Surviving the game part 2

It was just a week after the Mullumbimby pump incident (forgive me taking so long to update), I figured that if I survived that, I should be in the clear for a while. Assumptions of that nature are, of course, fatal, but none of us ever seem to learn from them. So it was totally without this in mind that I set off for a morning's off road riding on the old fire trails in Mooball National Park, in the hills behind Murwillumbah. Of course, I was accompanied by the only northerly wind we'd had all week, meaning the humidity was about 169%.



The ride through the forest was beautiful as usual, I had an early taste winding along the dirt road through Urliup, then the ride through Murwillumbah, but I detoured slightly to avoid the industrial area, first taking the old highway south, before cutting back along Fernvale Road to reach the start of the climb at Smarts road. I detoured here as well, to avoid the knee-depth potholes on one section and take in an extra switchback. I then pushed my way through the 15% sections of the road, until I reached the "summit", before the descent along Cooradilla Road.



All the while I was marvelling at how pleasant it was to be riding through rainforest. I decided that I should really make the time to do some camping up here later in the year when the temperatures cool a little. I'm not entirely sure how I'd haul a fully loaded bike up some of those gradients (I once measured one earlier section at 22%), but the rewards of spending a night up here would make it all worthwhile.



Today's drama took place on the way home, having returned to the sealed road for the final rolling hills before Murwillumbah. It's not often that I get flats on the GEAX Evolution tyres, but when they do happen, they're usually spectacular. This one was no exception. A steel bolt somehow found it's way into the tyre. At 55km/h, it was always going to do some damage. Not only was the tube destroyed in three places (and probably more if I'd taken the time to look), the rim tape around the wheel was also snapped. Some of it must have broken off, because there wasn't enough to go around the wheel anymore.

I thought my ride was over, but then I realised that I was only about 5km from Murwillumbah, meaning that if I could fashion a bodgy repair, I might just be able to make it back into town and get some insulation tape from a service station to replace the rim tape temporarily, and limp home. The bodgy repair involved patching over the two spoke holes on the inside of the wheel with tyre patches, and using the glue from those to hold them and what was left of the rim tape in place. It was a completely stupid idea, but it worked. I made it to Murwillumbah, bought some insulation tape (there was no bike shop there that opened on a Sunday), and got myself on the road again. I was fortunate that somehow the tyre that took the hit on the outside was still in good shape.



Now all that was left was the final climb over Tomewin (which was as much to get out of the wind as anything else), and the final ride home through suburbia. Unfortunately there was no rain on Tomewin today, but it was nice enough just the same. I reached the summit, cruised across the top of the range and descended back to the coast, realising that I had dodged a bullet for the second consecutive weekend. Still, they say these things happen in threes, so there might be another surprise on the way.