What would Niel do?

I had a lovely bike ride on the flat of 75 kms, as I wished for in last weeks blog entry. It was a lovely autumn day - warm and sunny without a breath of wind.

A sunny autumn day in Nelson.

While I was having an easy and pleasant ride, Niel was enduring roads from hell if you could call them roads. More like mountain biking. He was wise enough to have a hybrid bike with heavy duty tyres, otherwise it would have been impossible. He even admitted it was un-rideable in places and had to walk. I bet he's grateful he did his 'round the South Island' ride which ended up being on 150 kms of gravel roads, so that it confirmed what sort of tyres to take and what componentry to have on his bike to fix any problem. He is off the Andes now and finally on some flat roads for at least a week, heading towards Brazil, on  roads the locals tell him are MOSTLY sealed!!

Niel's 'road' through the Andes.

I've had a ticking sound on my bike that is driving me crazy. I really hate unexplained noises, it's like slow torture. I can't afford to take it to the bike shop and tell them to find it and fix it. What would Niel do?

The sound still happens when I stop pedaling, so it's either of the wheels or the freewheel - that the cluster attaches to. Hmm..... I put the bike on a stand and spun the back wheel - no noise. I spun the front wheel - the computer sensor was ticking, was that it? I turned the sensor around so that it wasn't working - hmm still ticking. Is it the bearings in the hub. How can I test for that? Put another wheel in and see if it is still ticking. That's about where I am up to so far.

Now which wheel should I use?

I hope Niel's proud of me, for sussing things out and being analytical, I know that's what he would do.