What a Variety of Bikes

I found myself sitting in a pub for a few hours this afternoon[1] and
spent most of the time watching an amazing variety of bikes.

There were road bikes that looked as if they cost more than most of
the cars in the car park, all 57 varieties of MTB from £99 supermarket
jobs to rather more refined models. Also a suprisingly large
contingent of sensible utility bikes; hybrids or unsuspended MTBs with
mudguards and panniers. At one point, I thought the rarest beast I'd
see that day would be the Dutch Gazelle replete with hub gears and a
Dutchman (or, at least a continental sounding gent of some sort).

But then I noticed a tricked up Raleigh Stow-a-Way shopper type bike.
Suspension forks, fancy saddle, bar ends, pedal cages and (I think)
some sort of hub dynamo. Bizarre.

Of course, despite there being almost certainly more customers
arriving by bike than by car, there was no bike parking provision so
the lamposts and fences were liberally filled with innovatively parked
bikes.

All in all, a great day.

[1] I was waiting for the tide to turn, honest. My wife once did some
hypothetical calculations involving T = time away from house called
"going sailing", F = faffing, S = time actually moving under sail and
P = time spent in pub. She was fairly confident that S was only a
small proportion of T and that P was "significant".

First day out on my boat this year. It was superb.

[Not Responding] wrote:
I found myself sitting in a pub for a few hours this afternoon[1] and
spent most of the time watching an amazing variety of bikes.

There were road bikes that looked as if they cost more than most of
the cars in the car park, all 57 varieties of MTB from £99 supermarket
jobs to rather more refined models. Also a suprisingly large
contingent of sensible utility bikes; hybrids or unsuspended MTBs with
mudguards and panniers. At one point, I thought the rarest beast I'd
see that day would be the Dutch Gazelle replete with hub gears and a
Dutchman (or, at least a continental sounding gent of some sort).

But then I noticed a tricked up Raleigh Stow-a-Way shopper type bike.
Suspension forks, fancy saddle, bar ends, pedal cages and (I think)
some sort of hub dynamo. Bizarre.

Of course, despite there being almost certainly more customers
arriving by bike than by car, there was no bike parking provision so
the lamposts and fences were liberally filled with innovatively parked
bikes.

All in all, a great day.

Slightly similar. Came out of Stratford tube station last week to find on
the
right side what seemed to be an open air bike superstore with dozens upon
dozens of bikes of all types all locked to the scaffolding (tandems, road
bikes, some very high-end MTBs etc etc)

At first I thought that's what it really was; some kind of outside market
(there's a flower stall nearby). A bike thief's dream come true.

Just goes to show how popular cycling has become and how locking facilities
would be used if they were provided.

--

Burning_Ranger

"[Not Responding]" wrote in message
...

[1] I was waiting for the tide to turn, honest. My wife once did some
hypothetical calculations involving T = time away from house called
"going sailing", F = faffing, S = time actually moving under sail and
P = time spent in pub. She was fairly confident that S was only a
small proportion of T and that P was "significant".

Astute woman -- yer missus.

in message , [Not
Responding] ') wrote:

First day out on my boat this year. It was superb.

Lucky you. Having booked this week off as holiday, I broke a tiller
yesterday. It failed in exactly the same way and in exactly the same
place as the one I broke last year. Sigh.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Usenet: like distance learning without the learning.

On 19/7/04 10:05 am, in article
, "Simon Brooke"
wrote:

in message , [Not
Responding] ') wrote:

First day out on my boat this year. It was superb.

Lucky you. Having booked this week off as holiday, I broke a tiller
yesterday. It failed in exactly the same way and in exactly the same
place as the one I broke last year. Sigh.

Still faffing about getting the boat out of the garage.. It might happen
this weekend.

Then its all hands onto scrubbing, scraping and painting to get it
seaworthy. In between that there are two more evening 10's I can make before
the end of season and a major conference to prepare for. AS well as keeping
the allotment going and the wife and kids happy. Doesn't look like the boat
will get much attention..

...d