Cycling The Road Less Travelled

The Goal

• Find a replacement for Spiros’ cracked hub as soon as possible and without breaking the bank.

The Challenges

• This is a high-end component; you need a high-end bike store that carries that brand of wheel (Roval). We suspect it will be very difficult to find.
• If we can’t find the exact hub, we’ll have to replace the entire wheel (more expensive option) with a wheel that (A) fits (B) is strong enough to handle the weight we are carrying.
• Rabac is tiny. The next closest town, Labin, is pretty small as well. The closest city is Pula, about 1 hour away by bus.
• It’s Saturday. Most shops close at noon and are closed on Sunday.
• If we don’t find what we need locally, our best bet is to go back to Trieste, Italy. (Would be very expensive and would take a few days).

The Sequence of Events

• 7:00 am. Wake up. It’s still raining. Sigh.

• Search for clean, dry clothes. Settle for damp, visibly dirty clothes. Reiterate once again that “we really, really need to do laundry now”.

• Rush to the camp reception to find out about bus to Labin (closest town to the campground).

• 7:45 am. Get info, rush to bus stop and catch 8:00 am bus to Labin, broken wheel in hand.

• 8:15 am. Get to Labin, rush to find tourist information office. Ask about bike shop in Labin and bus schedule to Pula (closest city).

• Rush to bike shop. We see from the sign that it sells bicycles and fishing supplies. We suspect we’ll be going to Pula.

• We go in, they don’t have the hub and the only wheel he has is a racing wheel for 200 Euros ($300). Looking at it we could tell that two spokes had already been replaced, almost no chance it could support the weight. Shopkeeper is very nice though, and gives us the name of a bike shop in Sisan, 10 km away from Pula.

• 10:20 am. We rush to catch the next bus to Pula.

• 11:45 am. Get to Pula, frantically rush to get to the tourist office.

• We find the tourist office and ask about bike shops. The lady gives us the name of two shops in Pula and marks them on a map for us. She does not know about the shop 10 km outside of Pula.

• We rush off to the location she marked for the first shop. No bike shop anywhere to be seen.

• We ask locals. It’s marked incorrectly on the map. They direct us to the right location.

• We rush off. We find the shop. It’s closed.

• Momentary pause to swear.

• Rush off to the second store. More of a sports clothing store. They recommend we go to shop 1.

• We decide to grab a taxi to the shop in Sisan.

• Can’t find a cab. Someone directs us to the taxi station.

• Get to the taxi station. No taxis, no attendants; just the sound of the phone ringing off the hook.

• Another momentary pause to swear and scratch our heads

• Run back to the tourist information to inquire about buses to Sisan.

• Get information, run to central bus station.

• 1:35 am. Catch bus to Sisan with 5 minutes to spare.

• Bus driver lets us off in a village consisting of no more then 15 houses, 2 bars and one church. The campground we’re staying at is MUCH bigger.

• Bus takes off. We’re standing in the street looking at each other…neither one says anything. We both start mentally calculating the cost to go all the way back to Trieste, Italy.

• We walk up to someone at the bar and point at the wheel and the crumbled piece of paper with the name of the shop. He nods and gives us directions.

• We see a tiny sign with a bike pointing to the back of a house. We’re thinking this could only be one of two things: either a huge waste of time or the mecca of cycling stores owned by a Tour de France racer.

• 2:10 pm. We get to the door; sign says it closes at 2:00. It should be closed but there’s a lineup and they’re still open.

• We walk in. To make an already too long story short, he doesn’t have the hub but has a replacement wheel that should do the job. He changes the wheel, gives us extra spokes and charges us only 64 Euros.

• As Spiros pays, Maria finds a newspaper clipping on the wall. Turns out the owner used to race for the Yugoslavian National Team.

• 4:00 pm. Back in Pula, new wheel in hand. We need coffee.