West. Day 14.

June 22, 2016

Pelican Rapids, Minnesota to Fargo, North Dakota

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Breaking news in Pelican Rapids.

The sight of all my gear strewn across two picnic tables prompted me to post this photo on Facebook with a "breaking news" flash:

A touring bicycle exploded in the city part this morning at Pelican Rapids, MN. Fortunately, everything was back in place within the hour.

My poor mother. On our later FaceTime call, she was frantic about the mishap. Nothing I said in explanation eased her mind. "It was a joke, Mom."

"Forget it," she said, cutting me off.

Eric, the recumbent trike rider I caught up to, told me he stopped at the Hostel Shoppe in Wisconsin to get his wheels aligned. "I got a flat tire after I started my trip. I think the bike shop that put my bike together for me when I had it shipped east did a bad job."

Maybe so. But flats are flats and sometimes just bad luck. Reminds me of an unhappy customer of our bike shop years ago.

This woman was a high-level public servant and made sure everyone knew it. She bought a new bicycle online and had her driver bring it to us for assembly. I assembled the expensive road bike myself. On pickup, she declined our standard services: an overview of how the bike worked, a custom fitting, and a test ride.

A week or so later, on a bustling Saturday morning, she stormed in expecting the crowd to part so she could get to me. "You put my bike together wrong," she said. "It won't shift!"

I put her bike in my side-door stand to check. Worked fine. She was not convinced. "It shifts for a while and then it just stops," she insisted.

I double-checked it. Still fine. Still not happy. "Tell you what," I said, "why don't we take it outside and you show me what it's doing."

She took one spin around the parking lot and shifted (from the easy gear I left her bike in) to the highest gear. She kept slamming the shifter. "See? See? It won't shift anymore!"

I spotted the problem and choked back a smile. Her bike was equipped with the latest STI (Shimano Total Integration) gear shift system. This combines the brake and shift levers into one component so the rider never has to take her hands off the handlebars to shift. The dropped-handlebar brake levers operate on one plane as a brake lever. To shift to a harder gear in the rear, a smaller lever tucked behind the brake lever is rotated laterally to release tension on the cable.

Ms. Public Servant did this flawlessly. The problem arose when she kept pushing the lever, expecting it to shift back into easier gears. That's not the way it works. The entire brake lever also pivots laterally to shorten the cable and shift to an easier gear. [NOTE: My description is for the rear gears using the right levers. The left lever controls the front gears and, while operating in the same manner, the action produces opposite results in gearing. If you want to know more about this, send me an email!]

Keep your mouth shut, patti. The bike went back into my stand for the free lesson she dissed previously. The busy store quieted. "Let me show you how this works," I began.

From my B'76 journal:

6/7/76

Yesterday’s ride was very sunny and hot. We had a hell of a climb during mid-day. The scenery was unreal – it looked like a movie backdrop and you could put your hand out to touch it. Once over it looked like the Alps – the valley floor just went straight up to the mountains and on up to snow-caps. Today’s ride sounds tough – we’ll be going to Hell’s Canyon – into IDAHO.

12 days in Oregon. And we still haven’t seen real mountains. Oh well. Last night we stayed at the Lion’s Club on their lawn and everyone started putting things on the statue of the lion. – A helmet, my whistle, panniers, fanny bumper, riding gloves, etc. Crazy.

LATER – had three flats in a row today but it wasn’t too bad. Hell’s Canyon was great of what we saw of it – til tomorrow.

Lion's Club statue.