On Your Bike

There was a time when I would go everywhere on my Bike. Cycling several miles in a day around Horsham to go to and from town and to visit the Gym or get some basic shopping items in and then we moved home. The new house didnt make it easy to move the bike from its storage to the road and back and Sharon was not happy with me locking it up securely in front of the house. So the bike remained in its storage in a shed for the next 7 years. I dont know what has spurned the interest in cycling , other than the desire to not use my car for moving around Horsham and whilst it is not easy to have a Family and use a bike it is no longer insurmountable in my daily routine that a Bike would be a hindrance.

So it was in the last few weeks of April that I opened the shed and looked upon the bike. It would need some care to restore it. Chains and cables and levers and fastenings would need to be inspected. Tyres and inner tubes given some thought to and brake blocks inspected. If I had approached this a decade ago then I would no doubt have given up on the thought of getting that job done. I realised that with Google and YouTube I would have many answers to my questions if only I was prepared to read, listen, watch, consider, plan and implement.

 

There are plenty of tutorial videos and hints/tips websites available , there are whole chapters on Lifehackers own website that can give you direction and then there is the equipment you really should purchase. The BikeHut maintenance stand and tire pump being just two such must haves. Sure my Dad would insist you could just turn the bike upside down to work on it but there are always those jobs for which a inverted bike is simply more of a fiddle and problem than a bike raised to eye height and accessible from every side. A Decent pump with pressure gauge and foot plate made bloody short work of inflating and testing the tyres and the cycle chain degreaser unit was a thing of wonder. The bike cost a few hundred pound when new skimping on the tools to repair and renew that it would have been a false economy.

Three weeks later and with the bike tyres checked over and the brakes tweaked and the gears corrected and several cables replaced the bikes are on the road and there is a general feeling of satisfaction of getting a job done.

I am sure there are many jobs for which internet based learning would be inappropriate but in this one area I have to say the Internet proves how it is an incredibly powerful tool for education.

 

Thanks for riding