Day 14: Everything is fixed :)

This morning after some omelet for breakfast (seems like ham and cheese omelet seems to be the normal breakfast in Romania) I cycled 8km to Velomobile World. This seems to a very nice factory with many nice people. Though I could not talk to most of them.

First the whole lamination team with about 5 people crowded around my Milan to check how their works holds out against the test of time.

Then I explained my issues to Jan and they started to work on the bike. Basically there were two major hurdles:

  • Not only was the derailleur attachment screw thread gone, but also the screw mount was broken. Replacing it required attaching the new one with epoxy which took some time.
  • Creating an customer invoice was a new task for administration, since apparently I am only the second customer ever to visit Velomobile World directly.

I am not sure, what the initial technical problem was and if some of this was caused by the workaround.
But in the end all was resolved and now my gear shift is working fine again :) It is always strange how one can get used to a detoriating system over time (gears taking time to shift, some grinding noises from the back. It's annoying but you learn to live with it), but when it gets fixed in "an instant" it is a huge relief and you suddenly notice what you were missing.

Jan also told me, that the puncture protection of the Continental Urban Speed is not much better than the Schwalbe Kojak. What I wrote yesterday in this regard seems to be wrong. So now I have a new Kojak tire on the back and I will be keeping the folding tire as replacement tire.

During the time waiting I could take a look at one of the newest Milan GT model (MK 7):


This is really still a big improvement from my model with better accessibility in the front, more space for luggage and a more flexible placement of the seat.

Thanks again to Jan and his team :) Unfortunately there are now no more velomobile factories on my way, so from now on things like that should better not break anymore. 

I'll probably still need 2-3 days to build up complete trust in the solution, but for now it is great to have a working bike.


Comments

  1. GottfriedJuly 14, 2021 at 9:48 AM

    Gratulations! Wir sind mit Dir ganz erleichtert. LG I u. G.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SabrinaJuly 14, 2021 at 2:45 PM

    I am also happy that all is fixed! :) Great!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dr. Rumpelbachs Kunst KollektivJuly 15, 2021 at 10:24 AM

    Glad to hear that everything worked out!
    Cheers Frederik

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summary

Image
 About 10.000km in 3 months. And countless memories. Even though I had to give up on my original plan to cycle to Seoul since the vaccines where not as effective as I had hoped and some borders did not open, this tour was an amazing adventure. Highlights including Kraków, Transfăgărășan, Sarajevo, Mostar, Venice, the Alps, Toulouse, Bruges, Ghent and many more. Too many to actually make a sensible summary in one short post. So I'll just link the ridewithgps collection above and the photos below ;)
Read more

Day 56: Col de l'Echelle

Image
This night was the first cold night. Temperatures went down to 9° and I woke up in the middle of the night and had to close my sleeping bag for the first time because of the cold. Also a first was wearing my long trouser in the evening. Before I had carried them more than 6000km through Europe without using them. The morning started immediatly with an ascent. In Bardonecchia (where the pass road starts) I bought some more provisions and then started the "serious" part of the climb. Looking at the mountains and up to the serpentines is always a bit disheartening. The look so far up and unsurmountable. So it is always better to just focus on the part of the road that is lying straight ahead. The was a strong, cold wind which made it hard to balance resting and cycling. Resting to long means getting cold, resting not long enough means that the pulse does not get down. And there is no way to just take a long break to recover fully once you are sweaty. At one point the ascent was ...
Read more

Day 84: Back in Germany

Image
 This morning I had a fantastic view from my tent during breakfast: Later I took the ferry to Deventer to take a closer look: Quite nice. Leaving Deventer I followed my "knoops"-route. But today this included some not so great paths and searching for the signposts really slows you down. So I used BRouter instead. You can porbably see the switch in the speed profile in ridewithgps. The speed increased again after I crossed the border. The surface of the german cycling paths/roads is much smoother, so you get faster with the same effort. Border. Not very impressive Again the first camp site I went to was closed. So I had to continue for another 40 km to the next one leading to a 214 km tour today.  Tomorrow I'll ride to Hamburg to get the keys to my flat from my parents place and on Friday I'll finish my tour in Lüneburg.
Read more