ROAM 14-8-'11

Today I had a very hard day. I left together with Wilfred but my chain dropped. I told Wilfred to keep going because it takes me just a few minutes to get it back on. I never saw him again during the day, because not long after that, I hit a pothole in a curvy downhill. After a coffee in Hastings I noticed not being able to keep up with some other ROAMers. I checked the disk brakes and noticed one was a bit warped and therefore rubbing the brakepad. Due to my inexperience with diskbrakes, I could not get it completely free, but figured the drag would be so insignificant that I'd be able to keep up with the group that emerged at that time: Benji, Greg, Hasse and me. I didn't really notice that I still had to much drag on the brakes and it was much later that I noticed that my power output was significantly higher than normal. 20 km before camp, I adjusted the brakes again, because I simply had way to low speed. This time I was able to run the brakes completely free and I could cruise 36 km/h again.
On the last hill before the campsite, the shoulder was replaced by gravel, so I wanted to cut into the lane. The first car didn't let me, so I signaled clearly to the next car that I wanted to change lanes. I could see in my mirror that the car kept my speed although a bit close. Because of a ridge in the asphalt between the lanes I figured the safest way to cross it would be to steer sharply over the ridge. A few seconds later I heard the distinct signal of a police-car. I was being stopped by the police for the first time in my life.
The cop said I was impeding traffic because we could not keep the same speed as the cars and that my swoop into the cars lane was a dangerous action. I explained the officer that I had communicated with the driver and that the sudden steering action was needed to negotiate the bad road.
He nevertheless thought that we would not be safe on this particular road because it's the worst road in the region. I did not feel any urge to discuss further, but I feel I have plenty experience to stay safe.
To make sure that we would arrive safely at the campground, the officer drove behind us and we stayed as close to the side as we could.
Despite the strenuous day for me, I felt strong again after the nice meal that Winda had prepared for the Dutch Express. I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow, especially since I also aligned the front wheels again that had apparently gone out of true at the pothole. I gave the Mango a gentle push on the flat and it rolled along nicely, so it should be ok again.
See you on the road.

PS: on the photo it's NBTriker that is fixing the DualDrive.