June 7-9: Prologue

We’d packed Xiaoqin ‘s Ritchey Road Logic, Bowen’s Rivendell Roadini, and the Co-Motion Periscope tandem into 4 different bike boxes, one borrowed from our bike club since I couldn’t find another Trico Ironcase at a price I wanted to pay. Fitting them all into the Honda Odyssey as well as the carryon lugguage, we’d drafted Steve Wang into driving us to the airport, where we checked in the boxes with minimal harassment from the United agents.

Arriving in Munich on a warm Spring day, we found the Airport Hilton, where we assembled the bikes, the singles first, then the tandem. There were no hitches with the singles except for my ham-fistedness, which had caused me to rip the brake cable off the Rivendell’s front brake. Fortunately, I’d packed extra cable ends and a pair of pliers so everything got fixed up, On the tandem, I assembled everything only to discover that the drivetrain would derail on every pedal-stroke. Remembering what had happened in 2024, I carefully observed the chainring and found the one tooth that had gotten bent in transit. Taking out the pliers, I bent it back and the problem went away. I was still disturbed and decided I would carry the spare chainring just in case.

Having finished assembly, we checked in  It was still too early for regular check-in and of course the Hilton charged us for an early checkin. In addition, they charged us for storing the bike boxes for a month while we headed out for our tour. This was a far cry from my 2018 tour where the Hilton happily stored bike boxes for 3 weeks,

After a quick meal, we headed out for a test ride. I’d laid out a route to the English Garden in Munich but once we headed out we realized that this was too ambitious. In the afternoon heat, Xiaoqin and Boen were both falling asleep. We headed out for about 40 minutes before giving up and turning around. Xiaoqin took a nap while Boen, Bowen and I fought jet-lag nap by taking a swim in the swimming pool. Last time Bowen and I were here the swimming pool was under renovation and we couldn’t use it. This time it was a great pool and we were no longer sleepy after a vigorous swim and hot tub.

Arturo’s flight arrived on time at 5:30pm, after we’d bought dinner and eaten it in the room, so I went down and helped him assemble his bike. His bike box as it was were in two pieces, one for his wheels, and the other for his disassembled frame and fork. With two people, the assembly actually went relatively fast, but when he asked me for my opinion, I told him that the Trico ironcase or the B+W Bike Box II which didn’t require fork disassembly was a better choice given that he frequently had status on his flights and had a 70kg weight limit.

By 8:00pm, I was dead and took a melatonin pill before going to sleep. I’d asked for an airport pickup at 7:30am, but of course, the German taxi service I’d picked had their own ideas about what schedule to follow and texted me that they would only show up at 8:00am the next morning. I went to sleep but slept badly, waking up at 2:00am and struggling to go back to sleep.