Ben Bowler

PSA – Change Your Bike Chain – Ben Around the World Diary – Day 89 – 16 March 2019

– ODO- 11249 – 11454km
– Location- Kurukushetra, Punjab, India
– Weather- 16-27 Escaping the smog in the morning

I left Delhi this morning after two weeks held up in an AirBnB working on SendMusic. After four months in India I didn’t have much of a desire to see any tourists sights, only venturing into the busy streets to get supplies for my final 1000km in India and my final vaccination for hepatitis B. The family that owned the AirBnB took me in. Last night I spent dinner with them and they helped me no end, fixing my sleeping bag and helping me hunt down the postman who was holding hostage a parcel of mine.

On the 1000km before my arrival in Delhi, my chain was skipping more and more. I put it down to the gear shifter cables – an expensive mistake. When I took the bike in to be cleaned the mechanics showed me my main front chainring, and it was completely worn out. To make it worse no one in India stocks parts for my specialised lower case s) touring crankset. I should have replaced the chain when the skipping first began. Instead I’m cycling the next 1000km with only my high and low gears while my sister ships the part ahead to a friend in Nepal. A chain costs £10/15. I dread to think what the shipping alone will cost.

Check your chain kids.