Further to my last missive, I finally succeeded in biking to/from work. Although (much like Finn learning to ride his bike without stabilizers) I didn’t really have much choice, as my car is in for repair. The windscreen wipers stopped wiping, opting to emit a burning plastic smell instead, and when I took it to the garage on Wednesday they noticed that the shock absorbers were shot (that would explain the clunking every time I take a speed-bump, then) and also needed replacing, and announced that I wouldn’t get my car back until Friday. So having cycled from the garage to work (9.4km) I’ve then had to cycle home and back (12.89km each way) twice, and still have to get back to the garage to pick my car up (unless they find something else wrong…) later today.
Friday Afternoon:
Gaah! Just spoke to the garage, and after 10 minutes of denying that they’d ever seen my car, they announced that it now wouldn’t be ready until Monday at earliest. Looks like I’ll be commuting by bike for a few more days…
And it’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed it. A good 90% of the commute is off-road (cycle path or dirt track) and half of that is true off-road (pure dirt track, streams, and 4-inch wide strips of mud through the woods. Yesterday it rained my whole trip home (to the point where on some stretches I felt like a salmon fighting its way upstream), I fell off twice – once landing in a nettle-patch and once landing face-down in 6 inches of water, lost several layers of skin on my elbows and knees, had the remaining skin on my arms and legs spanked red-raw by the rain, and bruised two fingers that I can no longer move, and it was still the funnest commute I’ve had since I’ve been here. [Yes, I know ‘funnest’ isn’t a real word, but those Americans have a knack for cutting straight to the heart of what they want to say.]
And despite the fact that every time I’ve fallen off (at least once each way) it has been on the same 500m stretch of dirt track that I got my car stuck in, and that I lost a pedal on my old bike along, I’m resisting the temptation to go back and tarmac it myself. In fact, I positively look forward to tackling it each time, celebrating each completion with self-congratulatory shouts of “Whoo! Yeeah! Awright!” that send the rabbits darting for cover and the pheasants into the air. (This really is out in the country…)
So in the two weeks I’ve had this bike, I’ve covered 87km and spent 4:41 hours in the saddle (yes, I have a trip computer). I’ve also certainly put the bike through its paces, and it’s held up wonderfully (once I’d worked out that the best way to take the dirt tracks is slowly, and keeping to the bottom of the tractor-tire-ruts, no matter how deep the water gets). I’m now considering upping my plans from ‘once or twice a week’ to every day – if only I can keep re-generating the skin on my knees fast enough…
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