Medicine Bow
Today was example of how cycle touring doesn’t always go to plan, particularly with mechanical issues.
I had a simple plan worked out: (1) spend two days cycling ~120 miles from Rawlins to Laramie via Medicine Bow (2) rent a car for weekend to drive to Colorado and do the Pedal the Plains ride, visit family and get the bike serviced.
I had another hub go out on me today. Actually, I’ll still be able to do the other parts of the plans since I got a ride into Medicine Bow, a hotel room and a ride tomorrow morning to Laramie – but also need to sort through these hub issues.
Today started out normal enough. Rawlins is on a major transportation corridor with trail lines as well as I-80. Forecast called for headwinds early and decreasing through the day.
First seven miles went on back road via Sinclair. Sinclair is a very small town with a large oil refinery. They were rebuilding the main street but I was able to get along other roads. I stopped in at the truck stop before getting on I-80.
This Fed-Ex truck had broken down and was getting a tow.
Next 14 miles were on the interstate. There was a broad shoulder and cycling was easy. The last few miles before my exit, there was road construction that routed both directions onto our half of the interstate. Fortunately, I was on the half with the wide shoulder as other direction would have been tougher.
At 21 miles was a shell station and much quieter roads. One or two miles were flatter and then good hill to climb. I was nearly at the top when had a louder clang. Somewhat surprisingly, then noticed that the hub was spinning freely both directions. The end failure was same as my earlier hub (spinning freely both ways) but symptoms before that were much different: on the previous hub it had been occasionally slipping for a while. This failure was much more sudden (haven’t opened things up but wondering if previous one was more pawls getting gunked up and this one was a spring breaking? – in any case more unexpected today.
While there isn’t much traffic on a road like this, there was a higher percentage of pickup trucks. It didn’t take long and I was able to flag one down. Kind folks who lived in Medicine Bow were driving there and gave me a lift the remaining 30 miles to the Virginian hotel in town. Here I had lunch as well as asked if anyone was going to Laramie today or tomorrow. I’ve arranged for a lift from one of the employees tomorrow morning. Plan is that I’ll go pick up the rental car I have reserved and then pick up the bike to bring it for service.
So I’m in Medicine Bow (as I planned), going to Laramie (as I planned), picking up a car (as I planned) and bringing the bike in to service (as I planned). However, rather unexpected was having the hub go on that hill earlier today. A google search of “phil woods hub failure” says I’m not the only one to have seen this issue – but will need to investigate a bit more before going to Latin America if there is a better alternative that can be more reliable.
Glad you’re getting the mechanical issues sorted out now. Hopefully the gremlins are gone by the time you hit Mexico.
Part of the reason for doing Canada/USA first was to figure out what gremlins there might be and work through issues, so hopefully can figure it out.
I brought the bike to a bike shop in Fort Collins, CO (Lee’s Cyclery where I’ve bought other bikes though not this one). I asked to open the hub for diagnosis as well as a full service including replacing worn chain, cassette, etc. They opened the hub and it was fairly dirty inside but didn’t look like springs, pawls or ratchet were broken. So they cleaned and relubed and everything seems good to go again. Their feedback was to look at more frequent service to open and clean the hub.
Plan is to try with this bike again and make sure this is fixed for a while. Also get a good service on the hubs before crossing into Mexico. As best I can tell, I don’t quite have tools/expertise to do this from the road, but reasonable bike shops should be able to service. At the same time, I’m checking with a wheel builder if there is a hub that is more easily serviced but also still durable.
Mev! Welcome to Colorado, and congrats on the distance you have covered to date.