on the grounds of a simple, but lovely lakeside restaurant...a bit wasted after a long day in the saddle in the hot sun. It was a special, and yes admittedly unorthodox way to spend our 30th wedding anniversary way but it is a day we will long remember. Now, if only the rim holds until we get to Mugla!
PS – (2 days later) We made it to Mugla and problem solved!
As anyone who has ever ridden mountain bike with me can attest, I get a lot of flats. I've continued the trend in Turkey. I'll lay the blame with the rough back roads and cobblestone streets in towns but I'll have to shoulder some of the blame for poor planning, lack of attention to detail and rushing under pressure (self imposed).
Without going into detail of all the flats, tubes falling apart and poor decision making, we ended up today at a very low point. I had just had my second flat of the day (same tube) as we pulled into the ruins of Magnesia. Thirty minutes earlier we had been invited into a school by a local teacher and I had flatted coming into the school. As part of the repair process, she had given me an aerosol can for 'instant' flat repair (for cars) which ended up injecting some strange liquid into my tube that, I finally figured out, resulted in an inability for a tube patch to hold.......anyway, after multiple failed attempts and then finding out that my last tube (bought 2 days earlier) was Shraeder and wouldn't fit my rim AND discovering that my rim was falling apart (splitting at the spoke holes and the cause of many of the flats) – I can see my biking buddies snickering at my total incompetence...you really had to have been there! Anyway, we were totally hooped....three weeks into the trip and we're stopped dead in our tracks!
And then, out of the blue, just as we were about to stick out our thumbs a group of Turkish bikers came to our rescue – a bunch (10 guys) of technicians and engineers from a manufacturing firm near Ankara. They immediately lept into solving our dilemma (with me helplessly looking over their shoulders). An hour and a half later, after a few setbacks, much good humour and incredible patience they had my wheel back together and another rim located in a town two days ride away. After some group photos they rode off into the sunset and we continued on our way.
We are now camped on the grounds of a simple, but lovely lakeside restaurant...a bit wasted after a long day in the saddle in the hot sun. It was a special, and yes admittedly unorthodox way to spend our 30th wedding anniversary way but it is a day we will long remember. Now, if only the rim holds until we get to Mugla!
PS – (2 days later) We made it to Mugla and problem solved!