Hotel Maintenance

In preparing for this trip I tried to think of everything I would need for multiple days of riding.  The past two days in North Carolina I've had everything I needed.  Today, however, I realized I needed to wash two days of trail residue off my bike and I didn't bring anything for such a task.

After work today I went to Walmart to buy a roll of heavy, shop paper towels.  The bike went in the bath tub and I used about a dozen paper towels, soaked in water from the sink, to wipe down the bike.

Can't say I've ever washed a bike in a bath tub before.

The next challenge was lubricating the chain.  If I had brought my seatpost and saddle in with me it would have been easy to turn the bike upside down.  To put the bike in the back of the Jeep I removed the saddle and I didn't want to go back out and get it.  So, I found the ol' hotel ice bucket worked well to prop up the bike.  I could pedal by hand and apply lube.

Ice bucket work stand.

Now the bike is ready to go again for tomorrow.  After work I'm going to head 30 minutes north to Paris Mounctain State Park.  It's supposed to be a pretty good network of about 20 miles of single track and is very close to Greenville.