The Rack Saga continues

December 13th 2008, 4:13 pm - president george bush gets a shoe thrown at him
December 13th 2008, 4:15 pm - my bike rack collapses upon itself due to political pressure.

coincidence ? absolutely not, are you stupid ?

anyways - as always the industrious nature of the chinese resulted shone through in some miraculous trip saving.. initially when i saw that my rack had completely collapsed onto the wheel itself i thought my trip was over.

Fix one: Made by jamming a peice of steel rod up the aluminum piping of the rack
Lasted: 5 km

Fix Two: Tibetan lad at the side of the road re-did the operation and tied it together with metal wire whilst bleeding all over my rack.
Lasted: 35 km till next real town.
Fix Three: In the town of Li Xian, a welder spent an hour getting biblical on my rack with some sparks flying, he later wouldn't accept any money for his service and furthermore bought be a beer when he ran into me at a little restaurant and said "canada is friend" in chinese *the rest i couldnt understand.
Lasted: until next town when i looked down.

Fix four: Had the cracked welding job tied together again with metal wire.
Lasted: didn't matter, I was arrested and sent back to a major city.

Fix Five: NEW CUSTOM RACK !
My Friend Hans: "aluminium is for bitches", after debating going to an aircraft factory to get my rack arc-welded properly.
Cost: 3$ US for three hours of a street side blacksmith's time.. I had to convice him to accept that much as he wanted nothing but to help.


Hans is the man. Old rack: in garbage.