My other steed

As I mentioned, I've had to be unfaithful to my Dahon this week.  Fortunately, as the Dahon is an inanimate object (unless I'm pedaling and then it becomes a very slightly more animate object) I don't have to worry about my pet rabbit getting boiled.  Better yet I don’t have a pet rabbit, although I do have a dog although I doubt we have a pot big enough to get her in.  I digress…

So here is a snap of the bike I've been on for the last few days:

I bought it about five years ago from Halfords and since then it’s been used for very infrequent leisure riding.  It’s not very flash, isn’t made from carbon and doesn’t have a fancy Italian name.  However, I do like it - quite a lot in fact.  It’s higher gearing means that it’s a bit faster than the Dahon and it is very smooth and comfortable to ride.  This week’s weather mean it would have benefited from having mudguards front and rear but needs must and all that. Happily, last night I actually managed to find an old seatpost-mounted rear mudguard that I bought many years ago in my previous incarnation as a commuting cyclist.  So although my feet got wet this morning, my bum remained blissfully dry.

It could use a set of bar ends for comfort and the slightly vain side of me thinks it could do with a better looking saddle (though it is fairly comfy) and thinner tyres.  The very vain side of me thinks it needs a fancier looking headstock and flat bars too but by the time I’ve done that lot, it’d be easier to buy a new bike.  Obviously.  

As it happens, my eldest daughter has outgrown her small mountain bike and this one fits her very nicely with the saddle lowered.  This, I am hoping, could be all the excuse I need to shell out on a nice new road bike.

I’m sure if I managed to overlook the Dahon folder, manky old fixed-gear mountain bike, and 1980’s Raleigh project fixie (as yet unfinished) I could swing it past the wife…