venta

Since I moved to London, I've been commuting via a walk-train-bus-combo. My plan was always, once the weather picked up a bit, to move to a walk-train-bicycle-combo.

Last week, I rescued my bike from the shed in my previous house in Oxford. I considered cleaning it up. I remembered that I'm going to be leaving it locked up overnight at Reading station, so I left it grubby to make it look as unattractive as possible.

You see, the plan is that my bike lives in Reading. Taking bikes on local commuter trains is a pain best avoided, and I have nowhere in my flat where a bike can be stored conveniently. Accordingly, I'm going to risk leaving my bike locked up at the station. If/when it gets stolen, I shall examine prices and consider whether a nicely-portable Brompton (or similar) is a better approach.

Ably assisted by a cycling colleague, I ordered some new tyres, inner tubes and a pump off t'internet. The existing tyres were making nasty crackling noises and showing no inclination to inflate. The existing pump was gently disintegrating and appeared to have suffered some form of internal violence. Mostly I required assistance to work out which selection of letters on the tyres correctly identified the ones I wanted, and which of the vast range of tyres in that size were appropriate

Today my box of goodies arrived, and ably assisted by a committee of cycling colleagues I have now put new tubes and tyres on the bike. I've actually never changed/repaired a bike tyre before. I have no idea how I got through four or five years at university without a puncture. Maybe elves patched up my tyres overnight.

Things I have learned so far today:

1. Changing a bike tyre is *way* more complicated and requiring-of-strength than changing a car wheel. The only issue I've ever had with cars is not being able to get the wheel nuts off. At the point at which you've successfully wrestled the nuts which hold the bike wheel in place, your problems are only just beginning. My thumbs hurt now.

2. That said, taking the back wheel off without causing Scary Derailleur Crisis is not as difficult as expected.

3. When a bike pump is sold by length, they measure unsquashed size, not squashed size. This seems counter-intuitive to me, and results in the frame-fit pump I ordered not fitting the frame I own. Ah well. Probably shouldn't leave it on the bike when I park up anyway.

4. My ability to turn a spanner the correct way to tighten/loosen a nut is entirely intuitive, and the moment I start to think about it I get confused. Confusion increases directly with number of spectators.

Things I have yet to learn today:

1. The route from my office to the station, using the cycle paths; it is possible to do the entire trip without interacting with a road. I think. I know approximately how this works, but am a very navigationally-challenged person as a rule and may end up anywhere.

2. Whether I can still ride a bike. I mean, you don't forget... do you ?

I'll let you know how it goes :)