July 1st, Day 13: Burley, ID to Pocatello, ID: 86 miles, 2543 ft ascent

Haha, fooled you. Those of you who were already groaning about another TMI post on the state of our rear ends can relax. I’m referring here to Genevieve’s rear end, and specifically the rear wheel.

Our own inevitable rear end issues can be fixed, or at least mitigated, by liberal application of chamois cream, sudocrem, butt paste, percutaneous voltarem, or any number of other potions and lotions that we are collectively carrying across America.    

Sadly, Genevieve is not so easily cured, although, at least in principle, her rear end is more replaceable than my own.

However, as tandems have to carry twice the weight of normal bikes, they do not use standard wheels (the one we are currently running on has 48 spokes of a heavier than normal gauge). This means that if she has an irreparable problem with her wheels, we cannot simply slap on one of the spares that America By Bicycle carry.

This presented a problem when Judy, the ride leader, noticed a nasty wobble on our rear wheel rim. Neither the ABB mechanics nor George’s Bike Shop in Boise were able to re-true the original wheel so that one’s toast. But no matter, trying to cover all eventualities, we brought out a spare pair of tandem wheels with us and we have been running on our spare wheel ever since on Day 3 .

All good so far, and yesterday I actually got round to contacting Co-motion (Genevieve’s manufacturer) to get a replacement replacement shipped to Casper (our next rest day in 5 days’ time).

But today the eagle eyed Judy noticed that the spare we are running on had also developed a (so far small) wobble. Turns out we snapped a spoke thumping through one of the many potholes today. So:

1. I am Crossing everything and hoping that the mechanics can re-true this wheel and it will get us to Casper where we pick up the new spare
2. I am also cursing myself for tucking into all those cooked breakfasts, as Genevieve is clearly not well disposed to lardy fat arses perching over her rear wheel on badly maintained highways. 

On a more cheery note we have just posted two new entries in our Rogues Gallery - Speedy Mike and Weedy Mike.

And here are some really excellent photos from Marty, one of the Portland Brothers.