Day 369
Villenueve to Nyon
Time: 4:43
Distance: 15.7 kph
Avg Speed: 74.30
Terrain: flat to rolling
Location: 46° 23' -1" N, 6° 15' 0" E
I didn’t blog last night. You can attribute it to being tired, cold and sore. We had a question posed on our blog about what was the cause of the tire blowing out. After mulling it over and discussing it with Leslie, I have come up with three contributing factors:
1. Tire pressure. I had aired up all of our tires that morning and instead of using a tire gauge, I went by feel. Looking back on it, I had probably over inflated it.
2. Old inner tube. The tube that was in there was the original one that I had started the trip with. It may have had some weak spots in it.
3. Brake Heat. We were more than half way down the descent and had some hard braking areas. I had just hit the brakes hard before entering the gallery and that may have been the deal.
I also hit a little pot hole, but I hit holes like that daily and nothing ever happens. I think it was just crazy bad luck with all the bad moons aligning. Oh well.
We woke up again to heavy dew and cold weather. I did plan ahead this morning though and put a pot of water out so I could just roll over and start to brew. After our coffee, cereal and rolls we finally rolled out of our sleeping bags and began packing up camp. We are moving slower and slower the colder it gets. I think it is time to head south. After finally getting on the road we got our first clear view of Lake Geneva or Lac Leman depending on which language you are speaking. We were able to ride the whole day along the lake and we still have a bit to go. It is the biggest alpine lake in Europe. The paths and roads were busy with Sunday walkers and drivers and all the docks were hopping with fishermen trying their luck.
We opted for a hotel tonight to get a break from the cold mornings. We ended up in the sizeable town of Nyon and quickly checked in Hotel Alpes. We got moved in and when we went to haul our bikes up to the room so we could store them on the balcony, we were told that bikes weren’t allowed in the hotel. We could store them around back, but there wasn’t anywhere inside to store them. We have been on the road now for over a year and this is the first place that refused to accommodate us and our bikes. The area where we were supposed to store them already had a bike that had been stripped of everything that didn’t have a lock on it. No thanks. We got checked out and got our money back. Leslie tried to explain to the front desk that our bikes are our way around and that we weren’t about to lock them up out back. We rolled down the road and found a place that had a courtyard we could secure them in. I guess we will spend our money here. Talking about money, I would like to write out $700,000,000,000.00. That is how the European news channels are reporting it. It has a little more impact when you write down all the zeros.
I guess I will stop ranting. But hey, C’est la vie.
CK
Villenueve to Nyon
Time: 4:43
Distance: 15.7 kph
Avg Speed: 74.30
Terrain: flat to rolling
Location: 46° 23' -1" N, 6° 15' 0" E
I didn’t blog last night. You can attribute it to being tired, cold and sore. We had a question posed on our blog about what was the cause of the tire blowing out. After mulling it over and discussing it with Leslie, I have come up with three contributing factors:
1. Tire pressure. I had aired up all of our tires that morning and instead of using a tire gauge, I went by feel. Looking back on it, I had probably over inflated it.
2. Old inner tube. The tube that was in there was the original one that I had started the trip with. It may have had some weak spots in it.
3. Brake Heat. We were more than half way down the descent and had some hard braking areas. I had just hit the brakes hard before entering the gallery and that may have been the deal.
I also hit a little pot hole, but I hit holes like that daily and nothing ever happens. I think it was just crazy bad luck with all the bad moons aligning. Oh well.
We woke up again to heavy dew and cold weather. I did plan ahead this morning though and put a pot of water out so I could just roll over and start to brew. After our coffee, cereal and rolls we finally rolled out of our sleeping bags and began packing up camp. We are moving slower and slower the colder it gets. I think it is time to head south. After finally getting on the road we got our first clear view of Lake Geneva or Lac Leman depending on which language you are speaking. We were able to ride the whole day along the lake and we still have a bit to go. It is the biggest alpine lake in Europe. The paths and roads were busy with Sunday walkers and drivers and all the docks were hopping with fishermen trying their luck.
We opted for a hotel tonight to get a break from the cold mornings. We ended up in the sizeable town of Nyon and quickly checked in Hotel Alpes. We got moved in and when we went to haul our bikes up to the room so we could store them on the balcony, we were told that bikes weren’t allowed in the hotel. We could store them around back, but there wasn’t anywhere inside to store them. We have been on the road now for over a year and this is the first place that refused to accommodate us and our bikes. The area where we were supposed to store them already had a bike that had been stripped of everything that didn’t have a lock on it. No thanks. We got checked out and got our money back. Leslie tried to explain to the front desk that our bikes are our way around and that we weren’t about to lock them up out back. We rolled down the road and found a place that had a courtyard we could secure them in. I guess we will spend our money here. Talking about money, I would like to write out $700,000,000,000.00. That is how the European news channels are reporting it. It has a little more impact when you write down all the zeros.
I guess I will stop ranting. But hey, C’est la vie.
CK
1 comment:
Jeez - and I thought the Swiss would be hospitable to adventure travelers! Pity about the hotel - their loss.
Brake heat was something I hadn't considered... I flatted my MTB tire like that on a long steep descent in Canyonlands NP one time. Luckily it wasn't catastrophic.
Just out of curiosity - what kind of panniers do you use? You may have put this in an earlier post.
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