I talked about it for a long time before eventually making a concerted effort to find one. My sister (and yes I am blaming this on you. Partly anyway! :P ... ) suggested I find a cheap second hand bike somewhere, so I searched on Gumtree.
The bike I bought was a bargain (you know where this is going already, don't you?) at £40! I decided to spend £30 on a bike helmet (best to be safe on the road, since this was going to be an ambitious new hobbie and method of transport!) and £10 on a pump and a lock.
Took the bike to work for the first time and it was great: A proper trek that wore me out, but I liked "feeling the burn" and I realised it would get easier with time! Cycled home from work. All good!
A couple of days later I decided to cycle into town to meet a friend for coffee...
KABLAM!!!! Pssssssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttt....
Here. Have a puncture buddy. Do you like that?
Umm No. Not really.
Well, guess what, it's a huge big screw, wedged right into the tyre. How do you like that?
Umm, that's... That's kinda not cool, I'm going to have to walk with this punctured bike all the way into town and home again later.
So. My original enthusiasm was diminished somewhat after this little event. You could say my enthusiasm deflated like a punctured tyre.
I bought a puncture repair kit a few days (or a couple of weeks) later, took the back wheel off, patched over the hole in the tube. I checked the tube was sealed. It was! I put the back wheel back on.
I pumped up the tyre. All good. Squeezing the back tyre I thought "Nah, it could take more air than this!" I pumped more. And you guessed it...
KABLAM!!!! Pssssssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttt....
I pumped too much! The new patch ripped. The tube was dead. OK. Fuck this, I thought. Time to buy a new tube and while I'm at it, I'm going to buy a new back tyre. So I went to Mc Garvey's in the town, got a new tube and a brand new tyre for £10! Which is pretty damn cheap!
Several months later (yes, procrastination is a hell of a thing) I decided to try and fit the new tube and tyre onto the back wheel.
So tonight, I was working away. Got the new tyre and tube fitted pretty easily. I decided to tinker with the brakes: see if I could loosen them from rubbing against the back wheel. Bad idea! Fucked about with that for about an hour.
Eventually, I got the bike out the door and decided to take her for a wee spin around the block. It all seemed to be going well, until I tried to change gears....
CRACK!! CRACKLE!! KADINK! KADINK!! KADINK !!! ... Half a heart attack...
I look down. The gear sprockets have literally ripped right off the bike! The chain is tangled up around the pedals. The thing is a mangled mess!
And that was how I spent the evening after my third day of work at the new job. Now it's time for bed. 6 hours sleep. Then up to shower, make sandwiches and off to work I go again. But not on my bike. No.
It's another day ticket on the bus tomorrow morning and maybe I'll save my money for a decent bike in future.
