Finally, after 2 months - really! - I got my bike back from the menders. The guy who was working on it - a quirky little Aussie called Matt - had sourced a new bottom bracket and built me a new fixed rear wheel with a slick Mavic rim on a flip-flop hub, so I can put a freewheel on if I turn into a quiche-eater at some point soon. The previous hub was so shot that you had the choice of smooth with millimetres of play or locked solid and tight. The new hub has abolutely no play at all, and is smooth like it's running on cartilage! All in it cost £140, plus the ransom paid to TfL. Unfortunately I have a) become fat and b) forgotten how to ride in the intervening time, so I ran out of breath and clipped a number of cars, earning me the wrong kind of horn action, as well as a couple of cuts. Still, it's great to be back on the road again.
Posted by Oxygenik at July 17, 2006 12:04 PM