The Rack-Cident

 


At the Arizona State Line

The good news is that for the first time we had no flat tires!

So I was happily riding along and then suddenly I heard a thunk and the rear of the bike got all mushy. I got it stopped and was still upright which was a good outcome. Got off the bike and look at the rear end and I see the rack and it’s 40 or so pounds of gear has transited from it’s usual spot to acting as a drag brake. In other words, it was still attached to the axle area but the attachment near the seat post had failed. Grr.



Bungee cord and Flat Straps

We were halfway between Holtville and nowhere. So  Brian and I got together like the ground team of the Apollo 13, pooled our available materials and used bungee cord and flat straps ( it no duct tape) to secure the rack. It actually made the next 50 miles with no problems. We were able to do a semi-permanent fix when we got to our Warm Showers host so I should be good to go tomorrow.

We saw a lot of agriculture and then a lot of desert scrub. The Imperial Dunes along the highway were beautiful. Traffic in Yuma and Fortuna pretty much sucked. Many of the smaller desert roads would challenge your Jeep or F-150. The bumps on these roads probably caused my rack to fail.  

Lunch was great-  Brian spotted the only tree in about 50 miles and we sat down and had an almond maple butter muffin for lunch. The red ants also expressed an interest.


Almond-Maple Butter Muffin

Out Warm Showers hosts are great! We enjoyed an evening IPA and then had some delicious salad and lasagna for dinner!

Tomorrow we will go toward Gila Bend- probably stopping at Dateland to camp.



Imperial Dunes

Trip Totals:

Flats- Brian 3,  Tom 2

Rear rack failures-   Brian 1, Tom 1

Day 1: San Diego to Lakeside 32 miles, 1,345 ft climbing

Day 2: Lakeside to Jacumba- Desert Tower- 62 miles, 6,211 ft climbing

Day 3: Jacumba to El Centro: 45 miles, 614 ft climbing

Day 4: Jacumba to Fortuna, AZ 76.61 miles, 1,093 feet climbing

Trip Total: 200 miles


Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 27, 2021 at 11:59 AM

    I have also come up with another pseudonym for your trip.... "Trian" (get it....Tom and Brian.....sort of like your version of "Bennifer"). I will now call you Team Trian, like we are "Trian" to get there.....

    ReplyDelete

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