Rise, rise from your ashes!

frankieWhen I came Colombia at the end of April my intention was to buy a new/used cheap bicycle, upgrade the components and continue back to Venezuela to continue my tour. However when I met Augustine Hincape my plans changed again. He is one of the famous frame builders in Colombia and he told me he can repair my bicycle. He added that he never ever does repair welding but for me he would do it free just to help a touring cyclist continue her way. Well just to see this great artist working and to keep my beloved bicycle I accepted this rare and priceless gift.

Tinno
Tinno

Señor Hincape a.ka. Tinno once a competitive cyclist fell in love with steel. Now he has his own brand and he makes custom-build, unique bicycles. He cut, weld and fixed my bicycle with patience. I guess making a new bicycle was a lot easier. It was a great adventure getting to know him and his wife Patricia.

Well probably no one will sit and wait for two months but I did :) I was occupied most of the time, working in the garden, updating the blog of ‘The Bicycle House of Medellin’. So frankly I really did not realize how time passed this quick.

Components on my bicycle changed a little bit; deore hubs, alex DH19 rims, alivio mid cogs and alivio derailleur. I had saved most of my DT swiss spokes but not all and I have 8 no name spokes on my front wheel.

Thanks a lot for all the donations once again! I had my computer, my camera fixed and bought new components, get a paint job for my bicycle, and of course it helped me to get food and colombian café! It is impossible to get a front rack here and probably trying to make one with a welder will cost me more time. So today I even get crazy and ordered a low rider front rack from US.

C.V. Tronica is the authorized technical service for olympus, they were quite slow also but my camera and my lens had been fixed (in two months) and working terrific.

A local computer service was just so close to save the information on my computer but could not. Any way the owner and the technician of the company Rudolfo was really nice and helpful, changed my broken screen and checked my hard drive and fixed my computer which is working perfect. My external disc was not that lucky and it cannot be fixed and I guess it will be really difficult to reach the data.

Short of the long story I will be leaving Medellin by the last week of August hopefully pedaling south and hopefully not getting crashed by anything.

 

2 Comments

  1. Dear Elif,
    For couple of months I follow you and your adventures. When I started to follow your blog I was in Bitlis/Turkey. Now , I am in NJ, USA. I know your trip has started in USA, right ? Do you have a plan to continue to south direction or come back to US. Maybe I can join you :D
    Enjoy
    Yusuf

    1. Vakit ayırıp yazdığın için teşekkürler. Benim rota şimdilik güney olarak gözüküyor.Kolombiya’dan Arjantin’e doğru pedallayacağım. Elbet bir gün ABD’ye dönerim ama ne zaman ben de bilemiyorum. İyi yolculuklar :)

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