wildeabandon: picture of me (Default)
When we last saw our intrepid hero you may recall that he was very excited about his shiny new bike that went Woosh! He enjoyed it a great deal for a few days, and then on Easter Sunday, after deciding that that's quite enough talking about myself in the third person, I set off to ride from church to Brixton, where I would be celebrating the Easter Feast with [personal profile] the_alchemist, [personal profile] themidnightgirl, [personal profile] emperor, [personal profile] atreic, [personal profile] robert_jones, and [personal profile] obandsoller.

I was approaching Blackfriars bridge when something went pop and my front wheel started to feel rather peculiar - baby's first puncture. "That's rather annoying," I thought, "but I'm sure that [personal profile] themidnightgirl will be able to help me fix it." So I locked up the bike and took the wheel off, and now I know how to change an inner tube. The feast was splendid, although sadly missing two of our usual number, Angela and Sue, because Sue had plague. At the end of the night I said my goodbyes and went back to reclaim my bike, only to discover that some swine had stolen my brake levers and cables and my gear shifter. I'm wondering now if leaving it locked up without the front wheel made it look like a target, but in any case riding a bike with no brakes home seemed like a good way to die.

I was hoping that I'd be able to take it on a Thameslink train to somewhere within sensible walking distance, but although you're allowed to take bikes on those trains through central London, you're not allowed to actually take them on and off there. Rather anxiously I locked it up again somewhere near by and got the bus home.

Life then got extremely hectic and it wasn't until Thursday afternoon that I managed to get back into town and pick it up. I did however realise that there was an overground train which runs from Liverpool Street to Tottenham Hale, which is just round the corner from a)our new flat, and b)the Halfords where I bought the bike. So that seemed like a sensible plan. I picked up the bike and got to Liverpool Street at 16:31. Would you like to guess what time you stop being allowed to take bikes on the trains? At that point it felt like it would really be tempting fate to leave it outside overnight again, so I asked google about local bike shops, and was directed to Javi Cycle Repair who were very helpful and had all the relevant parts to get it fixed for the following day.

I was a bit busy with moving house, and they're closed over the weekend, but I managed to take a long lunch yesterday and now I have a working bike again, and she's locked up safe in the new flat's secure cycle storage and I would quite like it if I could go a little while this time with no more mishaps...

Date: 2022-04-26 12:13 pm (UTC)From: [personal profile] juliet
juliet: (Default)
Urghhh that is rubbish. I have in the past (over the 20-plus years I've been cycling in London) had my saddle nicked (I now have a thin cable running through the underside of it), and my handlebars (not much to do about that one tbh though I no longer use QR on anything), and P got his pedals nicked a few months back (which is particularly ridiculous as it requires a specific sort of quite large spanner). I hope you remain bike-whole now for a long long time!

Date: 2022-04-26 05:30 pm (UTC)From: [personal profile] barakta
barakta: (Default)
That sounds like compound annoying! I hope your bike remains whole and you get to use it in peace for a while.

Date: 2022-04-26 07:37 pm (UTC)From: [personal profile] ewt
Goodness, I've never had brake cables stolen! I'm glad you have a working bike again.

Date: 2022-04-26 08:59 pm (UTC)From: [personal profile] sfred
sfred: Fred wearing a hat in front of a trans flag (Default)
Argh! I hope the next phase of your bike's existence is uneventful.

Date: 2022-04-27 05:33 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] lovingboth
lovingboth: (Default)
Ouch.

A really odd thing to steal and not that easy to remove. Presumably you had/have the 'both combined into one' type?

I don't bother to remove the front wheel, but in London, I do tend to use an extra cable to secure the non-quick release wheel for the 'take to London' bike.

Here, there was a bike outside Morrisons that had been stripped of just about everything except the frame for at least a year, possibly two. I kept meaning to photo it to send to the lock company to go 'Look! Your lock kept the frame attached to the stand for this long!' but it then disappeared with the lock.

Date: 2022-04-27 03:45 pm (UTC)From: [personal profile] emperor
emperor: (Default)
Ugh, how annoying! I once got back to Cambridge to find brakes and saddle stolen from my bike, but that was the previous one with the hydraulic brakes.

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