Day 3

Sleeping location: Durrant House Hotel, Bideford
Distance (km today/total): 111 / 250
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1500 / 3550
Chain failures: 1
Day in three words: Break the chain

Today was all about the chain. In fitting Maggie up for the big journey I installed some new, wide mudguards. They turned out to be so wide that the chain actually touched then in some gears, so my dad and I cut a slot out of them and thought that would be ok. In fact the slot was too low down, and in certain gear shifts the chain was catching on the nice sharp corner we added by removing a section of mudguard. The morning was filled with some very concerning noises, vibrations and chain skips, until a steep hill around lunchtime when the chain (about 200km old) gave up entirely and snapped. Turns out Fleetwood Mac were wrong.

We made it rideable using a split link, but the chain itself was absolutely fucked and created a horrible grating sound whenever I turned the pedals. As the nearest bike shop was 25 miles away and closed in two hours, I set off on a solo speed mission to get there in time. Sadly this meant that I didn’t appreciate the lovely Devon scenery, which was lovely, but I did make it to the shop where a very helpful man fitted a new chain and took another chunk out of the mudguard to (hopefully) prevent this happening again.

The ride itself was good, lots of manageable climbs, some nice views and two great trails along old railway lines (for trail fans, the Camel and the Tarka).

Moment of the day: eating a cheese and onion pasty whilst riding one handed at 30kph.


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