ABC (Accompong Bicycling Club)

       Imagine whizzing down a hill on a bicycle, helmetless, at 35 miles an hour, dodging potholes and broken pavement with just enough loosely strewn gravel on the road surface to function as tiny ball-bearings just yearning to grease your tires out from underneath you while simultaneously, crazed taxi men in their white Toyota Corollas come flying around the inside of every other corner regardless of which side of the road it's on, constantly leaning on their horns as warning. When you need to shift gears (if you even have that capability), you stop your bike by dragging the bottom of your feet on the ground Flintstones style because more than likely you have no working brakes, and then pick up a small wedge-shaped rock and jam it in your derailleur to keep it in the proper spot for the gear that you want. You've now begun to get a small picture of what bicycling in rural Jamaica can be.

       Over the past few weeks, partially because of the inspiration offered by Julie's new Peace Corps bicycle and my (Matt's) interest in riding, regardless of how many damn hills there are, several of the local boys have begun to show some interest in getting together and riding with me beyond the limits of Accompong and out into the countryside and to neighboring villages. Many, many people here in Jamaica bicycle, but it's almost invariably men. Just the other morning I was out for an early ride and passed over 20 other guys riding their bicycles, probably all farmers going to their fields. Most of the boys who have shown some interest in getting out and riding have their own bikes, the quality of which I'll touch on later, and have been out riding some long before I came on the scene. I'm beginning to develop the embryonic idea of creating something a little more formal, like a bicycle club, ABC.


       The biggest hurdle to getting kids out on a regular basis here is the quality of the bikes, or lack thereof. Most of the bikes here are the cheapest Chinese junk available on the market, super low-quality with parts breaking constantly. Tires are another issue, most are bald, patched, taped and pieced together remnants. The ones that are worn all the way through to the tube have another segment of tire cut and spliced into them, and as a result go thump-thump-thump-thump-thump as they turn. Patch kits are unheard of. On the flipside, these kids and adults are so good at getting by with so little that they are ingenious at solving these issues (never would I think to jam a small rock in my deraullier to keep it in the right gear) with the materials at hand (enough to make David Helmer in Alaska proud, the King of Improvisation). So when I get out and ride with these guys, invariably some problem turns up that we stop and deal with, eventually continuing on our way.

       The area immediately surrounding Accompong is very hilly, with road grades that would make a mountain goat think twice. Accompong is at the top of the hill, so regardless of which direction we ride we invariably start out riding downhill when we are fresh and have the long hard climbs coming home when we are tired. And the heat... I used to get by with simply carrying water, but here the heat just eats you up and causes you to sweat out everything quickly. As a result I carry a homemade version of Gatorade... watered down Kool-Aid with table salt and baking soda added in an attempt to replenish electrolytes loss.

       Our longest ride yet has about 20 miles, with a degree of difficulty of 7.7 :) I'd like to eventually get the point where we can ride to the Treasure Beach, about 40 miles away, spend the next day swimming and eating, camp over night and then ride home the following day. Whooppee! Bicycling in Jamaica!