Work on both bikes

It had been five months since my bike had had a service! And in another month, it was supposed to perform at competition level. It was really time I booked my bike in for another service. Luckily, the repair shop had availability. And on a Tuesday morning I brought it in.

James, the repair man, had a quick look. He saw I needed another chain and cassette. That is not unusual. I also told him that the pedals, that he had put on the previous time, were struggling a bit. He had a wiggle, and said both of them were about to fall off. I hadn't come a day too late! 

I also enquired after his plant. The previous time he had mocked me by planting a spider plant in the mud he had scraped off my bike. Or rather, of a rather limited portion of my bike. And the plant was absolutely thriving! I think it will have children next time I visit.

Having brought in my regular bike also meant I had to bike home on my spare bike. I had brought it into the office the previous day, when I had to come by car anyway, for reasons of a visit to the garage. I had noticed it really needed some lubricant, so I had to bring some into the office. It smelled interesting after I was done with the lube! But then I could ride home without worrying about the chain.

One disadvantage of my spare bike is that it had rather knobbly tyres. These were just the tyres it had when I bought it. But my commute is on asphalt all the way; I don't need knobbliness. And you can feel the extra effort it requires. So when I had come to work by car anyway the day before, I had popped by some shops on the way home; one shop I had visited was Halfords, to buy smoother tyres. But hadn't had an opportunity yet, obviously, to put them on. I did it that very night. And got covered in bike grease, obviously.

New tyres

It was nice to glide to work a lot smoother the next day! But that afternoon I got the call from James; my default bike was ready. So I only benefited from my new tyres for one day! But that's OK. Next time I need it it’s ready for me. 

It was good to pick it up, all clean and gleaming, with its lovely clean cassette and its higher quality new pedals. That would do me fine for my commute, and hopefully also on my first bicycle race next month! I will report back…