El Chalten was a great rest stop after finishing up the Austral Highway - good place to hang out, eat all you can eat pizza, hike a little, gaze at Mt FitzRoy, and play some poker - pasta served as chips tortellini was worth 500, spaghetti 1000 . . . Evan as a former casino dealer and serious poker player kept everything in order.
Condor de los Andes was a wonderfully tolerant with our large group of rowdy cyclists numbering upwards of 10 at times. Evan bequeathed his travel guitar to Ti, known to us as Natalie Portman, when we were on our way out the door at 3:30 in the afternoon towards Calafate 220km away.
We raged out of town with a strong tailwind that pushed us down the road at 40kph onto the pampas with not a tree in sight. Passing along Lago Viedma we could see the Viedma Glacier coming down to the water in the distance.
I had a combination of mechanical issues - the simplest was replacing my rear derailleur cable but my rear hub sounded like a box of rocks so I had to spin a little easy hoping my hub did not seize up and leave me beside the road.
Passing storms produced a continual series of rainbows as we moved down the road.
Lots of wildlife on the pampas mostly Guanacos (camelid), Rheas (like a small Ostrich), and hares.
In our first 2 hours of riding we covered over 75km of riding and we stopped at about 100+ km.
I stayed at a small hotel with Doug and Janice in order to use Doug's freewheel remover and enjoy their excellent company. My bearings were square and the drive side cone had disintegrated into metal chunks - the horrid grinding sound that prompted my stop was my bearings sliding around the race . . . not rolling. I removed the large pieces of scrap iron, popped in some new bearings, whatever that was worth, and kept the hub loose.
Those funny Argentinians - a common sign defacement.
Day two was a little tortuous listening to my hub grind away, wheel wobbling, rear disc rubbing for 120km. After 70km our destination and my hope for hub salvation, Calafate, came into view on the other side of Lago Argentino but it would be a hard 30+km grind into a stiff headwind after rounding the end of the lake. However, Evan and I shared the load drafting each other with 2-3 minute pulls.
I was able to get a new 8 speed disc hub laced onto my old rim for less than $75 at Calafate's only bike shop and will be rolling to the end in style for the next week.
El Chalten was a great rest stop after finishing up the Austral Highway - good place to hang out, eat all you can eat pizza, hike a little, gaze at Mt FitzRoy, and play some poker - pasta served as chips tortellini was worth 500, spaghetti 1000 . . . Evan as a former casino dealer and serious poker player kept everything in order.
Condor de los Andes was a wonderfully tolerant with our large group of rowdy cyclists numbering upwards of 10 at times. Evan bequeathed his travel guitar to Ti, known to us as Natalie Portman, when we were on our way out the door at 3:30 in the afternoon towards Calafate 220km away.
We raged out of town with a strong tailwind that pushed us down the road at 40kph onto the pampas with not a tree in sight. Passing along Lago Viedma we could see the Viedma Glacier coming down to the water in the distance.
I had a combination of mechanical issues - the simplest was replacing my rear derailleur cable but my rear hub sounded like a box of rocks so I had to spin a little easy hoping my hub did not seize up and leave me beside the road.
Passing storms produced a continual series of rainbows as we moved down the road.
Lots of wildlife on the pampas mostly Guanacos (camelid), Rheas (like a small Ostrich), and hares.
In our first 2 hours of riding we covered over 75km of riding and we stopped at about 100+ km. 
I stayed at a small hotel with Doug and Janice in order to use Doug's freewheel remover and enjoy their excellent company. My bearings were square and the drive side cone had disintegrated into metal chunks - the horrid grinding sound that prompted my stop was my bearings sliding around the race . . . not rolling. I removed the large pieces of scrap iron, popped in some new bearings, whatever that was worth, and kept the hub loose.
Those funny Argentinians - a common sign defacement.
Day two was a little tortuous listening to my hub grind away, wheel wobbling, rear disc rubbing for 120km. After 70km our destination and my hope for hub salvation, Calafate, came into view on the other side of Lago Argentino but it would be a hard 30+km grind into a stiff headwind after rounding the end of the lake. However, Evan and I shared the load drafting each other with 2-3 minute pulls.
I was able to get a new 8 speed disc hub laced onto my old rim for less than $75 at Calafate's only bike shop and will be rolling to the end in style for the next week.
I wish you all the best with you hub,man! It doesn't sounds like your issues are killing your blogging lust anyway! 1 post every 10 hours on average or something, lately...
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