When Duty Calls

Last Thursday evening we received a call from Nic while he was on his Tour Divide ride. It seems Nic met and rode with a gentlemen from Koksijde, Belgium named Stefan. Stefan had run into a bit of bad luck and suffered a broken frame somewhere on the other side of the Wyoming border. They managed to limp it along  with some make shift trail repairs and get him to Steamboat where he found a hardware store to put a bolt in it to at minimum keep the bike rideable. Meanwhile, we had clicked a few “magic buttons” and KAPOW! a brand new Salsa El Mariachi frame was delivered overnight, on a Saturday!

Now, the fun part. You see Stefan’s English isn’t all that great (either is our Flemish) and he doesn’t have a reliable phone. But with the kindness of a couple of strangers he was able to make a call or two to us, the rest was done via Facebook messenger when he could get a WiFi connection.

We already had planned on  getting a ride in on Sunday with Nic  (who happened to be in Breckenridge). At this point Nic and him had separated along the route and we were tracking Stefan’s progress via his Spot tracker. While we were hoping that he could get to Frisco or Breckenridge, the stars didn’t align that way and we met him in Kremmling. Ah, what’s another hour drive each way among friends.

So, the picnic table outside the Kremmling Mercantile became a home away from home for a few hours and we got to work. A frame swap, new King headset, new Shimano bottom bracket, and a new Revelate Ranger frame bag to fit.

The “Alpha Fix”