Bicycle Touring Ireland

This week’s Travelsonabike2 bicycle touring on this day post comes from Ireland on the 29th of August 2009. Gaffer tape and zip ties will fix anything.

You can read the rest of the posts from Garry’s ride in Ireland in his Portugal and Ireland tour book. Available to buy from Amazon.

Saturday 29th August. Carrigtohill to Tralee. 87 Miles.

As I said last night, I did head in a more northerly direction. It seems to have been the right decision; I’ve not had any wind or rain and not too many hills.

I arrived at camp tonight and set up the tent as usual, then proceeded to unload the bike when I noticed that the back rack was loose; one of the bolts had sheared off! I thought something had been wrong all day, as there was a lot of rattling coming from the back, but every time I stopped to look, I couldn’t see anything wrong.

What with tomorrow being a Sunday and nowhere open, I had to try and fix it myself or stay here all day and wait for the shops to open on Monday, but even then, I don’t know whether there’s a bike shop or whatever shop I need.

A Friendly Stranger

Luckily, the man in the caravan next to me came to my rescue with a hacksaw, allowing me to cut a slot in the sheared-off bolt. I was then able to use a screwdriver to remove it. Now that the bolt was out, it still didn’t help me; I didn’t have a spare bolt to put in its place. But after a bit of thought, I removed one of the bolts from the front mudguard and used that, then used a zip tie in place of that bolt. I’ve always said that you can fix anything with gaffer tape and zip ties. Hopefully, that’ll last until I get home.

After fixing the bike, I had supper, then went down the road to a travelling funfair, which was good fun, even though I didn’t go on anything.

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