My commuter bike makes a lot of miles! If I have a day where I only travel to the office and back, that covers 14.5 miles. If I travel both ways via Bangor, that that takes 18.5 miles. And the shorter way, unsurprisingly, has more hills. If you do that almost every day, your bike suffers with some wear and tear.
Since I had bought it, some one and a half years ago, I hadn't had it serviced. I had replaced the brake pads twice (or rather, I had Martin do it once and done it myself once), and oiled the chain many times, but that was basically it and that is not enough!
The big bicycle repair shop in town, Evolution, which looked after my road bike, is so successful they refuse a lot of work. And I had emailed the repair shop in Mynydd Llandygai to ask if he would be willing to do it. It is a Mountain bike shop, but maybe he was willing to also have a go on the commuter bike? I didn't get a reply. Not as far as I could tell, anyway.
Jaco alerted me to the existence of another repair shop, called Mud Cows; this one in Menai Bridge. I contacted it, and they were happy to take my bike on! So one morning when I had to drive to work anyway for reasons of having therapy in Llanrwst early in the morning, being in the field until quite late because of the tide, and then still being home on time for my Skype dinner with Jaco and Marjan, I made sure to have my bike in the boot. In between therapy and work I dropped it off.
I wasn't quite sure what needed doing, but the repair man had a look there and then. His judgement: new chain, new bits of the rear wheel (it had started showing movements it shouldn't), new front brake pads. Especially that wheel will be crucial!
I look forward to getting it back spic and span. And unless I don’t like his work, I’ll be coming back there! Very good to have a bike repair shop that takes on random commuter bikes near the office…
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| The somewhat dissembled bike in the repair shop |
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