thevcblog: Michigan 26 Day 19 - Shamokin Dam to Harrisburg

I've overcome some challenges on this tour. There was the coffee spill that destroyed my MacBook Neo. The death of my Pixel phone on the same day Citibank cancelled by credit card for fraudulent transactions. But I can't top what happened to Jim today.

The seat tube has completely broken off from the bottom bracket.

Jim: "My bike feels squishy. I think the frame is cracked."
me, looking at it: "Holy shit."
Jim: "What do I do?"
me: "Call Suzanne to pick you up. You're done. You can't ride this."

Suzanne is Jim's wife, the second-best spouse ever.

So Jim calls Suzanne, who is about three hours away. "My frame cracked. Can you bring me my mountain bike from the garage, and the pair of pedals from the drawer of bike stuff? And bring that shoulder bag so I can carry stuff, I only need to bring two days of clothes, and there is no rack on the mountain bike."

OMG.

Jim says he can finish on his old mountain bike, which is a Trek 8500 from around the year 2000. It doesn't have a rack on it, but maybe we can move the rack from his current bike over. It also hasn't been tuned up or maintained since who knows when, other than Jim pouring bar and chain oil for a chainsaw on the chain for lubrication. His kids ride around the neighborhood on it, which is why we have to swap the flat pedals it has with SPD pedals that work with his shoes.

His bike that broke was a Trek Valencia hybrid from around 2009. I may have been suggesting to him for quite some time that it was high time he got a new bike.

Suzanne: "We've been married for 17 years, and he had that bike when we met."
me: "I know. I remember when he got it."
me: "I have bought 8 bikes since he got that bike."

In fact, I even went so far as to conspire with Donald at Patapsco Bikes to get him to buy a new bike. I convinced him to get the Valencia a complete tuneup and makeover at Patapsco after I kept coasting past him when he was pedaling downhill. I told Donald his mission was to get Jim to buy a new bike like a Surly Disc Trucker. Patapsco did such a great job with the tune up that Jim decided his old bike was great and he doesn't need a new bike. Sigh.

We discovered the frame crack at this roadside gift shop, where we stopped for a break about 12 miles into the ride. They have an excellent selection of art for your trailer home in rural Pennsylvania.

Jim and I decided that it would not be fun hanging out at the gift shop watching horses and buggies trot by for three hours.

Since we are spending most of the day riding the smooth, flat shoulder of an expressway, we decided to gently ride another 10 miles to the town of Liverpool, where there are places to eat. We can eat lunch and kill time at a restaurant while waiting for Suzanne.

We are riding alongside US 15, a four land divided expressway that runs along the west bank of the Susquehanna River. Bikes are allowed, as are horses and buggies.

There is plenty of evidence that horses and buggies do travel on the shoulder. That evidence would be horse poop.

We made it to this super nice diner in Liverpool, where we had lunch and waited for Suzanne.

Jim, a lawyer, is one of the least mechanically adept people I know. He spent his time waiting at the diner thinking up ideas on how to keep the Valencia on the road. After each idea, I directed Jim's attention to the appropriate course of action for his broken bike. Which was worth about $300 according to the Internet, before the frame broke.

Jim: "Can I get a welder to weld the frame back together."
me, irritated, points to dumpster: "You could. Would that be a good idea?"
Jim, sheepishly: "I guess not."

Jim: "Maybe we can go to a hardware store and get some epoxy and glue the frame back together."
me, points to dumpster: "Epoxy will take 24 hours to cure, and it will not be reliable."

Suzanne shows up, with the old mountain bike. The tires are flat. The tubes don't hold air. The wheels are 26" and we have no spare 26" tubes. Jim discovers there is a bike shop a few miles away, so he sets off to buy some new tubes. Meanwhile, I swap the SPD pedals onto his bike, and attempt to install the rack on his bike. The rack does not fit, and cannot be made to fit.

I call Jim at the bike shop and tell him the rack doesn't fit. We decide the thing to do is for him and Suzanne to bring the mountain bike to a bike shop in Harrisburg, and see if they can install a new rack on it. I will ride on to our hotel for the night, and Jim will meet me there. I am fully expecting the bike shop to tell him that finishing the tour on a 26 year old mountain bike is a bad idea, which Suzanne will totally agree with, and she will drive him home.

At this point, I have just under 4 hours until the Raven's preseason game starts at 7:00, and 35 flat miles to ride. 25 miles of that distance is highway shoulder on US 15 and US 22, where the shoulder is very bad and scary. The last 10 miles or so through Harrisburg is really nice though, with bike trails along the river.