May 16, 2025
Day 3: Flats and, not one, but 3 saving graces!
How many punctures and flats did we get on day 3? Try to guess. Honestly we aren’t sure; we lost count.
Let’s start at the beginning. We woke up in the middle of the night to a dog running down the road, breathing really loudly. Megan startled Erin by screaming “Go away!” Luckily the dog listened and it went away. Maybe it peed? It smelled a little like dog pee in the morning. We woke up at 6am to try to crank out a big day, but the world had other things in store for us. We spent the first 2 hours of our morning trying to pump up the rear tire after it punctured last night. (Megan has owned this hand pump for years but has never had to use it, so it was a learning experience to figure out how to optimize it). Once we got it pumped enough where we thought it was rideable, we started our big 16 mile descent. Oh boy those were a long 16 miles! Stunning views of the valley and the canyon below, including the roaring river we’d soon reach. A spectacular, and quite unbelievable, array of switchbacks lined the hillside. It was a great thing we got the biggest brake rotors on the market! Megan did adjust our brake pads before we started the descent.
Unfortunately, our descent was soon interrupted by the familiar and unwelcome hissing noise. It was the rear tire again. We tried to seal the hole by spinning the tire so sealant could fill the puncture, but it kept leaking. We needed to go into full mechanic mode. We put the bike upside down (which is no easy feat with a tandem!), took the wheel off and checked the sealant level—turns out there was not much sealant left. It had all sprayed out with the first puncture. Our first plan of action was: add more sealant. We did this and no luck. Sealant started coming out of another hole we didn’t know existed. We went back and forth, inflating the tire and then swishing it around to see if the holes would seal. They would seal temporarily and then all of a sudden, “bam!!” Sealant would squirt out. All the while, our front tire was also still leaking air from a tiny hole that wouldn’t seal. We spent about 2 hours doing this. Also, note that we are in the middle of the Andes—we haven’t seen a car in a long time. But morale was high and we kept problem solving. Lucky for Erin, Megan knows a lot about bikes!
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We managed to ride down on a soft tire to the river until the air started coming out again. We found some glorious shade and decided to put in our tube - a process that took another hour. With our tube in and our tire pumped, we started to ride again with a renewed optimism that maybe we could make it. Take note that it’s about 1pm and we have barely pedaled today due to the mechanicals and the long descent. Alas, about 5 minutes later, the front tire started hissing and spraying Megan with sealant. It felt like we had two non-cooperating children that we kept tending to. We were a short but long 1.5 miles away from a turn we wanted to take (and cleaner water we wanted to filter), and we didn’t know if we should ride the bike, walk the bike or change the tire in the blazing hot sun, far from water. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a truck was coming down the dirt road. We didn’t know what we needed, but we knew we needed them. Through Megan’s limited Spanish, we could understand they were headed to the coast (~5 hours away), but we didn’t know if that was what we needed in that moment. We still had 1 more spare tube to try. We asked if they could drive us the 1.5 miles to the turnoff. They generously said yes, and we hoisted our tandem into the back of the truck, got in with it to hold it and rode the bumpy 1.5 miles where the truck dropped us off. We didn’t know if it was the right decision (not bailing to the coast), but it was the option we chose. With no service and limited English, it was really hard to make an informed decision about what to do next.
After the truck dropped us off, we ate some food, drank some water and added our second, and last, tube to the front tire. At least we were quicker this time at changing the tire :) We hesitantly got on the bike and pedaled to our turn and HALLELUJAH what do we see?!?! A PAVED road! Megan has never been so happy to see pavement. Riding with no back up tubes, we knew our tires and tubes had a chance on pavement. Furthermore, we kept being passed by the occasional cars and truck, which meant that we had options to hitch out if needed. We biked up the road, which had many remnants of prior rockfall, up a beautiful canyon. It twisted and turned and our hope grew—a glimmer of optimism returned. We looked at the map and thought that we could make it to a small shop where we could possibly sleep for the night. We didn’t know if it was going to be open and if it wasn’t open, we didn’t know if we would be able to get water. But we kept biking. Eventually, the shop came into sight and we saw a woman outside. Hallelujah numero dos! We got cold drinks and chips and a Powerade and sat outside the shop and basked in our moment of good luck for the day. The owners of the shop are really sweet and are letting us camp outside, eat and cook on their porch table, and use their bathrooms. It feels luxurious to sit at a table and not camp in a bed of prickers! (Our sleeping pads didn’t pop last night, woohoo!).
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It is unclear how far the pavement continues tomorrow but we have a few contingency plans. We will see what road lies ahead and keep figuring out everything as it comes. For what has felt like an unlucky, exasperating and slightly comical day, we feel lucky to be falling asleep in a good place, with water to drink and food in our bellies.
We are grateful for our three saving graces of the day: a truck, pavement, and a shop to camp beside.
Today's ride: 26 miles (42 km)
Total: 128 miles (206 km)
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| Comment on this entry | Comment | 4 |
1 month ago
I am an old timer and don't really go for a lot ofthe new fangled stuff.
Maybe you need new tyres as modern tyres are quite puncture resistant and as Rich wrote use tubes.
And get a decent pump.
1 month ago
Buy the best quality tyres that your budget permits.
Then you can enjoy your rides.
1 month ago
1 month ago