Start: 9:35 AM

Finish: 3:00 PM  

Saddle Time: 4:00

Ascent: 705 feet

Descent:  408 feet

Miles: 49

Total Miles: 1,608

Highlight: Camping at a nice town park in Hazelton, also met other cyclists for the first time in over a week.

Lowlight: Waking up to a front flat tire and realizing my back tire is worn bare.

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

I’ve been seriously neglecting bike maintenance for this whole trip. I set out saying to myself each week I will give the bike a run down, check that everything is tight and in good condition and clean my chain.  I even brought a ziplock bag of rags for the task.  I’ve done this exactly zero times.  I’ve known for about two weeks that I have a slow leak in my front tire.  I’m carrying patch kits and a spare tube but figured rather than use my spare I would just buy another tube and toss the leaking one, or maybe patch it and keep as a second backup.  I’ve been looking for a bike shop this whole time but they either don’t exist or are not open when I roll through town.  I found one a couple days ago in Dickenson, Steffan Saw and Bike.  Yes, they sell chainsaws and bicycles, been in business for 50 years.  I bought my tube and planned on changing when I have time.  You would think I have a lot of time, finishing up riding by 3:00 or so but everything takes so much more time on the road plus this blog and instagram also take a lot of time. I thought last night would be the night.  I arrived in town at 2:00 but stopped for my Thai feast.  Got to the hotel around 3:00 but my room wasn’t ready so I went to the supermarket.  I eventually made it to my room around 4:00 but wanted to get caught up with back posts on the blog, then had dinner and it was too late to dig into a bike tire.

I woke up this morning find my front tire completely flat.  I flipped the bike upside down for easier access to the tire and realized my rear tire is worn bare.  I don’t normally see the rear tire since its covered by the fender.  I look at the front tire all the time, looks good. I found two holes in the front tire, one from a piece of wire still in the tire and the other looked like maybe a pinch flat which makes sense because I was on some rough roads end of the day yesterday. I used my new inner tube and patched the old tube as a backup.  I swapped the front and back tires partly to make the worn tire last longer but also the rear tire is a pain to access so high as well move it to the front now.  I also cleaned my chain and gear.  They were a mess, totally black with crude.  Did my best to not make a mess in the hotel room then took it outside to lube the chain.  I should have done this at least a couple times by now.

I debated how to ride today.  There were two options, one a short 45 miles and the other about 70.  There’s a bike hostel I wanted to stay at about 110 miles from here.  If I do the 45 mile ride today that makes for a nice 65 mile ride the next day.  If I do the 70 mile ride then 30 miles is really too short so I would likely skip the hostel.  Last night I was leaning towards the longer ride and skipping the hostel. This mornings tire incident decided for me.  I was going to get a late start so might as well do the short ride.  Since I’m already getting a late start I might as well look for a new tire in Bismarck.  I’m not likely to see a bike shop until Fargo.  I packed up, headed out and stopped at two places. Both were out of my tire.  Both said bike supplies are in high demand and short supply which has me concerned about getting a replacement.  I may look into having something shipped ahead to a post office maybe 5 days from here as general delivery.  I did a quick look for Amazon delivery lockers in Fargo but there doesn’t seem to be any.  I’ll check again but one of those options is my best bet because I don’t have a lot of miles left on this tire.

Riding conditions were fine today.  I followed bike paths out of Bismarck then zigzagged my way southeast through farmland.  More of the same scenery but I feel it’s slowly changing from prairie to woodland.  I assume this transition will continue to Minnesota.

Had my first spill of the trip. I was pulling off the road down a short embankment for a water and snack break with my right foot unclipped as normal. My tire slid to the right causing the bike to fall to the left. Perhaps made worse with my bald front tire. With all my bags this is more of a motorcycle than bicycle so you don’t easily regain your balance. I couldn’t unclip my left foot fast enough so over I went. Scratched up my elbow and banged up my knee but nothing serious.

I’m staying tonight at the Hazelton town park which is quit nice, a typical park environment with picnic tables but also parking spots for 6 RV’s with hookups and tent parking in the field for $12. They also have bathrooms and showers.  Perfect.  There’s an RV and a group of three young cyclists heading west, the first cyclists I’ve seen in over a week heading in either direction.   There’s a restaurant walking distance from here so that’s dinner for tonight.