The crash

A bump in the road and the heavy weight of my backpack crashing down is what broke my back rack. NO WORRIES! With my backpack in the usual position (on my back) I continued, watching out for a mechanics.  Just minutes after I heard my rack breaking I saw a little hut with some tools outside, that looked like it could be a bike (motorbike) repair shop, so I pulled on my brakes (not too gently as it appeared…). CRAAAAAAAAAASH I heard a much louder sound than the one before and saw Theo sliding into the street to my right. My rack was now totally bent and my wheel didn’t spin anymore. FUCK. But what a nice coincidence that this happened right in front of a bike repair shop! :D

The rack was bent back into position in no time but my back wheel appeared to be bent as well which was the much bigger problem. The mechanics helplessly looked at it and started to hammer onto my rim with a hammer and a stone. A little worried I let those cruelties happen to my bike… He got the wheel turning again but sent us to the next repair shop.

We decided to hitchhike. Since we had the option of going back to where we came from or to keep going in our intended direction, Theo placed himself on one side of the road and I stood on the other side, showing my thumb to every car that was coming along. Meanwhile a few worried villagers gathered and looked at us and the bicycles. There wasn’t much traffic on the road so it took about 15 minutes till a car stopped. Two friendly Thai men jumped out of the car, exchanged a few words with our helpful mechanics and helped us loading our stuff onto the back of their pickup truck.

In the next city they stopped at another motorbike repair shop. This time the mechanics was much more professional. He adjusted the spokes so the rim was straightened. He worked on our bicycles (Theo’s front wheel was a bit damaged as well) for about an hour, whilst our drivers were waiting to see if everything goes well. The mechanics didn’t want any money for the time he spent on our bikes and sent us to the next bigger city to double check his work. We thanked all of them a thousand times KOP KHUN KA, waved and smiled as we steered back onto the road.

Theo’s wheel made a funny sound so a few kilometers down the road we decided to hitchhike to Uttaradit which lied 60 kilometers away. Within minutes a car pulled up and a friendly lady told us that she and her husband were on the way to the next city about 25 km away. We thought about going with them but decided to wait for another car. In that moment I heard her say “I take care you, I take care you”. Sparks in her eyes told me that the helper syndrome has spoken out of her and there is no point in arguing. With bikes and bags we made ourselves comfortable at the back of the truck and relaxing 45 minutes later we reached Uttaradit.

We were brought to a bicycle shop where my bike got a new stronger rim and a new rack that was more suitable for the 15 kilos it has to carry. This bike shop turned out to be the best that could have happened to us. For 5-6 hours the very friendly mechanics worked on our bicycles and answered all the questions we had regarding quality and maintenance. For his labor he didn’t charge a single bhat and what’s more: His wife and his son, both cyclists, rode with us to the next temple where they organized us a room for the night! Next to a Buddha statue we rolled out our mats and were soon sound asleep.

Hitchhiking to Uttaradit after the crash