Day 13 Thu 25/7 - Rest Day In Keylong

Today Temp: 20  - 34c  Morning cloudy Afternoon sunny warm
Today spend : Rs 895   Total : Rs 10670

Today is a rest day here in Keylong. Chee and I  took the opportunity to do some service to our bikes and also some cleaning and drying of our stuffs. Besides this, I had managed to send an sos  message to my friends Victor and Foo last night despite the very bad internet coverage,that I needed a complete built up new rim plus RD shifter cable to be sent to Leh in a guest house address that Chee stayed before. Hopefully Victor can sort out all the arrangement and within one week my spare rim will be in Leh for me to continue the journey. Tomorrow Chee and I will be leaving for Leh in a bus which will take 14 hr  from Keylong starting 5 in the morning and expected to arrive at night. We haven't have a detail plan in Leh yet while waiting for my spare rim.

Day 12 Wed 24/7 - Koksar to Keylong

Today dist : 47.9km Temp 15-32c cloudy with cool mountain breeze
Ride time: 5 hr 21 min
Ave speed: 8.9 kmh  Max : 63.5
Ave climb: 4 %  Max: 13 %
Trip alti : 693 m    Max: 3155 m
Today spend : Rs 675  Total spend : Rs 9775
Today is a very shitty day for me, not only I am down with only 3 speeds due to the rear derailiar not dropping down to other smaller gears from the big gear,that means it stays at the big 34T gear,while I can only play with the FD. For this problem I still can live with it,then the worst problem came,when I noticed my front tire developed a jerking sound once per cycle during riding,and it became more frequent as the wheel turn faster on downhill. Sensing something is terribly wrong,I stopped to inspect the rim,true to my suspicion, there was  a  crack at the rim joint, I had a similar during my Beijing to London trip back in 2007. Chee arrived and I had to tell him the problem, as now i am only have my rear brake to go down the coming slope,he waited for me after some distance to see that I am ok. We stopped at an Army  training camp to see what can be done to prevent further damage to the rim. A tire patch and  a cable tie around the crack rim and tire were the temporary solution. The  army officers offer us a chai and we took a group photo with them. At Tandi where we stop for lunch of very good mutton rice. After crossing the Tandi bridge,the road is still bad with broken tarmac and  stones, I was very worried about whether the crack rim can take the heavy beating,and also the inner tube will hold. We arrived in Keylong and thanks my lucky star that , 18 km had gone since the crack started, so far it hold and hopefully with more cable ties reinforcement,it will last me to leh,which is another 350 km. Whether there is a bike sop with spare 20" rim, is another story. Worst come to worst, this epic journey has to end in a sad note, if every possible options fail.

my crack rim