[Re]cycling

The bicycle on which I have been commuting to work has a rather doubtful provenance.  My boss had been buying cheap second hand bikes to ride along the canal in his lunch break.  These bikes were almost certainly thrown together out of odd parts.  After he had broken a few, I scrounged what was left of these 'bitsas' to put together a bike even further removed from any manufacturer's intention.  The result was a rather rusty, but vaguely serviceable steed, the saddle on which was quickly replaced in the name of comfort.  Apart from that, this 'Frankenstein' bike served as it was for a few thousand miles.  With better weather and the opportunity presented by the Easter Bank Holiday, I decided it was time that the bike had a bit of attention.  

A tired old hack. 

It was even more work than I expected, there were a lot of seized parts and an awful lot of rust, dents and scratches to remove.  The bike was finally rebuilt, complete with a new rack and quick release bag/panniers, by about 6:30 pm on Monday.  I circled the block a few times and checked and made final adjustments.  The rear dérailleur was still not perfect, I resigned myself to having to machine some bushes for the very worn jockey wheels before top gear became more certain.  I had booked Tuesday off so looked forward to getting out on my lovely 'new' machine the next day.

The 'Recycle', my lovely, lovely bike, quite the head turner.  The bag side pockets open down and unfold into panniers.

Tuesday was bright if a little chilly, I set off to where I had seen wild garlic greens growing in an accessible place.  The bike looked even more impressive in the sunshine than it had the evening before and I began to think all the effort had been worth it.  Indeed, more than one head turned to look at the fruits of my labour.  I felt very satisfied, pleased and even a little proud.

One of the bounties of spring, Ramsons (wild garlic greens) on the bank of a stream, close to a quiet lane.

I soon filled a plastic bag with enough greens and slipped it under the bungees on top of the bike bag/pannier.  The  bag and rack was expensive, but I felt it was worth it to be relieved from the rucksack sweaty back effect.

As I turned into my street and rode over one of the many imperfections on my local roads, I noted that the bike wallowed a little.  I thought that I might have lost some air from the back tyre so I looked down to check when I stopped outside my house.  The reason for the wallowing was horribly apparent, the rear dropout had cracked right through close to the end of the chainstay!  All that effort wasted.  Speechless?  Well almost, I hope no kids were listening.

The end of a love affair that lasted but a few hours!!