We flew into Islamabad from London where several of us found a need to visit a competent bike shop for some urgent repairs. The British Airways luggage handlers were not very gentle. My bike was unrideable. In particular, my front wheel was badly bent and the back wheel also needed a lot of help.

Islamabad and Rawalpindi are twin cities a few kilometer apart. Rawalpindi is the old city and Islamabad is the new city built to be the capital. Rawalpindi is the much more interesting. We didn’t really spent much time there at either end of our trip. I got an impromptu tour of Rawalpindi as our guide drove around looking for the best bike shop in the city. The bike mechanics did wonders on my back wheel with an cast iron wheel truing stand which looks older than I am. The front rim was replaced along with new spokes. Since the spokes were the wrong length, they corrected it after the wheel was rebuilt with an angle grinder. After that quick repair, we caught up to the main group who was already close to our first stop way up in the hills.