Bike Update

At last we have an update on the condition of Angela’s bike. 

Some of you might remember that our first bike ride here in Samoa ended with a buckled back wheel and some broken spokes on Angela’s bike.  We then found that there are no bike shops or places to get replacement parts over here.  We managed to order some spare parts and the necessary tools from an online bike shop in NZ just in time for Latika and Hedley to bring them when they came up for their visit. So a big thanks to our ‘couriers’.

Armed with all the parts, tools and my bike maintenance book I got back into trying to get Angela’s bike back on the road.  It still wasn’t as straight forward as I hoped – there were problems with more spokes breaking, needing some longer spokes, trying to find Locktite in Apia…..   Then there was the fact that the wheel was very badly buckled and trying to straighten it up was not an easy task. Anyway, last week I finally got it back in one piece and rideable.

 Naturally we were both keen to get on the bikes and go for a ride, so on Saturday we decided to ride to netball training.  (Angela is helping to train the Samoan development squad and they train on Saturday afternoons).  Unfortunately training is at 1.00pm, so we set off from home in the hottest part of the day – about 33°! We got to Apia Park OK, no problems with either bike, but realised that riding around in that heat is a silly thing to do!! We waited at the courts until about 1.30, but no one else turned up. Practice must have been cancelled, but no one had told Angela.  So we rode to the closest shop, picked up some iceblocks and sat under the coconut trees by the sea. Then we rode around the shoreline and back home without any damage to the bikes.  It was good to be able to ride again, even though it was hot, we had to dodge a few dogs and fight our way through the Apia traffic.