The end of the road in Liberia is close. Another 20km from here and a river divides the country from it’s Francophone neighbour – Cote d’ Ivoire.
Stretching to either side of me are two long palm-fringed beaches and I’m surrounded by the ghostly remains of large war-ravaged buildings. The town of Harper here in the far south of Liberia is now a sad shadow of what before the war must have been a prosperous place, for a minority anyhow.
Getting here wasn’t easy. Impassable roads as the guidebook warned – no. Mud-slick slopes, crevasse-sized gullies and knee-deep trenches of water – yes. Plenty of them. Coupled with the rain, biting mango flies between downpours and unidentifiable bush-meat lunches in villages and towns that don’t appear on my map has altogether made the last 300km a memorable and challenging one. I slept in a mud-hut on stilts in the jungle one night and pitched my tent in a police station to hear stories of ritual killings that involved hacking off body parts on another.
The front tyre replacement thankfully survived, but my attention has now been drawn to other parts of the bike.
A few blog posts ago I described how my trojan of a Thorn was coping admirably after its first 10,000km. It still is, although all that mud, sand and water in Guinea, Sierra Leone and now Liberia have done a good job in creating a deadly weapon out of the rear sprocket.
There I was thinking I could ride most of the way to Cape Town and not have to worry about parts of the bike I have a limited knowledge of fixing. How very wrong. Had I known more, apparently I could have reversed this sprocket to prolong its life. Next time.
On their way to me in Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire is a new rear sprocket, sprocket removal tool, chain whip, chain, front chain-ring, Rohloff gear cables, Rohofff hub oil, chain protector and tyres. My confidence in removing and replacing the rear sprocket isn’t great.
Interestingly another trans-African cyclist, whom I hoped to catch up at one stage, (unlikely now) has suffered almost identical problems, although she managed a few thousand more kilometres. I personally think my rear sprocket is more deadly in appearance than hers.
I can still ride the bicycle. Abidjan is 450km away on what I hope are better roads than those that brought me here. Time to unearth that French dictionary and phrasebook from the bottom of one of the panniers. I’m not sure how to ask a mechanic for an adjustable spanner.
Comments
its great post thanks
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Hi Peter, been away from your site for a while and now checked up to see where you are. I can sympathise with you regarding the rain and roads. The rain has at last reached Dakar with a vengeance and I can honestly tell you that outside our front gate looks worse than your photo of the bike sensibly posing on the culvert. Hang in there, Cote d’Ivoire is much more developed, relatively! The real name in french for an adjustable spanner is a “clé à molette”. Ring spanner “clé polygonale”, open ended spanner “clé à fourches”, ratchet socket wrench “clé a douille à cliquet” and the very useful water pump pliers when you need that extra fit and strength “pince multiprise” and finally for the stubborn nut and vice like grip the mole wrench is “pince étau”. Enjoy Cote d’Ivoire.
Colin.
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hi Peter,
Fitting a chain case to your rig would considerably prolong the life of your drive train and reduce maintenance. Considering that you are not likely to be near a bike shop that could install such a device, it’s probably impossible. There may be some difficulties in installation with respect to clearances around gear cables and other parts.
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Hi Peter,
I agree with the above. It is important to change out the whole drive assembly at the same time. Chain, sprockets and chain-ring. On my trips to Africa I would expect them to last only around 6,000k with top quality gear to start with.
One tip is to have two chains. Use one and then exchange them every 1,000k. This reduces the need to replace sprockets and chain-rings on each occasion.
Some french for you: Est-ce que vous avez un cle anglais (have you an adjustable spanner).
Pouvez-vous enlever mon pignon / chaine s.v.p. (Can you remove my chain / sprocket please).
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Doug Nienhuis Reply:
September 6th, 2010 at 2:14 am
@Dennis Warner,
That’s an interesting tip to carry a second chain and exchange them every 1,000 kilometers. Do you think that would double the life of the sprockets and chain-ring, essentially making them last the equivalent of two chains instead of just one?
But I wonder if that might lead to even more problems. The chain and the sprockets and chain-ring all wear together and end up matching in their wear pattern. By changing the chain every 1,000 kilometers would there be a small mismatch and then the chain would skip just a little bit all the time?
I’d be interested to hear what other long-distance cyclists have to say on the topic. Are all the people cycling around the world for years (there seem to be more and more of them) having to change their entire drive assembly every 6,000 kilometers? It’s an expensive proposition.
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Stevo Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 12:15 am
@Doug Nienhuis, i did a long tour on paved roads of about 4,500 miles after which i checked the chain for wear with a special tool (it was worn, of course, but not an extreme amount) then i replaced the chain but not the casette or chainrings. I didn’t have any problems with skipping or any other problems. So this leaves me wondering how many times a chain can be replaced before needing new casette and chainrings as well. the answer, for me anyway, is at least once!
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Hi Peter,
Thanks to your photo, and Helens nightmare week, I’ll be taking my rohloff tool to africa, so I can turn the rear cog around somewhere around Dakar:) And will practice taking the twist grip to bits in the comfort of my shed….
Great to see your still cracking on after your croc dundee adventure in Dakar. Its a great pleasure to read your adventure, as I sit at home after my knee operation (instead of cycling in Uganda this month, maybe I’ll bump in to you there in January….hehe).
Take care and have fun
Shane
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Hi, Peter.
Great pictures of the coast. It looks like an incredible place to cycle. I envy you the experience, tough as it must have been to cover those 300 kilometers.
As I mentioned on your Flickr site, the same thing happened to the sprockets on my bike. I’m not sure how Rohloff systems work, but in my case with a standard derailleur system, I was told that the damage occurred because the chain stretched. Once the chain stretches, the links no longer fit precisely into the teeth on the sprockets. Instead, they grind away at the sides and wear them down to sharp points like that. I guess one is supposed to monitor the chain and replace it before it stretches too much. That won’t stop the wear, but I understand that it will at least prolong the life of the sprockets. When the damage reaches a certain point, you have to replace everything – the chain and all the sprockets together. A new chain alone won’t do it, since the new chain won’t fit into the sprocket teeth and the chain will skip. That’s what happened to me.
I wonder if there are special heavy-duty chains available for touring that don’t stretch as much. That would solve some of the problem. I’m surprised that so much wear occurred on your sprockets. I, too, would have assumed they’d last longer than that. It doesn’t seem reasonable to have to constantly replace sprockets and chains on a long tour.
Good luck getting to Abidjan. I hope your replacement sprockets and chain are waiting for you and that you can make the repairs easily. By the way, what kind of address did you use to ship the parts to? Did you have to use the address of a friend or can shipping companies hold objects for you in cities in Africa?
Doug
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Hi Peter!
Thats a pretty impressive sprocket you have there.
As the proud owner of 2 Rohloff hubs, (and as a professional bike mechanic) I can safely say that changing the sprocket it actually quite straightforward. BUT I hope you ordered the removal tool as well??? you’ll get nowhere without it. If you drop me an email when you have a moment I will happily give you a step by step guide on how to, if you need it…..matthewkh@gmail.com
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Peter Reply:
September 4th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Thanks Matt – may call on you. Hoping instructions come with people sending it. Yes, I have ordered the sprocket removal tool as well.
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John I Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
@Peter,
I have included printouts of the Rohloff
instructions to change oil and remove
the sprocket (with pictures).
I have also sent you a page I wrote of detailed instructions/tips on removing replacing the sprocket. Everything you need to do the job is in the package,
except for a large 24mm spanner
to hold the removal tool.
Cheers,
John I
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