serial f***ing breakdowns

having finally made it to kathrine ( with the bike) and done a day of mantenence I headed oult only to find 13km up the road that the frame where the rear spring mounts onto the main frame. so I headed back to town and cocos backpackers ( where I was kindly allowd to camp free) where I knew there was a welder.

40km up the road my ( short) chain starts jumping of even though its tight, ( i had stoped and tenchoned it just after leaving Kathrine) f******** under closer inspection I find that the drivin sprocket is bent an...d worn, badly. not worth bending back agean, itd done nearly 4000km so I pulled oult the spare and changed it. having done that I went to put a bit of pressure in one of my tires that seemed to have a gradual leek and f************ the valve was gone. so in with a new tube. and back on the road. but that was 150km or so agoe now.

now heading towards darwin its intresting to watch the vegetation become wetter, there are palms and ferel bamboo in the creks.

Ive finally made it to Kathrine, with the bike, after eliot I only had a couple of flats to slow me down witch has been a great relief. I stayd last night free at cocos witch was great, its a little backpackers/ camp aria.

bit of a drama for the last week or so

so, the story for the last couple of days, in short, I was kindly donated a mutch needed set of new tires in tennent ck, the last set in tennent creek to I only left with one spare, its worth noting that the tires dident have an ideal tread... patten. a combenation of harsh roads, poor quaity tires and slightly misalighned wheels I had compleatly eaten front right and back tires by renner springs ( 160km) knowing that my next posable bike shop was kathrane ( about 500km) and knowing that my one spare wouldent be enough, I parked the bike at renner springs ( thankyou to the manegment for all your help and support) and in the morning hiched up to kathrane with some fellow travelers ( about 500km) discoverd all the shops closed because of the local show. I spent the night at a backpacers (I had almost nothing with me so no camping), the next morning ( satterday) I was thankfull that the shops were open and got 4 spare tires ( better tread patten but cheep) and hiched back. this morning I realighned my front wheels, fitterd tires and hedded off.
after 90km r so the tires showed almost only normal where for that distence. but
about 5km before eliot the rear pannel mount snapped off. fuck. atleast it was close to town and will be a streghtforward weld, but being sunday the local mecanics wont be able to do untill tomorrow. so now Im camped down a tiy little sandy side track just oult of eliot pretending Im not here.

atleast the sunset was great

 

into tennent creak

sorry I havent got mutch up for a wile, ive had eather little time or no internet, for more freaquent updates see faceboock.com/solarshift. and for a map of my travels see https://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

I made it threw up the range, said godbie to the east coast and made it to normanton withoult any dramas, well one flat tire but thats nothing.

and now ive made it to tenent creek, most of the pictures are farly self explanetry, so no need to comment. garey from the local viseter info senter has been kind enough to sponser me a desperatly needed new set of tires, thanks heaps for that gary. there have been swalms of grey nomads all along the road, between them and roadtrains they make up the magorety of the traffic, sutch a contrast to my bike.

Ive been vearry happy with how the bikes gone, no mecanical dramas, give or take a few flats and waln tires, a little chain jumping frount wheell bearings and a couple of broken spokes. really not that mutch for 2000km or so. so im happy.