A tale of two punctures

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times........

In my own tale of revolutionary nightmares I managed to pick up 2 punctures. The first was the rear wheel on my bike last weekend - the second was on the car yesterday.

I felt a judder in the steering wheel as I was about to cross the Forth Road Bridge and pop that was it rear wheel gone. Forced me to drive across the bridge and park up in a lay by on the Fife side. It took 3 and a half hours to get the car to the garage in dunfermline after myself and the AA had spend ages trying to get the thing off.

Anyway, car less today I had to cycle to Penicuik - 30 miles to a meeting. Of course, I still haven't fixed the puncture on my road bike so I needed to take my old road bike out. I got the bike off a pal who was going to bin it. It's a late 70's model (bit like my wife!) and a bit of a classic (again bit like my wife!!). I'll stop these comparisons as it will only lead to trouble!

So I set off into a bleak April morning. Another easterly wind in my face and followed my pre-planned route through Fife, back over the bridge, down into West Lothian, past the end of the airport and into Edinburgh. At this point I was down to one gear - effectively a fixie. It was a great fun - never had a single geared bike but today's experience tempted me to think about getting one. It was great struggling up hills and spinning crazily back down. Once I arrived at my meeting, a quick change and I was the consummate businessman!

Post meeting, I was heading home when I noticed that my chain was not quite right so passing a bike shop I nipped in to discover that my chain was definetly not right. Now, I fitted that chain as well and there seems to be a link between bike maintenance incompetence and me - can't wait till I'm fixing my mtb in South Africa - many stories are yet to be written.....

The guy fixed the broken link, surprised it hadn't broken entirely and the bike worked a storm after. Bouyed by my fully operating bike I whimped out and took the train home!

So I did about 46 miles - mostly into a headwind on a single geared bike - another grand day out. I'm loving my biking at the moment.

If the weather holds I'll be doing the Etape route again on Friday.....

So despite my revolutionary challenges, I like Dickens, albeit with significantly less talent, have a tale to tell.