But still a bit more needed:
The good news is that Paulo’s bike arrived along with all his gear. We were starting to think the worst in that without any receipts for it all, it could easily have gone for walkies with someone looking for a new means of transportation, but fortunately it all came in over the course of the day. He wasn’t able to travel with us to Penzance, though, but it arrived in time for him to get the 7pm train from London, meaning he will get to the place here in Land’s End (the Land’s End Hostel and Bed and Breakfast by the way for anyone thinking about doing this ride in the future: great place, good price and really nice owners who have been incredibly helpful!) by about 1am. We ourselves did arrive slightly late as the train was delayed due to signal troubles. I guess lots of trains have been affected by problems lately with the freezing weather everywhere, so I wasn’t complaining that we ended up only half an hour or so after the scheduled time, getting to Penzance station at about 5.30pm. The train ride was great as well as the snow in the countryside made it all look very beautiful outside (even when we reached areas where there was no snow, it was still very nice to watch as we sped by) and travelling during the day let us see it all.
Now, I say that an improvement in fortunes is still required. Yes, unfortunately (there always seems to be an “unfortunately” lately… sorry!) in the course of the flight over, the rear gear shifter got bent meaning that the chain, when on the largest gear, goes into the spokes of the wheel…. which is never nice. Also, problems with the brakes on one side moving, but the other side not. Which isn’t great for efficient braking…
In the morning when leaving London we were in a pretty big hurry and we needed to get the bikes setup and bags all ready to go so as to make the train, which meant that we didn’t have time to sort these problems out straight away. We got into a black cab to get us to Paddington and then when there put the bikes into the bike car at the front. We were then only able to give a real look at everything when we arrived in Penzance in the middle of a badly illuminated front area at night. After an hour or so messing around outside in the cold (they threw us out of a waiting room (though there was nobody else there at alll) because bikes aren’t allowed there) with the various bolts and screws etc, the gears and the brakes are now slightly better – the chain no longer goes into the spokes and it shifts between gears okay, and the brakes work… just not properly… so it is still not ideal. (Indeed, if anyone has any tips with sorting out brakes where only one side works, very happy to hear from you!) What we did will suffice as a temporary fix – in the day light tomorrow we will hopefully be able to sort out all the problems properly, but at worse, there is a bike shop en route at Penzance that we will be able to stop off at. So yes, from a bad start, things are looking much better and I don’t think there will be any need to deviate from the schedule now.
As my brother said, it is much better having the problems at the beginning of the ride than in the middle, so that’s a definite positive. And also, this whole thing is part of a learning process for us all, and it is certainly proving to be.
Oh and sorry not pics yet – will start getting some from tomorrow!!
360 Extremes Expedition 