Limping in to Tstetserleg, literally
Tsetserleg is a nice town, tree lined avenues, a cool bakery and guest house run by an English couple is the main tourist hub. I met lots of great people here andwe exchanged information on road conditions and events happening over Nadaam. Nadaam is a sporting festival, a time for families and friends to catch uo from across Mongolia.
Main sports are wrestling, archery and horse racing. Children ride the horses in the horse racing and thehorse gets all the glory, not the rider. Even if the horse finishes without a rider, he can win.
While in Tsetserleg I tried to get my rear cassette off of the back wheel so I could replace the spokes but even though (miraculously) a little old lady in the local market actually had a lock nut remover to fit an XTcassette (!!!!) I couldn’t get the thing off. I googled shimano and tried Bike Addiction and Favourite Cycles in Sydney and although they gave me some good advice the cassette was very stuck.
I even went to a mechanics in town and three of us got the giggles trying to get the thing off. I had two choices:
Ditch the bike and buy a horse for $300
Carry on and hope I get through.
As I wasn’t sure what the river levels would be like in the mountains, I decided a horse may not be wise.
I repacked my bike and duct taped 3 litres of water to the down tube and attached a further 2.5 litres to the seat stay, the theory being that I wanted as much weight off of the back wheel as possible and shifted to the stronger front wheel or centre of the bike. As the temperatures were mid to high thirties I also ditched my water proofs, gloves and wooly hat. The Power Aid, fold up bowls and cups (sorry Andy :o) and any other non essential pieces of kit stayed in Tsetserleg.
The view out over Tsetserleg to the Arkhangai Mountains
Tsetserleg is a nice town, tree lined avenues, a cool bakery and guest house run by an English couple is the main tourist hub. I met lots of great people here and we exchanged information on road conditions and events happening over Nadaam. Nadaam is a sporting festival, a time for families and friends to catch up from across Mongolia.
Main sports are wrestling, archery and horse racing. Children ride the horses in the horse racing and the horse gets all the glory, not the rider. Even if the horse finishes without a rider, he can win.
While in Tsetserleg I tried to get my rear cassette off of the back wheel so I could replace the spokes but even though (miraculously) a little old lady in the local market actually had a lock nut remover to fit an XTcassette (!!!!) I couldn’t get the thing off. Using the laptop, I Googled Shimano and tried Bike Addiction and Favourite Cycles in Sydney and although they gave me some good advice the cassette was very stuck.
I even went to a mechanics in town and three of us got the giggles trying to get the thing off. I had two choices:
- Ditch the bike and buy a horse for $300
- Toughen up & hope I get through.
As I wasn’t sure what the river levels would be like in the mountains, I decided a horse may not be wise.
I repacked my bike and duct taped 3 litres of water to the down tube and attached a further 2.5 litres to the seat stay, the theory being that I wanted as much weight off of the back wheel as possible and shifted to the stronger front wheel or centre of the bike. As the temperatures were mid to high thirties I also ditched my water proofs, gloves and wooly hat. The Power Aid, fold up bowls and cups (sorry Andy :o) and any other non essential pieces of kit stayed in Tsetserleg.
This entry was posted
on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 17:36 and is filed under Mongolia and tagged with Mongolia, Spokes, Tsetserleg.
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