Have You Noticed?
These are some observations I have made when touring. I'm sure that you may have noticed them too. They are not meant to be negative, but I have given them serious thought when riding long distance, and feel that they are one of those mysteries of the universe.
- The bit that you need is always at the very bottom of your largest pannier;
- You have not seen a car for hours, and you need to water the daisies. You stop and 20 cars come along the road;
- It's the back tyre that always gets punctured on a loaded tourer;
- Another empty road with no cars seen for hours, and approaching your turnoff, 40 cars come along the road;
- When a rear spoke breaks, it's always on the drive side, and facing away from the gear cluster, so you have to remove the cluster;
- You see lots of shoes along the road, but never a complete pair;
- Chocolate cravings happen 200 kms from the nearest store;
- Your tyre is flat in the morning, but it wasn't last night;
- The tyre is always flat on the bottom;
- You've misplaced your sunglasses, spend ages looking for them, then realise that you have them on;
- It stops raining immediately after you stop, pull out all of the rain gear and put it on;
- It then starts to rain again, as soon as you take it all off, and stuff it back into a pannier;
- Your loaded tourer will lean against anything, for over half an hour, before moving on it's own and falling over;
- The howling headwind changes direction after you do;
- If there is an ant nest around, it's entrance is usually under your tent, even though you checked before putting it up;
- It's nice all day, and then it rains when you''re setting up camp;
- When someone says "Oh that way is all downhill", it's actually all uphill and into a screaming headwind, and;
- The toilet paper is always strongest at the perforations;
- For me, no matter what, my handlebar bolts always come undone on the first day of a tour;
