After my spin on Monday, my plan was to do a couple of hours yesterday. The route was sorted but after getting a little carried away with a party for one on the balcony until 1.30am, I was a bit meh all day yesterday. Drained and generally lethargic. I think the travel, lack of sleep and caning the beer had caught up with me.
After a quick snooze PM I eventually mustered up some motivation to do another quick spin before dinner.
This time I rode the coast road out to Majanicho and then onto the carpet-like tarmac road back to Lajares. The bike was sounding like a rusty hinge though. Everytime I applied pressure on the pedals it creaked like the cranks were going to fall off. I stopped to check a few things about three times roadside but no joy so I just cracked on and endured it.
I got a little lost trying to find the rocky singletrack back to volcano alley which I did eventually. Much harder this way too. As I crested the top of the climb rather than ride straight back to Corralejo I decided to go ‘off-piste’ on a track I’d found on the maps. It was fine to start with but ran out and became a rock garden to the point I nearly turned round and went back. I was committed now so I tried to persevere but some of it was unrideable until I found the actual track I should have been on which took me between a couple of smaller volcanoes back along the coast road.
When I got back, I wheeled my bike into the hotel and found I’d broke a spoke on the rear wheel. Rare for me so I had to put the bike back as I had it and take it back to the hire centre just in case they swapped it.
Initially the mechanic seemed to imply I’d crashed it as the left grip had a hole in the end but that was there when I took the bike. Then I tried to show him a video of the creak I’d taken in the workshop and was bluntly told to get out. I thought this was going to go south if he accuses me of crashing the bike. The guys were talking in Spanish about me too and a couple of Italians were arguing with the owner at the till to the point he told them to forget it and they were cancelled over some card issue. So he was fired up and clearly agitated.
Meanwhile the mechanic swapped the back wheel and asked me to wait to speak to the owner. Here we go I thought.
When the owner was done with the arguing Italians he asked me if I’d crashed the bike and I said no and offered to pay for the spoke as they are consumables. He said it was ok and agreed the hole in the grip was there when I took the bike off him. He took it for a quick spin and came back and thanked me for being patient. So no problem really.
The bike still had a loud creak though and he told me it was the seat. It wasn’t because I could stand aside the bike and press on a pedal and make it happen. I was a bit annoyed and undecided whether to go and have that argument with him. He’s 6ft 2 and about 16 stone. As i rode off the creak did sound a bit different and the only thing that had changed was the back wheel so I stopped and tightened the skewer up hard and hey presto! it was quiet!!
Last night I had a quieter night. We had some dinner and then went for a walk upto the harbour eating an ice cream and saw some stray cats. I got to bed at a reasonable hour, no parties on the balcony and I had a good sleep. Today I’ve decided to have a day off or just go for a short spin around town later if it’s not too hot
