Protea on Table Mountain 

 

The next ride will be after Christmas. The task now is to get everything ready--bike and me. In Canada if the bike needed fixing, which it did a couple of times, I could get to the next town and take it into the Bike shop. A broken chain in the middle of Sudan presents a slightly different problem. So, it is a good idea to have some support and that is why I am going with www.tourdafrique.com The ride will be escorted but with 30 riders, each with different machines, we need to make sure that we each have our own spares back-up. A month ago I knew nothing about bicycle chains, cassettes, bottom brackets and so on. But I'm learning. A difficulty with buying spares is that the manufacturers seem to delight in making everything non-standard. Chains are different widths; there is a bewildering variety of chainwheel and gearing combinations, and as for tyres, the way they size them defies logic. Thankfully I have found a very helpful web site. www.sheldonbrown.com. Sheldon is an American who seems to know everything about anything to do with bicycles, and he even replies to e mails. Unlike Dawes Bicycles. I have one of their machines but my several e mails go unanswered. (another 'helpful' British company). But I now have chains, tyres, tools, derailleurs and tools to change them with.

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