Finally getting up the hills

 

Today I decided to take Myron on a 30 mile round trip ride.  I had ridden this route before, but had forgotten how steep the road was on the other side of the mountain.  It was also very warm for us and the sun is trying to “tan our hides”.  We were riding with a helmet, a neck covering called a Buff, a baseball cap to keep the sun off our foreheads as we can not use sun screen over our eyes or we spend endless time trying to clear out eyes so we can ride.  We also need sunglasses for the glare. Our heads are so covered that people are trying to guess whether we are Thai or Farangs (foreign people).   Farang is neutral word and used to describe all non Asian people.

As luck would have it this was my day to have some trike issues.  First I could not get into my lowest gear in back.  Finally after climbing up a hill for what seems forever I had to stop on the road and make an adjustment to the gearing so I could get into “granny gear”.  That is a great description for low, low as after using it for some time I feel like granny.  Next I could not get into the lowest gear on the front chain ring.  It was beginning to look like a conspiracy to make me work harder and maybe blow out my knee early in the tour.  Finally I reached down and pushed the front derailleur over by hand to get into low gear and we proceeded up the mountain as a blistering pace of 2.75 mph.

I don’t mind climbing steep roads if I have the gears, but I just hate to give back any of the vertical I worked so hard to gain.  Most mountain roads in Thailand follow ridges, which means they are up and down like a roller coaster.  One spends 20 minutes in the heat climbing what seems like an endless hill to be rewarded by a 45 second downhill run to begin the process again. It is usually the 4th hill or so I begin to wonder what it is I find so alluring about touring and begin to wonder if I might be much farther along towards senility than I suspect.  Being both a retired mechanic and engineer it is these long slow tedious climbs where my mind begins to think of how I can get a Honda 3.5 HP motor on the bike and not have anyone see it.

Once and a while life is good and we hit a long stretch of road that has about .5% down grade and we can get into our highest gears and move right along with minimum effort.  These are rewarding times that help me forget those long hot hills. If all else fails one can always call for backup.