“What’s that clonking noise?”

We set off from Regensburg with a more-or-less mended tent on the comfortable 50 km leg to Straubling. Bought breakfast in a supermarket and ate it sitting on a disused mooring point.

So, we were pootling along nicely. What’s that clonking noise? It happens each time Chris’s pedal is pointing vertically up. Oh no! Now Graham’s pedal is clonking too on the other side. We’ve got a clonk-clonk rhythm going. Could it be the bottom bracket. Oh drat! It’s Saturday lunchtime. So the tempo to Straubing increases. The first bike shop we get to says – like almost every other bike shop on the route – that they have got a 2-week waiting list. But try the new e-bike shop down the road.

There we met a really nice, old-fashioned workshop manager. He was clearly busy too but he took 5 minutes to look at our bike. That included pushing as hard as he could on each pedal in turn (to see if there was any play) almost bringing tears to Chris’s eyes in the process. He clearly decided (without actually saying anything) that the bottom brackets were OK. The clonking must be due to something else. He cleaned and oiled the suspect parts and sent us off for a test ride that was, thankfully, clonk-free. He declined any payment but I took his business card off the counter and said that I would send him a proper thank-you card.

Here is a view of the church towers of Straubing from across the fields. It’s Saturday evening and now we are off to the local jazz club, called The Raven.