Day 31: Spoke Out!

69.97 miles (Total: 1490.69) Avg Speed: 11.7mph Max Speed: 39mph

For once the temperature cooled off last night and my tent didn’t suffer too badly from condensation as it has done. We were out of options for breakfast so rolled to McDonalds for a cheap one.

The elevations profiles on the maps showed we would continue to ride through the rolling Ozarks so it was back to the same rhythm of the past few days. Starting early in the morning means you can get around 40 miles in before the heat really picks up, so we managed to make it to a family cafe for lunch around this point. There was a sign outside saying welcome bikers, we soon realised it was motorbikers judging by the personnel.

After lunch we got riding again and I began to here a strange sound coming from my bike, it was a random clunking sound that seemed to go off regardless of me pedalling or not. It got worse so we pulled over to take a look. I spotted a broken spoke in my rear wheel on the driveside a.k.a I can’t fix those. We got to a Wal Mart and reassessed the situation, there was about 15 miles left to Fair Grove and the broke spoke hadn’t unsettled my wheel to much, it was still running pretty straight. Terry offered to switched his front panniers with my heavy rear ones to lighten my load which I was grateful for.

These are touring wheels, one broke spoke isn’t the end of the world right? There was a bike shop 20 miles off route in Springfield tomorrow I could try get too. I nervously pushed on, standing on my pedals as much as possible to distribute my weight across the bike. We made it to Fair Grove without incident and pulled up under the park pavilion where we can camp for free, they also have toilets and showers.

Once settled in I reassessed my options when some local cyclists pulled up. They were friends with a bike shop in Springfield and gave them a call to try and help out. Amazingly the owner Kay offered to send somebody across in the morning to pick me up, fix the spoke, then return me to Fair Grove. One second I’m sat considering riding 2 hours off route for this then yet again I’m saved by more generous people, when is my luck going to run out?

We sat and ate Subway when some eastbounders pulled in, 3 young guys from West Virginia. We swapped advice on the days ahead before hitting the hay, I’m being picked up at 9:15 in the morning. Terry and Joe will ride on to Golden City whilst I will catch up with them later in the day, at least thats the plan.


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One response to “Day 31: Spoke Out!”

  1. mum Avatar
    mum

    Hi Rye,yet more amazing people,to put themselves out like that, lets hope this luck continues throughout your trip,thinking about you luv mum xxx

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