Day 27 - Hinton to Elk City, Oklahoma

Day 27 of our tour
October 30, 2016
66.5 miles today
(1263.7 miles, cumulative)
3255 feet of climbing 
(50,466 feet of climbing, cumulative)


We ventured farther west, and farther south. The weather today was the best we've had yet during our four weeks! It included cooler temperatures, a day-long tailwind, light cloud cover until noon and not a drop of rain anywhere in sight. We started out with three possible stopping points and ended up going to the last one.

What's more, we had such a good day on top of our biggest mechanical issue yet. We were climbing a small hill and all of a sudden when I downshifted the internal rear hub, the pedals were spinning freely giving no drive at all to the rear wheel. 

We stopped of course, and I took off the wheel, took off the cassette of cogs, and tried spinning the wheel by turning the freehub. The freehub simply spun independently of the wheel. I thought maybe the pawls inside it were kaput. I figured our day was over, and we'd need to flag down or call some help.

We were on the verge of calling a friend in Amarillo when I decided instead to call my son-in-law Steve in California as he is a bike expert. I thought he might have a suggestion on something I had overlooked. He's seen the rear internal gear hub up close, even in disassembled state once, at our house, so he knew immediately what I was facing. After thinking about it for a few minutes, he suggested trying to spin the freehub with the internal gear shifted into the medium or high setting, rather than the default low setting. I pulled on the rod that goes into the axle to control the internal gear, and it worked! Thanks again, Steve, I'm glad I called!

After an hour and twenty minutes on the side of the road we were able to put the wheel back together, mount it again on the bike, and carry on. We could still use the rear derailleur to shift through the nine cogs mounted on the freehub, but the internal gear would stay only in one gear. Initially it stayed in the middle gear, but after a few miles that one stopped working, and it needed to stay in the lowest gear, the one that earlier had not worked at all. Our 27 speed bike is now a 9 speed bike, but it works fine that way temporarily, especially since the 9 speeds we have are the lower ones and that allows us to do any climbing without a problem.

I'll call the manufacturer of the bike, Bike Friday in Eugene, Oregon tomorrow to see what they can tell me about the expected life of this damaged hub. I know it will need to be rebuilt or replaced eventually, but if we can continue with it as is, that's what we'll do.

My apologies to you readers for whom the technical details are unintelligible. I included those for the several cyclists who are reading, too.

Here are some photos from today...

Our motel last night was owned by an Indian tribe, and our complimentary breakfast was served at  the cafe attached to the tribe's casino. The cafe's interior paid homage to Route 66:

We passed yet another old gas station that had been updated:

Apparently the Oklahoma wind is good for something:

Jean caught these colourful trucks from her stoker position with our grandchildren in mind, especially Ross, who really likes yellow things:

Sometimes it's hard to believe how many miles we cover. We often feel that way when we reach the crest of a long hill and look back, and the road is straight as as arrow and disappears at the horizon, as in this photo. The frontage road we rode on had almost no traffic all day. Everyone was out on the freeway, which ran parallel to the frontage road, which is Route 66:

But then, there are times when Route 66 takes the form of a quiet country road,and the freeway is nowhere in sight (or earshot). This section, where they had let the grass grow tall right up to the road bed, had a special feel to it:

Here is today's pastoral scene. Lots of red soil with some kind of winter crop:

And, the animals of the day were these cows. They were all munching grass until they heard us. Up came their heads to look, and this group even walked over to the fence:

A few yards farther along this bunch stopped eating at the bale at the rear and also walked over to the fence to see what we were doing. We had stopped the bike to take their photo, that's all:

Apparently the wind is back tomorrow from the southwest, and the heat will be back, too. Perhaps it will be a slightly shorter ride, with an early start.