Sunday 15 April 2012

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

As well as delivery of the boat, we´ve also brought a few bicycles belonging to Roxanna and Chris. Roxanna very kindly offered to loan us her bikes. On pulling the bikes out of the boat, it´s apparent that some general maintenance needs doing. I imagine I was fifteen when I was last on a bike. When I recently took the UK Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) motorbike training and test, the years tween then and now became quite noticable.

Steve and Chris are probing a couple of the upturned bikes with various tools. Steve invites me to have a look at the third bike. The front brake doesn´t work. I´ve got no idea which nuts tighten or loosen to fix it, and which wires are liable to break irrepairably. After about ten minutes of tentative unprogressive probing and some pointers from the boys, I´ve decided that bicycle maintenance is a test of manliness, and so, failure is not an option. After thirty more minutes, I´ve got it working. It´s a horrible bodge. I wouldn´t give it to a close friend without warning, but it working and I´m terribly pleased with myself as I take a few circuits around the boatyard. Just like riding a bike.

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