OlinPatterson.com

This is a blog I wrote when I rode a bicycle across the country… I am moving it here from cycling4acause.org to preserve it in a single location! Enjoy! xxop

pete eich uses ingenuity to overcome in the face of adversity

October 14, 2008

Finding spare bicycle parts in Kansas and eastern Colorado is basically impossible. Their is not an adequate bicycle shop between Kansas City and Denver, and the team knew this fact fully before embarking on that 700 mile passage. However, what the team did not plan on was the terrible head winds and weather that put a huge damper on the estimated time it would take to cross an area where no supplies could be accessible if something were to go wrong. And it is the way that the world works that if there is going to be a place where things fall apart quickly why not have it smack in the middle of a ten day voyage to the next bicycle shop? That is exactly what happened when Scott Hunthausen’s back wheel decided it didn’t want to work anymore by snapping three spokes at once. Having exhausted their supply of spokes, Peter was able to find spokes that were an inch longer and tie overhand knots in them to get Scott’s wheel back to working. Even though the judges have not decided on the awards completely, there was a unanimous vote for Most Valuable Rider being Peter Eich. The team can agree, without him they’d be freezing on the side of a road some where in middle Kansas.