For awhile I thought I would never be back to normal, back to my normal . I am talking about losing my bicycle , lights, rain gear, pump, bags, etc to a &^*@$&^ thief and my reaction was to freeze, unable to cope, at least for a week.

Another week and I will not miss the bike, I am still way bummed about losing the stuff, like camera, pump, lights, and rain gear. It is not convenient to acquire here. And finding all the extras for the bike is taking awhile, like good bell, mud guards and fenders, bags.

The 1970's Raleigh (previous post) is turning into a great bike. I have changed to aluminum rims and lengthened the front fender since I last wrote. I am finding it is a superior bike for commuting, so even if i got my bike back this is my commuting bike. This bike is much faster and cleaner to ride to work. It has pretty fat road tyres so the rough road to the highway is not a problem.

For last Wednesday's club ride I was unable to use my modern 20 speed road bike. I rode this old touring bike with the 4 Tanzanians going to the African bike championships in Eritrea today. ( Some of the parts from my bike were on one of their bikes, extremely light carbon frame.) That is a story in itself. Remind me to go on vacation next time our club gets into something like this. I have spent way too much time for someone else's dream.

They of course start out in Zone 3, at 60% and I had no problem until just before the police post at Oldonyo Sambu. That was after about 500m of elevation gain. My point is the bike is not that much different than my new one. I performed about the same.

I also notice my hands did not go numb, and my foot maybe a bit better. I rode 2+ hours without stopping. I wonder if the narrower handle bars is the reason.

What I really need for this touring bike is a front rack and maybe full frame triangle pack, and of course the lights.

Over the past week I have been in charge of getting the bike's ready for the Championships, and in the end we called in the best mechanic in town. We were done and he saw me messing with the truing of my touring bike and like that he did it up for me. I think now I can ride no hands. I will use him more often for fixing some stuff.

A week ago I sprung 330,000 shillings or about $200 for a used 8 speed Trek hard tail mtn bike. Maybe 6-12 years old. The second hand shop fixed it up fairly well , it works but I have been spending a week rebuilding it. I still have a ways to go but it is starting to get there. Yesterday I found that a bearing race in the headset was upside down, and I got the racks on firmly and some bull bars. At 6pm i road around the neighbor hood and was shocked how much better it felt than my old bike. Could this be, or i have just forgotten?

Hopefully I will now have some bush adventures to write about now.