We ask a lot of the gear which we use. It gets rattled, bumped, thumped, dropped, damp, drenched and heated to unfeasibly hot temperatures in the greenhouses that are our pannier bags. It is not surprising that sometimes they groan, say "No more!" and leave us gently cursing at their perceived underperformance, rather than our brutality and unfair expectations.
Where British Cycling spend millions on 'marginal gains', we have Duct tape. Where NASA spent millions on a gravity defying pen, we have the equivalent of the Russian's pencil - string.
Before we left, we created what we refer to as the "bodge bag", an assortment of bits and pieces, with no preconceived purpose other than the age-old hoarder's adage of "It may come in use one day" - and on this trip, it has delivered.
Duct tape, electrical tape, superglue, random washers and bolts, cable ties and the pièece-de-résistance - the hose pipe clamp - have rescued us from some potentially very bleak situations.
The hose pipe clamp is currently leading in the "Bodge of the Trip" category. One of our clamps for our seat posts went AWOL during our flight from Panama City to Cartagena - I had forgotten I had packed this last minute addition to the bodge bag until repacking for the flight. "What use could this possible serve?" I thought. I even spent the flight thinking back over things that had broken and wondering where the hose pipe clamp may have come in handy. When we unpacked the bikes and noticed the absence of the clamp, my initial reaction of frustration quickly became joy that this random bit of gear would come in handy. It's these little moments of success that we have to savour...
Where British Cycling spend millions on 'marginal gains', we have Duct tape. Where NASA spent millions on a gravity defying pen, we have the equivalent of the Russian's pencil - string.
Before we left, we created what we refer to as the "bodge bag", an assortment of bits and pieces, with no preconceived purpose other than the age-old hoarder's adage of "It may come in use one day" - and on this trip, it has delivered.
Duct tape, electrical tape, superglue, random washers and bolts, cable ties and the pièece-de-résistance - the hose pipe clamp - have rescued us from some potentially very bleak situations.
The hose pipe clamp is currently leading in the "Bodge of the Trip" category. One of our clamps for our seat posts went AWOL during our flight from Panama City to Cartagena - I had forgotten I had packed this last minute addition to the bodge bag until repacking for the flight. "What use could this possible serve?" I thought. I even spent the flight thinking back over things that had broken and wondering where the hose pipe clamp may have come in handy. When we unpacked the bikes and noticed the absence of the clamp, my initial reaction of frustration quickly became joy that this random bit of gear would come in handy. It's these little moments of success that we have to savour...
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| Before bodge, after bodge and actual fix |
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| "He's more now than |
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| Mud flap bodge courtesy of the Bomberos and their pop rivets |
With 3/4 of the trip complete, no doubt some other bits of gear are starting to think about premature retirement. We hope they are made of tougher stuff and hold on until Quito, but if not we may have the means to fix them.
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| A bodger |
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| Not a Bodger |
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