It suggested in the weather forecast that it would be windy and raining for most of the weekend, which is why I was suprised on Sunday morning when I was presented with blue sky and sun – a perfect spring day. Out of the gloom of January and February, March had started as it should do. It took me so much by surprise that I had not got up early or planned anything. I could have had the choice of meeting a local CTC group at Littlehampton, but I would be on my own if I were to leave now for that.
Instead, we all got in the car and headed off to a local tea room for breakfast! Proper bacon, proper sausages, and proper coffee. A favourite place for cyclists to stop off and stop off they did – which rubbed it in even more that I had missed the early morning good weather.
When I got home, I had to fix the front mudguard of my commuting Highway bike, the plastic snapped off during last week from the stay, which resulted in it catching in the spokes. It gave the bike a bit of a “motorbike” sound like we all used to do in the 80s by pegging a playing card on the forks to hit the spokes. It was cool in the 80s, not so good these days. Would you believe a replacement set of full mudguards cost anywhere from £15 to £20? Before I committed myself on Amazon and a life of living in debt I decided to see if I could fix it. While the plastic had snapped off, you could in theory put a new bolt and nut on, add a washer and tighten up, it would do the job. Looking through my tool box containing mostly bits and pieces off Trabants, I found just what I needed. Oiled and tightened up, mudguard stay was once again in position – ready to go for Monday.
It was still sunny and clear’ish sky, mid afternoon. I had spotted that last time I was on the Royal when it was New Year’s Day, there must had been salt on the roads and this was evident on parts on the bike. A bit of a pain, explains how the Highway daily commuting bike had turned quite so orange a while back. I scrubbed off most of the fluffy white bits of components but the rear wheel rims clearly needed to be used to get rid of the last bits. No time for a massive long distance ride, but a quick trip over to Brighton and back would be interesting. A change of shoes and off I went.
