Over Hill and Dale

I finally got my bicycle fixed. It was out of the picture for a while due to a part just snapping on the last ride. A piece of metal in the rear derailleur is what broke. I assume it is just from age and use, after all, my mountain bike is almost ten years old, and it has been ridden hard over the years.

Luckily it broke on the way back, only a few kilometers away from Andong and home. And even luckier, someone stopped and offered me a ride home when they saw me pushing the bike along the road. Unfortunately it cost Won 80,000 (about $80 US) for the new part.

I would have gone ridding today, but it is raining, so I thought I would update you with some recent rides around Andong. I just attach my eTrek GPS unit to the handle bars and away I go. Here is what happens.

Click the image for a larger version. These are nearly all the rides to date. As you can see, there is not much new territory covered, but some of the new locations are pretty nice. Click below to open a scrollable map of the last six rides in a new window. 

There are some pretty neat things you can do with a GPS. In the map window, if you zoom in on the ride dated June 4th, and follow it along to just next to the expressway, you can see this ...

In a large rest area parking lot next to the expressway, I rode my bicycle around to draw my initials. It is kind of like virtual graffiti on a large scale. At the time, I thought I was making the letters rather big, but apparently not as big as I had thought.

If you have Google Earth, you can click this link:

Google Earth file

And then zoom in and scroll around all you want.

I think I'll have to replace another part on my bicycle soon, too.  For a while now I haven't been able to use the center sprocket on the front chain ring. I can still ride, but I am mostly unable to use a whole set of gears. That part will be expensive, though, due to the fact that I would have to replace the whole crank set. Is it worth it, or do I just keep riding as is? I don't know how much longer I will be in Korea, but I know I'll need to have some way to get away from the city at times or I might go nuts.