Team Millenium/IRSA
Terry Zmrhal and Tracy McKay
After a couple of hours in Typhoon, I got the chance to
switch back to Zephyr to watch the sunrise.
Tracy had also mentioned a front shifting problem on his Titanflex.
The day before the race, he and Steve had tried to replace some
frayed cables. The bike has internal cable routing, and while
removing old cables, they apparently pulled some of the guides
out, and couldn't get them rerouted. So they used external housing
and cable tied the external housing to the frame. The problem
was there was no cable stop for the front mech, and the housing
came right up to the shifter and prevented enough cable pull for
proper shifting. I offered to take the bike for the day (which
included my sleep break) and try to fix it . We had a good toolkit
in Da Bus, along with a bike stand. Since Tracy only had
a few wheels, I left the wheels as spares.
After getting relieved by the day shift, we checked the route
book and decided Ogden would be a good place to head for our sleep
break. Ogden is the largest town on route, and we also realized
they would have a bike shop. I could leave the bike to be worked
on while I slept. I decided this was intelligent use of
my time. We found a motel, which given the early hour in the day
was not easy. It was still before noon, local time, and most folks
were just checking out. I then flipped through the yellow pages
and called The Bike Shoppe. I told them our situation and asked
if we could get a rush repair. They said there would be a $20
surcharge and I asked directions.
These guys met me at the car, took the bike and
took control. A power outage partway through the repair made things
awkward, because the secret to getting the internal cables back
in was a vacuum cleaner. They tied a string to the cable, pushed
cable and string into the frame and then used suction to grab
the string and pull cable through. With enough cable through,
they could back thread the housing. Three mechanics and the owner
worked on the bike for a couple of hours. Apparently at some point
before they got the bike, a part had been removed from the bike
that was never intended to leave the frame. It was a noodle that
acted a a cable guide for the front mech. They set it up with
internal housing, but said the front shifting would still be a
bit iffy without this part. Once home Tracy would need to have
this part welded back in. They also commented on the age of the
derailleurs and brakes, and I really should have had them replace
the front mech with a new one, but hindsight is 20/20.
Since I didn't have the wheels, we couldn't really adjust brakes
and shifting, but this was something I knew I could do roadside.
I just didn't count on the front mech still not working.
I did get some more valve extenders and some tub-tape
at this shop, and thanked them profusely for all their efforts.
I promised Tracy would send them some RAAM souvenirs at the end.
In the meantime, Muffy, James, Sharon and Philip got some lunch
and started laundry and then sleep. Muffy got me a Subway sandwich,
which I devoured when I returned. I had a quick shower and about
three hours of sleep. Before the sleep break, I made contact with
the others to tell them where we were.
They told me we'd just gotten our second penalty
for failing to call in a time station. Apparently there was no
cell coverage, and the pay phone was busted, but we were supposed
to use one a few miles up the road. But someone forgot and it
was about an hour and half later before it was called in.
Terry had planned to do the climb out of Ogden
up the Monte Cristo Mountains all by himself. I suggested maybe
they trade off shorter pulls for the long climb, and this really
seemed to work well. We used this strategy a couple of more times
for the really long climbs.
With the extra bike in Da Bus, things were a bit cramped
for Sharon, but she persevered. We made a quick shopping run before
leaving Ogden, and got food and ice, and a very important cardboard
box. Tracy had a trunk rack with both his bikes. His spare wheels
were bungeed on top on the bikes, so everytime that we removed
a bike, we had to remove and replace wheels. With cardboard to
protect the roof, we could simply strap the wheels to the roof
to make bike removal much easier.
We had also heard that Tracy was quite envious
of Terry's music. Tracy was using a handheld radio and earbud
to talk to his crew. Terry had a PA and speakers mounted on the
front of the van, for us to talk to him, and play music. Sharon
had been holding the handheld radio to a speaker in the car. I
mentioned my temporary setup from TNT. It consisted of a Radio
Shack powerhorn, a battery powered PA with an external mic jack
and a portable CD player with it's external speaker connected
to the mic on the powerhorn. Wedged in a partly open window, it
makes a fine temporary sound system. We tried to find a Radio
Shack, but had to give up to take over night duties. Sometime
the next day, Philip and James found a RadioShack and powerhorn,
and then later got the proper cable to hook everything up. For
a day or so Tracy had music, but at some point the powerhorn got
dropped out the window, and busted in a million pieces. Bummer!
The climb was beautiful, and we saw some amazing wildlife along
the way.
I got a shot of the moose, but was too slow with the camera to
get the Elk a mile down the road.
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