Yep, I did it again. It seems I'm prone to yearly self-inflicted crashes. Last year it was on my Viscount Sprint, cycling straight into a bollard and fracturing my hand; on a Friday mid August this year my hand-eye coordination failed and, instead of gripping my handlebar, my fingers grasped into the void and off I came. No fractures, just a big bump on the side of my head and a shock. Got lucky, I'd say.
See, who needs cars or other road users? I'm perfectly fine to injure myself without anyone else.
Anyway, after a day's recovery on the sofa, and lending the red flash, the bike that miraculously survived the incident, to a friend, who then had an accident on a motorcycle the Sunday after mine, wasn't to be seen for a whole month. I cannot stress enough how much I missed that bike. Seriously, if one of my Viscounts isn't where it belongs--in reach and safe--I get agitated. A lot! Particularly this one means a lot to me as it's a frame Steve prepared for me, and is my very first self-built bike, including the wheels. Not to mention the costs. And its parts are basically nicked from Shawn, who was my first Viscount and the beginning of a beautiful love.
Okay, I'm aware that I'm sounding a bit
a lot like a crazy person. If you've been visiting regularly and wondered if I'd lost interest in Viscounts because I haven't posted in a two months or so: let me tell you, there's nothing that could put me off those bikes. Absolutely nothing! I rode the blue one and the Viscountess to work and, every time I see another one on the roads, I'll chase that owner up. Or, if an unsuspecting customer walks with one into the shop ... well, take a blind guess. Something which happened just this week. I swear the poor guy didn't know what hit him when I marched out of the workshop, eyes literally popping out of my head with excitement while I bombarded him with facts about his ride. Afterwards he quietly said, 'I'm feeling unworthy of this bike, maybe it's better you have it.'
'Yes,' I wanted to say, 'give it to me!' On the other hand, I thought this would be immensely rude, even though he'd been given the Aerospace through freecycle. Of course it would have been gone to a good home, no arguing that. Ah well. I hope after the information I've fed him, he'll take good care of his newly obtained choice of transport.
Speaking of looking after your bike: my red flash came back to me in a bit of state; for as long as I'd had it, I'd never left it exposed to the elements. My poor boy had been sitting in a garden since August and I can't say I'm too happy about it. In addition to that, he was suffering with a bent front caliper and brake hanger,
and an out-of-whack rear wheel.
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| That not how a brake hanger should look like |
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| Spot the left caliper |
No idea what happened, but it looks like he's been squashed with/into something. I doubt it was because of the fall, as the caliper doesn't show any scratches/damage, as you can see in the picture above. There are, however, two deep scratches at the down tube, just behind the shifters (not caused by them!). As you can imagine, I wasn't too amused.
But I did what I had to do: fix it. Went to Micycle to use their workshop and hammer/bend the brake hanger back to almost normal, bend the caliper, true the wheel, give it a good once-over and clean before taking it for a spin to Dalston in order to meet my friend Ben from
Bikebox to say hi.
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| I'm all over in love again! |
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| Those two were rather sweet, taking photos of my bike. |
On my way home I stopped at Clissold Park to show off my shiny bike and, while taking pictures, two boys (you can see them walking away in the second picture) were admiring my red flash, asking if I'm selling it. No, sorry, mate, not gonna happen.
