Safe to say Day 1 took it out of me. Day 2, my Dad came up from Manchester to support me while I was getting the bike fixed up, it was problem after problem (sticking brakes and a wobbly headset) and I couldn’t have done it without the amazing bike shops on route… support your local bike shop, they’ll save you when you’re out on the road!
Day two. Let’s have it. All right, mate. Actual blue sky up there. Today could be a good day. Day one really, really was the quite the challenge, not going to lie. I’ve got 97 point something kilometers to do today. My dad is coming to meet me at T Bay cuz the mileage is too much with all the weight and to be able to get to the session on Friday in time. I underestimated it, but this is what it’s all about. Learning and keeping on going. Some big hills today. It’s actually beautiful. I need to keep looking up. I’ve just stopped for a bit of flapjack. I did the dales yesterday. Today I’m going for the lakes. Taking them all off the bike and the trailer. I was down below that vioaduct a bit ago and now I’m climbing again. Just went to a place called Brucey’s Bike Shop. If you’re ever in Kendall and you need somewhere to get your bike fixed up, go there because the guy is a legend. There’s something going on with the headset, which is this bit. And I just took it in. And he sifted through a box of random bits and pieces and he found two parts that fit and sorted it all out. And he didn’t charge me a thing for it. So, I love a bike shop like that and it’s rare that you get them these days. So, yeah, I’ll uh I owe them. Had a lot of uh mechanicals, I think they call them in the bike world today. So, stopped at the top of the climb. Ow. To take a pretty picture cuz the view was amazing. And then all hell broke loose. My chain went in a weird and mysterious way. and then noticed my brakes on the back tire are just constantly on sticking. So tried to sort that out for about probably like half an hour. I didn’t manage. Had a bit of a bad time with that and then thought, “Fuck it. I’ll carry on. I’ll see what happens.” And I was graced with lots of downhill and flats until Penri, which is where I’m going next. So fingers crossed that keeps going.