Jim to the rescure!

6-27-10 Day 23: Norway, Michigan to Iron Mountain, Michigan: 10 miles in 40 minutes. Rt 2 west the whole day.

Yup, that’s right…..10 miles today! And it all started like this: Yesterday on my ride I noticed that I had a bit of “slide” on my ride hand pedal/crank side, and kind of assumed that my right cleat was getting worn. Noted it. Then, last night as I was cleaning my drive train, I usually check my cranks and pedals and cleats to see if they’re showing any signs of wear, and I remembered that slop problem. Checked the pedals. OK. Checked the cleats. Not bad. And low and behold when I checked my cranks arms there was some side to side play. Not good when you’re out of the saddle every 10-15 min hammering with all your weight on the pedals. So I called my mechanic on skype this morning and he told me it could be loose on the axel, or worse case, the bearings could be shot. He told me how to kind of check out axel vs bearings, and it seemed as though the axel was loose.

Got up this morning and got on the net while it was still raining and found that there was a bike shop in Iron Mountain, and I called but on answering machine. Bad thing was that it’s Sunday and I didn’t place much hope in the place being opened. Packed my gear and headed into the drizzly fog from Norway to Iron Mountain with the intent of stopping at the bike shop a check on the bottom bracket. Well, got on the bike, and man, since I noticed that play in the efficiency, I REALLY noticed it slopping back and forth when riding it. Not a good feeling with your cranks kind of slinking from side to side. So I road the 10 miles into Iron Mountain but couldn’t find the shop. Stopped at a Citco gas station and went in to ask for directions to the bike shop. A gal at the desk and a gentleman standing there talking to her told me where it was, but said it would be closed. They even called for me and go no answer.

Then they got in the yellow pages and found another shop in Niagara, Wisconsin, just over the line. The guy was closed but said for my situation he’d go to his shop at noon. The gentleman in the gas station, Jim, said he’d take me up there with the bike. Then he asks if I wanted to kill the 1.5 hrs with a little sightseeing in Iron Mountain. Yup, serendipity all over again! Jim, a wonderful 61-year-old man, and a retired Iron Mountain city employee for the better part of his life in numerous capacities, pretty much came to my rescue and became my sight-seeing tour guide for the day. He knows every nook and cranny of the area. We went up to this 90-meter ski jump on the ski mountain and it was just out of this world. Winter sports are king out here, and this ski jump Jim tells me, attracts a multitude of people for the jumping competition. You just have never seen anything this amazing until you stand under it or upon it.

We then went up to Niagara in Wisconsin to meet this fellow by the name of Tim, owner of a small bike shop who was kind enough to take time out of his day off to look at my rig. Now Tim doesn’t have this tricked out shop full of thousand dollar rigs, but what he does have is a very firm grasp on being a damned good bike mechanic. This guy ripped into my bottom, and came to the determination the the cranks were indeed loose and that the drive side bearings race was probably gone. He got it tightened up and it was the bomb…..BUT there was this horrible creaking that was emanating from the drive side of the bottom bracket. He had figured that when he tightened the arms to the axel the crappy bearings race on the right side started squeeking. He said I could likely ride on it BUT for how long? Didn’t know, and that creaking was downright scary to hear. Sounded like the thing was just going to explode. Nope, the BB was trash.

Just goes to show that despite all the shit I carry with me, and let me tell you I carry about 8 pounds of tools and spare equipment, I did NOT carry a spare bottom bracket. My bad to because when I had my bike tuned up before this trip I neglected to have my mechanic put in a new BB. This one is all on me and me alone. So that brings us back to my pickle…..Tim did not have that “hollow” type BB in his shop. So he called around, in Green Bay, in Iron Mountain to the guy who’s shop was closed, to Iron River, to Ironwood, to Escanaba – either the place wasn’t open or the shop did not stock the BB. Tim even called his daughter to see if one of her bikes had that hollow BB that he could remove, but she had no idea what the hell he was talking about when asked about what kind of bottom bracket the bike had on it.

This was looking pretty grim. Looking like I’d have to ride this creaking sick dog a hundred of two miles to Ashland Wisconsin or Duluth Wisconsin before I could find the proper BB. It would be a gamble that the thing just wouldn’t go Kaboom as I was riding along!! So he made a call to Marquette to a bike shop, and that guy didn’t have this BB in stock…but there was another guy in the shop by the name of Brian who worked for a different shop, and Brian was put on the phone. Yup, he had that BB in stock his shop. Tim tells us that and Jim immediately says that he’ll run me up to Marquette – 1.5 hrs up and 1.5 hrs back!!. Blows me away. I mean I had just met this man in a gas station and now he’s running me all over hell trying to get this freaking rare part. Couldn’t thank him enough.

I filled his truck with petrol and off we went to Marquette. I mean this was a drive mind you, kind of like driving to Columbus and back from Akron! So we get there and this young buck opens up the shop and puts the BB in in no time and was done. Visa and out the door. Didn’t even ride it because it was freaking raining pretty hard out. I just assumed it was done right and that was it. This guy was no Tim with respect to torking it down to the nine, but he was pretty good and very decent to open his shop and give me a hand on a Sunday. Then Jim gives me a tour of Marquette, down to a park called Presque Isle, to these massive ore and coal loading docks for barges, and past the new Superior Arena which is where some of the NCAA March Madness games were played this past year. Sun popped out and it was just beautiful along the coast of Superior. We stopped at a couple really beautiful spots and walked out onto the rocky coastline for me to take some pics.

Then another 1.5 hrs back to Iron Mountain. I took Jim out to a Chineses Buffet – and for those of you who think that was my idea, oh no grasshopper, as I had asked him where he’d like to go and that was one of the two places he named!! Awesome chowdown for both of us. I’m sitting here in Jim’s fifth wheel, which is as laid out as you could ever want, writing my blog. He apologetically offered me this option to spend the night as if I was picky about where I sleep while on the road. I think his fifth wheel is like the Grand Hotel for God’s sake. I’ve got a bedroom in the back and this whole dining area where I’m writing right now. There’s a cable TV in here and I’m cranking on some Steven’s Point Brewery Amber Ales.

It’s crazy how things go when you’re on the road. People like Jim are the memories that make trips like this so amazing. Yup, it’s people like Jim here in Iron Mountain, and Tim in Niagara, and Brian in Marquette, and then from Canada: Barney and Val, and Ken & Kim, and Clayton & Diana, and all the awesome folks from our 2009 trip, it’s these people who bring the trip to life, give it that human touch. This human touch is that intangible that you can never factor into your itinerary. It’s serendipity.

So……despite gaining only 10 miles of forward progress, I’ve had a wonderful time today with Jim as my guardian angle/tour guide and now my host. Looks like 6, count them, 6 good days ahead weather wise……I hope! According to weather channel it’s a good for nearly a week of stellar weather up here. Could I make it all the way through Minnesota with that stretch of weather? We’ll see. Tune in tomorrow for another chapter. Late………pete