Office Bike

Finally I got to ride my new steed today(it has yet to be named). Having clocked up 1650 plus miles in Vic last month I was even more determined to save the planet by resorting to pedal power whenever possible. After a meeting in sunny south Wales was cancelled for the afternoon meaning all my work today was local to the Red Kite office I mounted up and headed out. This meant quite a few people got treated to the extraordinary sight of a sweaty fat bloke peddling furiously and making very little progress along a road as flat as a mill pond.

Progress was impeded by the refusal of the front disc brake to allow the front wheel to rotate freely and as yours truly is to disc brake maintenance as a gerbil is to DNA sequencing I decided to try and free front wheel by forcing it to turn several thousand times over the five or so miles to my first call. On arrival those nice people who were expecting me were unsure whether they should offer a cup of tea or an ambulance but after I recovered the ability to communicate I was able to explain why it had been such hard work getting anywhere fast.

Everyone in turn lifted the front of the bike and purposefully tried to spin the front wheel before declaring that "It shouldnt be like that" and "Send it back its warped" before a more useful member of the group produced an allen key and adjusted the caliper. This was exactly what I had planned would happen however the result was not exactly as I forsaw, the wheel did now rotate two or three times before stubbornly refusing to continue, so progress of sorts, but not enough to make life as easy as it should be. So with a cheery goodbye I set off onto the next port of call.

Even though it was still insanely difficult to move with any sort of rapidity, we were hardly man and machine in perfect harmony, the sun was shining, the lovely sound a bike makes as it ticks along was music to the ears and I was happy to be back in the saddle out on the road for the first time since 2007. There were a couple of practical problems, like what do I wear (Lycra?), how do I carry my stuff (taxi?), how do I get uphill and how do I stop and dismount without looking like I was falling off, all these will be overcome over the next few weeks. The problem of where do I park it was soon solved.