PowerCycle

Paid for another 2 nights here. My knee is still sore and I had some shopping left to do. The main thing I needed to do was figure out how to stop someone from running off with my panniers after they crash their motorcycle into me (BTW, not a problem I was expecting to have). From what I’ve read most crimes in Peru targeting cyclists involve more than one person which is a problem for solo riders. If I leave my bike to go after someone who grabbed a pannier I risk losing everything else to the 2nd or 3rd guy.

Ortlieb has one solution– they make wire security cables that attach to the pannier and can then be secured to the front/rear rack. I had them for the rear panniers but not for the front. I’d actually bought them for the front at one point but didn’t use them because they were a hassle and I just never thought the risk was that high (because it wasn’t–thanks Peru). Then I switched to new front panniers and forgot to remove them from the old ones. Oops.

The ones on the back I had been using but today I discovered that the wire on one of them had been severed. This must have happened when the guys on the motorcycle rammed into me and knocked all the panniers loose. This doesn’t really give me a lot of confidence in the Ortlieb system since the wire cable failed. OK it was on the bike for 2 years and a bit rusty but still.

For each of the front panniers I ended up buying a chain and 2 locking carabiners. That should slow down anyone trying to run off with them. I’m not crazy about my front panniers being attached to my bike like this because if I hit something by accident they’ll be under my bike instead of just dropping off to the side. That’ll be an epic crash for sure. I’m less worried about that than I am about getting my things stolen though (while I’m in Peru, where, in some places, and reportedly with the assistance of the local police, they specifically target and carry out violent and often armed assaults on visiting foreign tourists riding bicycles because they are perceived to be easy targets–not unlike the dimwitted, ugly, impotent, mommy-didn’t-love-them people in the States who beat up old women to steal their purses for drug money).

For the rear panniers I tossed out the remaining Ortlieb cable and used the plug-in chain on my AXA lock to secure the bags to the frame by wrapping it through the hand straps (I’m really glad I got the extra long chain).

Tucked into my Thermarest now is a 2 foot long machete that I can get to very quickly. Hopefully the sight of a 6′ 3″ guy wielding a machete will make someone think twice about robbing me and I won’t have to worry about my panniers being locked to my bike. I think I just got lucky this time. If one of these 3 losers had an IQ over 80 they could have cost me a small fortune and possibly delayed my trip by months (providing I couldn’t hire/find someone to recover my things).

I don’t have a home to go back to and the things on my bike represent everything I own (except a few sets of clothes in Florida that are too big for me now). Me getting robbed of everything would be like someone stealing your car, stealing your house and everything in it (work with me here) and leaving you with no money or identification in a country where you can’t communicate effectively with 99% of the people and where there is no meaningful law enforcement. Oh, and that’s without insurance on anything either. In other words it would suck.

Update: Still in Tumbes. Leaving the 26th.