This story starts with a cruise around Medicine Hat, Alberta. We pulled into town in the rain. We stopped at the Tourist Centre and picked up lots of stuff for Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We topped off the fuel and propane tanks and settled into Gas City Campground. After lunch the rain went away so we pulled Path, our trusty Green Dragon tandem bicycle out of his stable. We loaded up the computer and spare jackets and started out to explore the highly publicized bicycle trails around town. Would you believe it? They are having the wettest spring here too. The riverside trail was flooded by the South Saskatchewan River so we found an alternate route. At the library we were able to get our e-mail, but the machines are locked out so you cannot upload or download files. You can only browse the internet. So we packed up Path again and set off across town for the college library. At one point we were carefully working our way down a rather steep section of the trail when our faithful Path dropped to his knees, literally! We had overstressed a joint in the frame and the brazing broke, the tubing bent and the front wheel knuckled under and locked up. Fortunately we were only moving at a walking pace, but still Judy came up with a skinned shin. I had to remove the wheel and unbolt the shock to get the wheel unlocked. I managed to jury-rig the suspension so the tire could rotate freely and we were able to walk poor Path home in about an hour.
Now is when the “Shop Annex,” our little red trailer, is coming in real handy. I stripped all of the components off of the frame and cut the bent tubing away. I redesigned the triangulation of the frame to better handle the high stress at the front shock mounting point. It took most of one day to cut new tubing and miter all of the joints for the new frame pieces.
On the second day I fired up the acetylene torch and brazed the pieces back into a unified whole. This time the tension strap is double the size, and I expect to get at least double the 4,550 miles the first tension strap lasted. The next couple days while we are traveling I will be filing and sanding the brass fillets to my own demanding fit and finish. The torch only works on bare steel, so all of the paint had to be scraped away from the new joints. For the time being the beautiful metallic green paint job will have to be a fade to spray can green. In a couple weeks, Path should be good as new except for his patchwork paint job.
The folks from our church will be interested to know that our friends, Al and Audrey, arrived here in Medicine Hat today, and we will resume our eastward journey tomorrow.
Tune in later for more exciting adventures from Canada and keep track of the progress of Path, the Green Dragon Tandem Bicycle, as he grows strong and learns to fly again.
Judy and I send our love to all of our friends and relatives back home.
P.S. We are having trouble uploading our blog to the web site. The web site may lag behind our e-mailings, but I will catch up when I can. We are having trouble finding real Cyber-Café’s that let you hook up through the wi-fi card.
Gary
