The Cycling Adventurer

   Perth-Adelaide 1997

Day 32   

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Country teamwork gets me back on the road

I admit to having an overwhelming feeling of defeat last night. I came to believe that I might be stranded in Kimba for three or four days, or at least over the weekend, and that I might have had to make a run for Adelaide by bus.

Not that Kimba is anything other than a pleasant place with pleasant people who have been helpful and friendly. The Kimba Rodeo this weekend would also be great distraction (the last rodeo I went to was at Mareeba in Far North Queensland in 1990). Port Augusta seemed to be so far away, too, and I really had only one shot at finding bike shop that could send the parts I needed.

As it was, I asked around town this morning, first at the local hardware shop to see if it or anyone else stocked spare parts for bicycles. The hardware shop owner told me to try the Bridgestone tyre agency along the main street.

I trotted around the corner, and down the main street as directed. I felt a little more confident that I might have some luck. Young Matthew Milton at the Bridgestone agency directed me to a small display stand of parts in plastic bags. There were bearings of various sizes, but I needed either a hub or at the very least the inner cups and outer retainers to go with the bearings. No luck. Matthew came to the rescue anyway, and told me the parts were sourced from a bike shop in Cleve.

I had identified Cleve on a map, and I think I heard someone talk about it sometime in the past few weeks. But all I could remember was that its dot on the map was no larger than Kimba's, and it was 70km away from here. Matthew had a brief chat on the phone, then handed it to me. On the other end was Mike Elleway, the owner of Speedy Cycles in Main St, Cleve. I explained my predicament, and Mike patiently listened and considered the situation.

A hybrid bike like mine is a bit hard to accommodate with spare parts, and I had set out to see what I could find in town without getting all the details down on paper. I told Mike I would call back in a short while with them. I returned to the pub, then armed with all the details, called Mike again and relayed them to him. We agreed that to ensure everything worked out, we really needed the entire rear wheel. He thought briefly, then said he had a hybrid he acquired some time ago, but it was still in a cardboard box in the back of his shed at home. He thought it had the right sized wheel, 700C x 35, complete with hub and bearings, and if I could leave things for an hour or so, he would go home and check.

It all sounded too good to be true. But in our third telephone conversation, he said everything was fine... with one doubt. His hybrid was set up for five gears on the back, not six like mine, so the axle was likely to be shorter. At this stage I could not have cared because I was so happy to have something tangible to work with. I was sure that if necessary, I could improvise with the original axle, even though its thread was damaged.

I asked him to also send a derailleur retainer and a gearset remover to replace the one I left in Nundroo. He was doubtful he had a new tool in stock, but offered to send his own, and asked that I leave it with Matthew when I finished. We discussed the merits (or demerits) of cheap hubs and bearings, a lesson I had already learned. To temper that, though, the assembly apparently was damaged before I left Perth and to have come 2,600km was something of an achievement. I will look to buy the best possible hubs, bearings and spokes I can afford before I tackle another major journey like this.

Mike said he had packed a lot of grease into the new hub and bearings to reduce a slight rumble to a minimum. Everything would be sent to Kimba in a vehicle that delivers drugs from Cleve to Kimba on weekday afternoons. The estimated time of arrival in Kimba was 4.30pm. It was great news, and any feelings of defeat from last night evaporated.

I detoured via the post office to buy some more postcards and I inquired about the cost of sending a bicycle wheel to Tasmania. I was back at the post office a short time later with the wheel. The man behind the counter told me there was no need to wrap it; he simply tied the address slip and receipt for the $10 postage to the rim and that's the last I saw of it.

The bearing on the gearset side of the hub was completed disintegrated, but the one on the other side was intact, and appeared to be quite serviceable. I can probably salvage the rim and around 33 of the spokes, and perhaps the hub if I am lucky. I thought sending a bicycle wheel by post was unusual, and of course addressing it to myself even more so. But the couple at the post office were quite matter-of-fact. They once had a three-tier bird bath delivered the same way, in three separate "packages".

To this point, I had not paid much attention to the derailleur. Mike said that while he wished he could see the unit before offering an opinion, it probably could be straightened. I went back to the hotel to see what could be done. To my delight, I found the metal frame not that difficult to manipulate with the pliers and shifting spanner. One of the plastic jockey wheels was slightly damaged, but overall the main components appeared to be present and serviceable. I went back to Bridgestone to use the vice to help straighten the frame, while Matthew regaled me with various adventures with his mates, and their drinking and driving exploits. Entertaining but scary stuff! I left very happy with my handiwork, though.

I wrote my postcards and put them aside, then as I went out the door of the hotel, I met Matthew walking back to Bridgestone from the pharmacy with a big square package that looked suspiciously the size of a bicycle wheel. I was ecstatic, and could hardly wait for Matthew to hand it over after we got back to the agency. I paid him the agreed price of around $80. I had few doubts that what was inside would fit, simply because it had come off a similar bike.

I felt like a kid unwrapping a Christmas present when I opened up the package to make sure everything was there, including a new gearset removal tool that Mike had found, and a new derailleur plate and bolt. Mike's note inside said: "After the phone call, I managed to find a freewheel remover for sale. So you can keep this one. Good luck. Thanks for the business. Hope I hear from you again. Mike Elleway". Perhaps as a subtle hint, he enclosed the current catalogue for Wheeler bicycles.

I trotted back to the hotel and set about putting everything back together. I attached the derailleur and threaded through the chain. To my horror, when I placed the wheel in the chainstays and attempted to put the chain over the gears, it would not fit. The chain had a huge twist in it. I was quite calm, though, as I considered my options. I tried to see if the chain was worth straightening, but it was obvious that up to 30 links were affected. So I put Plan B into action.

As a journalist, I became skilled at observing trivial things, "just in case". On one of my visits to Bridgestone, I noticed a packet on a shelf that contained a narrow long chain, I even remembered the price, $9.50. I looked at my watch, and saw it was 5.40pm, well after normal closing time. But this had been my lucky day, why should that change now?

I went straight down to find several people at the front, and the door wide open. Beauty! I grabbed the packet form the shelf, paid over the price, and was back in my hotel room very quickly. Five minutes later and the bike was ready to ride! But I spent the next 30 minutes carefully adjusting the derailleur and cables to give me a good shift between all the rear gears. To hear the chain and freewheel hub run so smoothly was like sweet music. No squeals, no clatter, no tortured sound of metal grinding away on metal, no rubber chafing on the chainstays. Nothing but a smooth whirr. I did a quick jig of joy next to the bike.

Now, I really believe nothing is going to stop me from making Adelaide. Not that I still don't have a niggling feeling of trepidation that it could all fall apart again, but the power of positive thought is keeping that feeling well and truly in the back of my mind. It also will be nice to have my lowest gear back again, especially because I was warned again about the long climbs on the way to Iron Knob.

I restocked my food today and with the long ride tomorrow, I will take a full quota of water. If I don't make Port Augusta tomorrow, I will have to sleep out in the open. I want to be on the road by 7.00am to give me as much chance as possible of arriving in Port Augusta.

I found out today that Kimba has the biggest inland grain silos in South Australia, and that the Eyre Peninsula produces about 40 percent of the State's total grain output. I also discovered that the Sturt pea, a brilliant red flower with a black centre, was an important part of Aboriginal history. The legend goes that a beautiful black-haired maiden was given a red cape by her man, who went off and left her to a lonely vigil. When the tribe returned, she was gone, but there was a flower with a black centre and red petals like her red cape at the place where she was last seen.

The new rear wheel cost me about $80. That was made up of $58 for wheel, gearset remover and derailleur retainer, $9.50 for a new chain, $2 in freight, and $3.50 for a can of RP7 lubricant. Then there was the extra $10 for another night's accommodation, sleeping in a warm comfortable bed with no drafts, no noise of trucks going past... cheap at twice the price. Now, I'm off to bed for another excellent night's sleep!

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