My new Evo K (2)

So, I was on my way to Apeldoorn for my first stop to eat something. Until now I'd followed the Fietsersbond (cycling union) route. A good route, but now I was in an area that I knew. On a small road next to the A50, there was a small descent. I shifted up, until the gears started to make noise. The derailleur wasn't in order yet and I made the mistake to fiddle with the cable length. Not a clever thing to do at 55kph or so. The K rapidly shot from right to left, and then back again. Obviously a driver error. It scared me, but I realized what had happened and that, despite my clumsiness, the K remained stable and controllable.


In Apeldoorn I ate, drank, and ate some more, next to do Canada monument. It was getting dark now. I had approximately 145km behind me, and still 110km to go. I attached lights to my helmet and rolled the K back to the cycle path. That's when I noticed my 3th puncture. The tiny leak was found by licking the tube, but I the patch fell of. And yes, I'd dried the tube before using the solution. To make things worse, I'd ran out of tubes. There was a hotel on the other side of the road.... I tested my luck at the trainstation's bike shop. There remained enough air in my left tire to get there. To my surprise, they had tubes in my funny size! I bought two and enough solution and patches for months. (I hope)

The friendly guys that ran the place offered me a spot inside to fix my bike. They where somewhat surprised by what came rolling in. There I sat, warm, dry and with plenty of light to make work easy. Commuters walked by, they'd arrived by train and now collected there bikes to ride home. People respond funny when you tell them that you came from Venlo, still got 110km to go, and it's 18:30 in the evening. Quickly I was on my way again.

As I left the lights of Apeldoorn behind me, I saw the shortcoming of my helmet mounted light, it was pointing the wrong direction. I took it from my helmet and held it in my hand for the final 105km. That works pretty good, as you can aim your light. Problem is that I had no hand left to eat, so I had to stop for that every hour. But when I was riding, the K felt like wanting to go faster and faster. With over 200km in the legs, in a new to me VM, I took it easy and stopped again to eat just before Meppel.

With in my right hand a Mars and my light, I was now cruising along the Drenthse Hoofdvaart, my commute route. When I'd finished eating the candy bar, my hands could swap tasks again. Now right was steering, and left was aiming the light. Left is better at steering, and right better at aiming, but right had gotten cold from the time it took to eat the Mars.

Finally, after 260km I was home, just before 11. It had been an eventful ride. The K had proven itself. But naturally, I found things to improve. I parked the K inside the house, so I could start personalizing it the next day. My legs where not happy.