Sierra Madre Oriental – Episode 6: The Return of the Bici

El Cameron Yautepec – Tehauntepec, State of Oaxaca, Mexico

You know in the horror movie genre there are always these recurring themes . . .

First, there’s foreshadowing. Like when the chainsaw breaks down and the guy has to start using an axe. You just know that axe is going to be used for something bad later on.

And then there’s always the scene where the bad guy is dead but they set the stage for the next movie. Just as the credits are starting to roll you see that yes, the bad guy is dead, but his finger, which was cut off in the melee, is still moving – groping for life in some back alley, even as the house burns down around him. And you just know that that finger is somehow going to re-generate into an even worse – zombie version – of Dr. Evil in the next movie.

Finally, if you stick around long enough, half way through the credits it turns out that one of the more minor bad guy characters has survived the 37 bullets he received in scene 47 and right when the sheriff and the whole town is starting to celebrate their victory, the minor bad guy character pops up again – ready to de-capitate the deputy. But, of course, the sheriff sees the minor bad guy character just in time and puts one final bullet in him.

I guess you know where this is going . . . Or if you don’t, you really need to get out more . . .

Let’s see now. Where did we leave off? Oh yes, at the end of our last episode our heroes were a little down. The mountains had the big advantage. Our heroes had barely made it over yesterday’s mountain passes, they limped in to the not-so-great Hotel America, they were refused a proper dinner by the “no puedo” lady, and, were basically forced to drown their sorrows in a little mezcal.

Still, they were hoping the next day would bring a much-anticipated downhill-all-the-way ride right to the beach. Nothing could go wrong . . . Except there may have been a few details we inadvertently omitted in yesterday’s post. The foreshadowing that the audience sees but the main characters never seen to notice. 

Like the fact that the Sierra Madre Orientals didn’t really stop at the Hotel America. Oh, and the fact that in the last few miles of our ride yesterday we both started having problems with our chains or something. 

I should clarify about the bikes. We bought new chains – our second replacements of the trip – in Oaxaca. I replaced the chains myself, but I was a little irritated because I specifically asked if the chains had a quick link (answer from the smart young man who had grown up in Southern California and knew English perfectly: “Yes, of course.”), but when I went to put the chains on there were no quick links to be found.

Which meant that I had to do the chains the old fashioned way – by driving the little link they give you into the chain to hold it together. I am definitely no pro at this operation – although I did it successfully on Old Dan this past summer. In any event, I was pretty happy with how the chains turned out . . . until the last few miles of our ride yesterday . . .

But back to our story. So last night we ignored the little warning signs and basically celebrated that we were done with the mountains.

Yay us!

This morning’s ride? Well, it started with a ten-mile climb. Or, it would have started with a ten mile climb if the bikes had behaved. Within a kilometer of starting out Diana is calling out to me because her bike is “doing this skipping thing and [she’s] afraid [she’ll] break the chain.” 

We stop and I clean the chain a bit and do a barrel adjustment – which is a way of adjusting the tension on the rear derailleur cable. But, honestly, I don’t really know what I’m doing with the barrel adjustments – I just turn the “barrel” a little bit and hope for the best. Miraculously, in this case, it worked – and Diana commented a few times during the day that her bike was working great.

Meanwhile, Little Ann was not the only bike with an issue. Old Dan was complaining as well. Like I said, it started at the end of the ride yesterday. I’m going up a hill and there’s a skipping sensation and then a big clunk. 

This morning it’s skipping around, doing some “automatic” shifting, and just generally misbehaving. After the luck with Diana’s bike I’m trying various barrel adjustments with Old Dan as well.

No dice. 

Eventually I look down and see a big black thing in the chain. I stop and remove what I thought was going to be a piece of stick. But that’s not it. This is a black piece of plastic of some kind with some ridges or something. I don’t know what it is, but I figure that whatever it is, it must be the cause of the problem. 

“Well, that’s a relief.”

Except that a minute later the bike is back at it again. Half-way between gears, just generally complaining and making me miserable. 

A few barrel adjustments later and I’m starting to panic. Maybe the black plastic thing is a piece of my rear cassette. Maybe it’s disintegrating as I ride. Or maybe I need to replace the whole drive train. This is not good. Not good at all . . .

The old Sierra Madre Orientals always seem to find a way to make our lives miserable. I must admit, this is creative . . . a ten mile climb right off the bat, and, at the same time, sabotage the bikes.

At the top of the pass – at the end of our ten mile ascent – I call a stop to look things over. 

And there’s the problem! 

One of the chain links is sticking out at a right angle from where it is supposed to be. Like a snaggle tooth – one of those teeth that just doesn’t fit and decides to grow in some weird way. (In elementary school there were twins with teeth like this. I think Thor and Trondheim or something like that. No friends. Which I attribute entirely to their mouthful of terrible teeth – sticking out in all kinds of weird directions. I didn’t keep track of them afterwards, but I think they run some fancy restaurant nowadays. Presumably after some serious orthodontic work . . .)

It all makes sense now . . . I’m sure I put the chain together wrong the day before. Must have driven the link in too far – and it popped out at the end of the day yesterday. That’s when I heard the clunk. 

Okay. No problem. Obviously get rid of this bad link and replace it with a quick link. Like I wanted to do from the beginning.

And, miraculously again, it worked. The rest of the day? Bike performed beautifully. Old Dan was his regular self again. 

Take that you dumb old mountain range!

What about the parts where the evil guy keeps coming back from the dead and stuff? Yep. Three times we thought we were done with the mountains today. And three times we rounded a corner only to be confronted with another daunting climb. The Sierra Madres just refuse to die . . .

Total damage at the end of this “downhill” day? About 5,000 feet of climbing. Pretty much the same as yesterday – but on a per mile basis we had more climbing actually. Because yesterday we covered about 87 miles; today was more like 77. But overall a good day. And like any good horror movie the main protagonists lived to fight another day…

One other note . . . Diana’s bike started having problems again at the end of the day. Can’t really blame the mountains this time; because by this time we’re pretty close to the ocean and, while there are still some pretty good hills, we’re really not in the mountains anymore . . . 

I’ll take a closer look in the morning . . . Aargh!

I should mention that we had some more beautiful riding today. Really, I shouldn’t complain so much. The Sierra Madre Orientals are actually amazing. If only we could have the mountains without all the hills.

Wanted to recognize Angie R – one of our loyal readers from Grand Marais – who sent a comment with a link to some great info on the making of mezcal. Has certainly helped me feel like I have at least a little idea of what we saw last night . . . Thank you Angie!

The beach? We are close – but we’ve decided we’re going to head along the coast toward Guatemala for a few days before we rent an airbnb and enjoy the Pacific. It’s super hot now that we’re down around sea level – so we’re looking forward to that. (We did see something about a hurricane in Central America though – and it looks like there is uncertainty in the weather in the next few days. We’re a little information starved – so any info from our readers would be appreciated. After all, we’re practically in Central America at this point . . .)

Speaking of the beach, we did enjoy a little swim in the Rio Tequisistlan today. It was a hot Saturday afternoon so there were a bunch of Mexican families out with us. (Good to see Mexican families out enjoying the water – I was starting to think that Mexicans didn’t swim . . .) And good respite from the crazy heat of the day at these lower elevations. Are we back in Texas?